Choose or Die (D- or .5/4 stars)
A cheap horror flick that I've nearly forgotten already {and I just saw it} ... 'Choose or Die', directed by newcomer Toby Meakins, centers around a mysterious, cursed 1980s retro video game that gives its users with a deadly set of options. Tempted by a chance to win unclaimed prize $$, these users are forced to choose btwn. something terrible happening to someone else - or - they themselves can die. Asa Butterfield (from 2011's Hugo) plays Isaac, an all-things-1980s obsessive who says that the 'ole days of Freddy Kruger & Ronald Reagan were contained in the greatest decade in pop culture history.
His troubled friend Kayla (Iola Evans), with whom he has a big crush on, discovers an old computer game named CURS>R in a pile of his stuff & decides to take a crack at it. We learn the video game, {with its black screen, green lettering & blinking cursor} has a supernatural, demented quality; able to manipulate real life. And soon enough, Kayla finds herself playing with the deadly fates of others as an unwilling participant in a surreal game with a fatalistic set of stakes. Mayhem ensues.
Director Toby Meakins also lends very gloomy, depressing material. Furthermore, it is highly unsettling, and NOT scary, at all. I'm reminded of a very disturbing sequence which finds a waitress eating shards of glass & unable to stop because the game dictates as much -- obviously, she meets a bloody end. I really disliked scenes like this and, I dunno ... maybe I'm losing my 'love' of grisly horror movies. Maybe I only like them when baddies get their comeuppance.
As to the logistics of the story, any attempt to make any of it make sense do not pan out. Despite 'decent' horror flick performances, particularly from Asa Butterfield, the actors are lost in a sea of poor characterizations & yucky, gory, poorly filmed schlock. Sure, get a voice-only cameo from Robert Englund -- ahem, that's Freddy Krueger, to you. But even THAT falls flat. The film isn't long, and yet, I couldn't wait for it to be over -- it left a nasty taste in my mouth. Come on horror helmers, give us some classic horror {done well}. Or give us something wholly unique. Heck, just give us something good again!
His troubled friend Kayla (Iola Evans), with whom he has a big crush on, discovers an old computer game named CURS>R in a pile of his stuff & decides to take a crack at it. We learn the video game, {with its black screen, green lettering & blinking cursor} has a supernatural, demented quality; able to manipulate real life. And soon enough, Kayla finds herself playing with the deadly fates of others as an unwilling participant in a surreal game with a fatalistic set of stakes. Mayhem ensues.
Director Toby Meakins also lends very gloomy, depressing material. Furthermore, it is highly unsettling, and NOT scary, at all. I'm reminded of a very disturbing sequence which finds a waitress eating shards of glass & unable to stop because the game dictates as much -- obviously, she meets a bloody end. I really disliked scenes like this and, I dunno ... maybe I'm losing my 'love' of grisly horror movies. Maybe I only like them when baddies get their comeuppance.
As to the logistics of the story, any attempt to make any of it make sense do not pan out. Despite 'decent' horror flick performances, particularly from Asa Butterfield, the actors are lost in a sea of poor characterizations & yucky, gory, poorly filmed schlock. Sure, get a voice-only cameo from Robert Englund -- ahem, that's Freddy Krueger, to you. But even THAT falls flat. The film isn't long, and yet, I couldn't wait for it to be over -- it left a nasty taste in my mouth. Come on horror helmers, give us some classic horror {done well}. Or give us something wholly unique. Heck, just give us something good again!