Jason Blum is the Roger Corman of our time, an inventive and economical producer who manages to work on more than a dozen movies a year, which range from formulaic horror flicks (Paranormal Activity, Insidious) to subversive provocations (The Purge, Get Out) to auteur-driven projects like Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash and M. Night Shyamalan’s Split. This year promises a slate of interesting releases that includes remakes of Benji and Halloween (the latter directed by David Gordon Green), Spike Lee’s docudrama BlacKkKlansman, and the latest entry in the Purge series, by far the most political of the Blumhouse franchises. Blum’s current release, Truth or Dare, is a reminder that he still churns out generic crap every few months to help pay for his more ambitious projects. The film is undistinguished, inoffensive horror fare whose greatest asset is that it never devolves into camp. Even when he’s making run-of-the-mill schlock, Blum maintains an admirable respect for his audience. The scares are genuine, and the characters aren’t meant to be sneered at.
Like Happy Death Day, Truth or Dare advances the winning message that young people can rectify bad behaviors before it’s too late. The movie, in fact, may be too optimistic to be truly scary, but it marks a pleasant alternative to so many horror movies that treats their characters as mere lambs to the slaughter. It might have yielded an affecting character study a la Sinister 2, but director Jeff Wadlow doesn’t have the sensitive touch that may have resulted in such a success. The characters of Truth or Dare aren’t developed enough to emerge as anything more than concepts; Wadlow’s direction lacks nuance and emotional commitment. Still, the film’s premise remains evocative, teasing at themes that one hopes to see developed in future Blumhouse releases.
