5 Times The ‘Truth Or Dare’ Trailer Scared The Living Crap Out Of Us

Join us as we take a jaw clenching and anxiety inducing look at the latest social-horror offering from the people behind ‘Get Out’ and ‘The Purge’ producers Blumhouse Productions.

There was nothing more frightening in high school than getting caught up in a high-stakes game of ‘Truth Or Dare’. Sure, you might get to kiss your crush or get to laugh at the cringeworthy secrets of others, but you could just as easily end up having to risk bodily harm, social suicide or just plain old intense physical discomfort (shout out to my friend Adam who I once dared to drink a shot of balsamic vinegar, which proved to be way more painful than anyone expected).

Blumhouse Productions clearly understand this, with Truth or Dare – their latest social-horror film following on from The Purge and Get Out – taking this social anxiety-inducing fixture of the high school experience and doing what they do best; twisting and turning it into a nail-biting nightmare of peer pressure, awkward sexuality and gruesome/inventive on-screen violence.

Following a group of archetypically sexed-up and boozy teens – in an ensemble cast lead by Lucy Hale (Pretty Little Liars) and Tyler Posey (Teen Wolf) – the premise of the film is beautifully simple. What if you played a game of ‘Truth or Dare’ where, if you lied or refused a dare, you died? As if the game wasn’t terrifying enough already, right?

This then allows for some seriously twisted scenes and scenarios, some of which you can check out in the trailer. And so, in anticipation of the film’s release, we thought we would help ratchet up the anticipation/anxiety by running through 5 Times The Truth Or Dare Trailer Scared The Living Crap Out Of Us.

The Reveal of the Premise

As if facing the truth wasn’t frightening enough, the opening of the Truth Or Dare trailer wastes no time in both drawing that out and then turning the heat up to 11. When Carter (Landon Liboiron) is asked what his intentions with Olivia (Lucy Hale) are, he tells us the truth, revealing he “needed to find someone with friends to trick into coming here”, and that he could tell that she was “an easy target”. Now, even without the supernatural element, this would be creepy enough on its own. But when he finishes his confession with the admonition that he is “ok with strangers dying” if it means he gets to live? Well, that’s when the real freakiness starts.

The Creepy AF Smiles

Speaking of the real freakiness, the way that the film shows us how the game is in control of the characters is by having them wear some seriously chilling over-exaggerated smiles while under the influence of its power. It’s an elegantly simple effect, but by god is it CREEPY AF. And as the following entries will show, the effectiveness and flexibility of this effect is something the film-makers make great use of.

Gruesome Deaths

You can’t have a teen horror film without gruesome deaths and — judging from the trailer — Truth or Dare has these in ample supply. We get glimpses and flashes of some properly stomach-turning deaths towards the end of the trailer; including someone jamming a pen in their eye and slamming their head against a door, and another character burning themself alive.

As frightening as these are (and TBH also emotionally scarring for delicate little me) the prize for scaring the living hell out of me goes to the guy who — after deciding to refuse a dare to show off his “business” — falls off the pool table and breaks his neck; made so subtly disturbing by the creepy smile he wears as he does so.

Dare Me To Choose

One of the most disturbing moments of the trailer comes in a flash where Lucas (Tyler Posey) asks Olivia and Markie (Violet Beane) to dare him to choose who to kill. Of course, he’s wearing one of the creepy smiles when he does this, adding to the fright factor, but what makes the moment so scary is imagining yourself in Olivia and/or Markie’s shoes. Would you choose to save yourself and kill your best friend?

The Choking

The final shot of the trailer builds to a powerful crescendo, drawing together the three threads that make the trailer so compelling. Sex, violence and those creepy creepy smiles. In a bit of a PLOT SPOILER, the final shots show Olivia and Lucas – established as unrequited lovers in the opening scene – finally getting together. It’s all hot and steamy action for a moment or two, and it looks like it’s getting even hotter when Olivia grabs Lucas by the throat for what we assume if a bit of good ol’ fashioned choke-sex.

But no, it’s the game taking control once more, with the final image we see being Olivia’s creepy smiling face looming over us asking “Truth or Dare”.

What would you choose?