Nevertheless, Would You Rather is never rises above being an adequate time-waster. Everything chugs along while maintaining your interest. Words like ‘servicable’ and ‘fine’ readily come to mind.
Ultimately, Would You Rather never approaches being a truly bad movie. Would You Rather is an Adequate Time Waster Horror fans may not like to hear it, but even Jeffrey Combs doesn’t feel right in his role as the sadistic Lambrick. Would You Rather shamefully wastes experienced character actor John Heard. It’s similarly jarring to see My Name is Earl’s Eddie Steeples here. He’s a Canadian institution as Ricky, but feels out of place in this movie. Canadian television fans will recognize Robb Wells from cult-classic The Trailer Park Boys. Snow is perfectly serviceable, and Gotham’s Robin Lord Taylor is fine as a petulant and spoiled one-percenter. Odd casting choices only serve to further undo the movie’s paper-thin characters. Odd casting choices only serve to further undo the movie’s paper–thin characters.
#WOULD YOU RATHER FILM MOVIE#
Other characters don’t seem to have much reason for being in the movie at all. ‘Elderly woman in wheelchair’ and ‘recovering alcoholic’ is as much depth as you can expect. Instead Schlachtenhaufen’s screenplay evens to build most of its characters from simplistic keywords. A movie about the wealthy taking advantage of the poor would be much more effective if the audience could actually identify with somebody on screen. Given the premise, this is a serious misstep from screenwriter Steffen Schlachtenhaufen. Underdeveloped Characters and Miscasting HurtĪside from Brittany Snow’s ‘Iris’, Would Your Rather offers few relatable characters. There’s a dullness to the most of the movie. Levy films scenes that you know should feel tense and uncomfortable with all the flair of a public service announcement. Simply put, Levy doesn’t show much innovation in staging the movie’s action. But they certainly were enough to expose the movie’s problems with execution. Yet none of these things should have been enough to sink the movie. Not much of a budget was set aside for make-up effects. There’s virtually no music score to help with atmosphere and tension. The majority of the action unfolds in a single setting. Would You Rather is clearly minimalist filmmaking. A character may be forced to cut his own eyeball, but you won’t see any explicit violence or gore. In addition, Would You Rather never fully embraces the nihilistic violence of ‘Torture Porn.’ Though the movie threatens all manner of sadistic torture, there’s nothing committed to the screen that’s likely to shock horror fans. … Would You Rather never fully embraces the nihilistic violence of ‘Torture Porn.’ Horror fans had moved on to found-footage and haunted house throwbacks. By the time 2012 rolled around, the ‘Torture Porn’ cycle had long since faded away. Director David Guy Levy’s decision to adopt a ‘Torture Porn’ approach to the material is part of the problem. Yet in spite of this built-in opportunity for cutting subtext, Would You Rather feels disconnected. Public outrage with the ‘one-percenters’ was intensifying. We were only a few years removed from of the worst economic crises in history. On the one hand, Would You Rather seemed perfectly timed to strike a nerve. After some harmless pleasantries, Iris and the other guests quickly learn that Lambrick’s game of ‘Would You Rather’ can only have one winner. The only catch is that she has to play a parlour game at dinner party with several strangers. But her luck looks to a take turn when she’s offered the chance to win money by eccentric philanthropist, Shepard Lambrick. Unemployed Iris struggles to carve out a living and care for her sick younger brother.