The Dare

My expectations were fairly low for 'The Dare'. I saw some people saying it had a similar feel to 'Saw' and that's typically all the green-light I need to give a film a shot. I could see why they would make that connection - people tied up in a room with the promise of torture to come - but ultimately the film ends up being very different to that. The torturer's motivations, the way the story plays out and the gruesomeness coming more from brutality rather than clever gadgets are the main points of difference. The film had some good stuff going for it though.

I love it when you can relate to a villain. The best villains are ones that can be understood and the elite ones are the ones where you question whether or not you should be on their side. I'll be honest, by the end of this film I was genuinely torn over who I should be rooting for. The film deserves massive props for the way it set that up. It puts an enormous amount of effort into showing the back-story and it was all worth it.

The film does lose steam a little in the second half. It runs out of ideas a little and plays out a little bit too predictably for my liking. It also reveals its cards a little too early in the runtime and is left with a little too much time to fill in after that. The gore gets pretty intense at times so prepare yourself for that. There's also a fun final scene that ends the film on a positive and memorable note. I had a surprisingly good time with 'The Dare' and would recommend people give it a shot.