So how does Would You
Rather hold up in the post-Saw
world of sterile PG-13 found footage fright flicks?
Down on her luck Iris (Brittany Snow) needs money to pay for
her brother’s Leukemia treatments, and when she is offered all the cash she
would ever need in exchange for her presence at a dinner party hosted by the
wealthy Shepard Lambrick (Jeffrey Combs) she accepts. Unfortunately the guests
are asked to play a deadly game of “Would You Rather” to earn the money
promised to them.
I’ll get this out of the way first; the film is one of the
few in this sub-genre that isn’t a gorefest. Instead it forces the audience to
use their imagination and fill in the blanks when something overly violent
occurs. We might get a flash of some blood, maybe a gun shot or a stabbing, but
when it comes to the nastier bits we get nada, and I respect the filmmakers for
going that route instead of for the grossout.
That being said, the film is for the most part quite boring
and uneventful. I’d even say that for an R-rated horror/thriller this is
somewhat tame in the suspense department despite attempts to build it
constantly. It could be that the film is structured like a stage play, not
unlike Clue or Death Trap. Unfortunately Would
You Rather isn’t nearly as competently made as those movies.
I primarily blame the script by Steffen Schlachtenhaufen for
not going far enough with the concept or the tasks asked of the partygoers.
Sure offering a vegetarian money to eat some foie gras is interesting, but
repeating it a minute later by offering a recovering alcoholic a stack of cash
to drink a bottle of whiskey was unnecessary, especially with what comes a few
minutes later for that character. Even the later events don’t really seem all
that inventive, just cruel and at times pointlessly biased (you’ll get my
reference when you see the film).
The characters aren’t written particularly well either.
Obviously Iris is the most developed of the bunch, but Brittany Snow isn’t the
greatest of actresses and doesn’t seem comfortable with the dark material
regardless of the fact that she co-produced the film, thus negating my liking
her character at all. She just comes off as whiny. None of the other characters
are successful either even though a gaggle of talented actors are playing them.
John Heard is wasted, ex-porn star Sasha Grey is just bitchy and the usually
amusing Eddie Steeples (Crab Man from My
Name is Earl) is just there to be the token black guy. Only genre icon
Jeffrey Combs comes out unscathed as the smarmy and demented Lambrick. He quietly
chews the scenery like no other can and his gleefully evil performance is the
sole reason to watch this flick. Outside of him I didn’t like one single
character in this mess.
Director David Guy Levy can’t seem to get his actors to come
to life or build any sort of suspense or dread. The pace is lethargic and
events unfold in a predictable way thanks to his inept supervision. In better
hands this could’ve been a creepy potboiler of a flick, but as it is it’s not
much better than one of the lesser Saw
films (Saw: The Final Chapter). He
knows how to keep the one setting the majority of the film takes place in look
more interesting than any one person, so rack it up to lack of experience.
I had heard good things about Would You Rather not too long ago. I was excited when I finally
tracked down a copy to watch, so it’s understandable that my expectations were
probably a bit too high from the get go. Still, the fact remains that it’s just
not very good. It’s slow, it pulls its punches a bit too often and to top it
all off the ending is just a massive slap in the face that made me scream “fuck
this movie” at the television. If the filmmakers’ intention was to bore me,
then piss me off to no end they succeeded.
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