DVD Would You Rather

The trailer had really impressed me so I was expecting to be blown away but I guess that the Saw franchise has raised the expectations regarding acts of self mutilation to a new level. The point of this movie was to showcase "decision making in its rawest form" something the Saw movies have already done. The main difference is that these people were dumb enough to come to the staging area by their own choice because they were eager to get their hands on lots of charity money instantly. In the Saw movies you pity the victims despite the sins of their past because they are thrown into awful traps by force. Here less sympathy is invoked and less of a point is made.

The plot is simple really. The protagonist Iris has a little brother who is dying of Leukemia and she's desperate to save him. The answer to all her problems is a dinner party game, with 7 other contestants, at the end of which the winner will receive financial help from the wealthy Lambrick foundation. The game is revealed to be 'Would You Rather' only the stakes are deadly and players must act out their choice. Combining something as elegant as a dinner party with the crude tasks forced up the guests produces a uniquely creepy atmosphere and it is pretty much all the movie has going for itself.

There are quite a few downsides to this movie.

1. We don't get to know the motives of everyone at the table or even understand their characters so we are minimally involved. The son of the benefactor and the doctor who is a previous victor of the game don't add much to the movie's plot or act as any kind of inventive twist.

2. The challenges should be new, inventive and unforeseeable to be impacting but none of the options are very original. In fact a few of deaths gave reason for doubt if something like that could kill/damage a person as much as the film shows it does.

3. Some of the options made me think that anyone in their right mind would just let the enforcers of the game shoot them in the head, a relatively painless way to die, than go through with their 'task'.

4. I feel like the movie should have made room for a little bit of happiness so the contrast would be more effective. For example if someone had left before the game started, it would've made everyone feel envious and idiotic. It also would have satisfied the audience if they knew that at least one of these characters has a brain.

5. There is no satisfaction or sense of accomplishment at the end of the movie thanks to its not-that-surprising twist. Iris's victory seemed to come pretty believably and easily (the game was specifically targeted at some of the others unfairly).

6. There isn't as much tension and anticipatory build up as you would imagine. The movie doesn't meet the standard it says it will.

I'm not going to talk about the cinematography and lightning because I don't have much critical expertise in those areas but the script could have used some work. The pace of the movie was tolerable. The transition from refusal to willingly hurt others and trying to escape together to survival of the strong mentality was also fitting. In a way the movie was too short (it could have used extra time to let us get to know the characters and involve more tasks) but on the other hand I was waiting for it to end already (because it wasn't doing much for me).

Is this movie going to scare you? Probably not. Will it stir some empathy in you? Maybe. Will it entertain a horror fan? I doubt it. It doesn't display as much gore as a Final Destination movie and its not as suspenseful as a Scream movie. It's a mediocre thriller in my opinion. I'd say anyone 15 and above can stomach it. It'll kill an hour and half of your time. I'd definitely recommend Stay Alive or Saw over this. I'd recommend this over Cabin Fever or 1408. Now after reading my review would you rather watch Would You Rather or watch something else? The choice is yours.

"Would You Rather," is a decent, low budget. thriller about desperate people put in horrible situations for the entertainment of a wealthy sadist.

Brittany Snow is a decent actress, but this definitely wasn't her best effort. The movie plot was OK, and I did appreciate that they didn't just go with the usual copy "Saw" plot that most of these movies use. That being said, the things that happen in this movie are just a bit lacking in creativity. The script was pretty lame, and there was generally a lot more needed to build some suspense and really make it memorable on any real level. Ex pornstar Sasha Grey is in this movie. She looks beautiful, but again the script was just way too lean to see if she could really act (I give her a pass on the bad reviews of "The Girlfriend Experience" because it was a Soderbergh movie, and I hate his movies anyway).

All in all, I give it all a 5. To me Brittany Snow and Jeffrey Combs are good enough actor that could have made it decent with a good script, and a bit better writing. The twist at the end was pretty standard and not surprising at all. It's decent if you have nothing else to watch.