Would You Rather.

Okay, I wanna do a little context on why it's been so long since a film review, I'll try to keep this brief but for those who don't care, feel free to just skip right past the jump and into the review.

For those who stuck with me, here is the thing. A blogger has to enjoy what they write, they have to write first and foremost for themselves but as noble as you want to feel, writing is made to be read...by an audience. This Christmas I did an event called the 'Stone Cold Christmas' and although I enjoyed writing it immensely which I think reflects in the quality of those reviews...no one read it. And although they are some of my reviews I am most proud of, who gives a fuck if no one read them?

My TV reviews on the other hand get regularly read, circulated and sometimes even get commented on, there is clearly an interest and passion on what I say in my TV reviews that just isn't there in my film reviews and as I got onto a good schedule with the four shows I was consistent with I was both keeping my blog regularly updated and attracting several hundred people a day. I know several hundred is nothing compared to the several hundred thousand on IGN a day or whatever but I'm a no one kid with a blog, if only ten of those three hundred or so were actual real people who stayed to read one post all the way through, that makes me very happy.

Sadly, however, my shows are currently on a hiatus and I don't know whether you know this or not but the way Blogger works is it ranks blogs in terms of how often they are updated, the more you update the higher you appear on Google Search pages, some of my reviews actually turn up on the first page of a search which is incredible for me. So if I don't keep this updated regularly for the next couple of weeks my blog will likely fall off the face of the Earth, so I thought for now at least I'd keep the blog ticking over with a review primarily written for my sister and whoever else may be interested, enjoy!

I'd honestly never heard of this film and it would seem the critics really didn't like it, it was however much better received by audiences, as always seems the case. As I hope is obvious, Would You Rather is a twisted horror version of the classic party game. It was shot in the summer of 2011 and released early 2012 and that is about the end of the information I can find on the thing, minus the cast information. Yeah, let's just say I'm going into this somewhat blind.

Iris, an every woman and easily relatable, drops out of school and heads home to look after her cancer suffering brother. Her brother is ultimately weighed down less by his illness and more the fear he is a burden on his sister, with a throw away line like 'blowing off some steam' from Iris which has some truly dire consequences. Thus begins Iris' journey, where she goes through extraordinary lengths to look after him and help him throughout the films run time and you better be sure you're never gonna quite guess where Iris' quest to save her brother will take her next.

The concept, for all its twistedness, is one that has been done so often in so many different forms, it sadly loses a lot of its punch, outside of reactionary shocks. This can also be said for the films trajectory, you will probably never guess the victim but you can always guess the action. These set ups and concepts are still interesting to the right kind of audience, that includes myself, but by now we've seen this done a lot of times and we have our favourites. It's then very difficult for new contenders to get a footing but I do believe this film deserves a look.

What is the concept? Lambrick offers to basically grant a wish, in Iris' case, a bone marrow transplant all paid for with all waiting lists bypassed and so on. The catch? Come to a dinner party and win a game. That doesn't sound so bad, does it? Well obviously there is a bit more to it than that... And so we get lots of different kind of characters in one space, not is all as it seems, their differences are played off one another for volatile reactions and those who you think are the good guys aren't and blahblahblah - sorta Saw meets The Exam.

What works in the concepts favour is the film is more willing to spend time exploring the moral and emotional implications of what is happening. It'd be easy to play Dr. Barden as a straight villain but the film bothers to spend time exploring his guilt at what he is doing and although he tries to repent, he doesn't get the chance. This notion grounds the entire events in a certain sense of reality which makes the shocks feel a lot less like they're just being done as a crude novelty. The whole film is played more on the horror of it emotionally than the shock of the gore. It wants you to fear for the characters, not revel in their suffering and it wants you to be chanting Iris' name long after she's gone beyond the point of no return. This is helped by the film actually bothering to include human kindness with the human evil, not everyone starts as selfish cunts from the very start, despite all wanting to win for one reason or another.

The film is remarkably well paced, Iris isn't exactly a deep character but we get a sense of her very quickly and she is likeable enough that we warm to her just as quickly. This is helped by a fantastic performance by Brittany Snow (never thought I'd say that in the same sentence). It's also clear that it's in a rush to get to the aforementioned game where the primary focus lies but despite the brisk pace of the thing, everything that needs to be set up to appreciate the game is. We know Iris' motivations, we understand her as both a character and a human being, the film manages to do more in less than half an hour than some TV shows manage in half a season. Every second seems to have a purpose, that is used to its fullest potential, no moment feels wasted.

Long before the game officially begins, the tension constantly escalates at a steady pace so we can almost see as the film begins to grow darker and darker and descends into twisted madness. It's a test to see how far ones morals and commitments can really stretch when large sums of money are waved in ones face and it doesn't go head first into the torture porn. You often forget in these films that you can utterly break a person long before you pull out your elaborate death machines. It's so intense in places, I found myself feeling a little sick and shaken up, clenching my fists, toes and grinding my teeth, eventually leading to full on sweats and moments where I had to cover my eyes, almost like I was anticipating being hurt myself. sometimes almost as if I was feeling it.

Ultimately the violence is pretty restrained but because each action has a real world impact on both the characters and the story, even small acts of violence have a much larger effect on the audience than that of any of the ridiculous gorefest sequences of other such films like Hostel. It isn't about making the audience gasp and then chuckle, it's a film that wants the audience to suffer and so although the leaps between one act to another is not huge, the impact it has on the characters are, so we still feel the effect. The body count itself doesn't even really begin until the hour mark, with only one body dropped earlier for the sake of establishing stakes. And once it gets there, the film pulls no punches, shit truly hits the fan faster than you could ever imagine and this sense that you never quite know what is coming next, is what makes the whole experience so intense.

The acting is pretty great across the board, younger actors tend to really suck and although we don't have a deep insight into what Raleigh is going through, the chemistry between Miller and Snow is strong enough to know that they care about one another very deeply which means that you want Iris to save him. The oddball cast of contestants includes the likes of Eddie Steeples, Robb Wells and Sasha Grey, yet they all put on performances much better than you would ever expect.

What will surprise most and in turn makes the film most twisted is certain characters are allowed to have a lot of fun in their roles. Both Shepard and his son are obviously getting some kind of sick pleasure out of the game but it's their own rules that they must not participate physically, due to something going wrong the year before, so writer Steffen Schlachtenhaufen gives Amy the chance to both enjoy the game and actively participate in it. Plus she is played by Sasha Grey, so Amy both turns you on and leaves you wanting to cry. The three of them seem to have so much fun throughout the game, I barely held down my dinner.

If I was to have any complaints, the film is very stagy. This never becomes a problem in the film itself and most will probably never notice but at least from what I've been taught in my last two years of screen writing is setting it all in a singular room is a massive no-no. Ironically when the film explodes into an action chase sequence, it is easily the weakest part of the film, the script feels tight when it can control everyone in a single space but much less so when the film attempts to stretch its legs. Don't worry, there is a lot happening here, a lot to have you barely holding onto the edge of your seat but for those who like more action driven narratives than psychologically driven, you'll probably find this a bore. You can only appreciate a largely static, fixed camera after all, if you enjoy what it is fixed on.

In terms of narrative issues I did start to think as the movie progressed and it kept trying to be intelligent, why did no one really ask more questions? Obviously no one expects a dinner party and a game of Would You Rather to end in drownings, shootings, stabbings, whippings and everything in between but the fact that no one seemed to have any idea of what they were doing seemed a little far fetched. If a creepy philanthropist offered you basically one wish if you win a game, you think you'd have more questions before jumping in the supplied car.

This however may be very deliberate on the films part, the final theme that the film rests on is the notion of the known and unknown and details are used sparingly, we know nothing going in and little more going out. And maybe that is part of the reason it works so well, we're diving into the unknown with Iris and as one character attempts to spill his life story, she cuts him off dead, literally and I can't help but wonder if that was a very deliberate meta reference by the filmmakers themselves. Iris is our window into the game, we don't need to care about anyone else beyond that of human compassion, we all knew she was going to win. The destination isn't important, it's the journey. And what a fucking journey.

So do I recommend it? This is the torture porn film for the haters of the genre. Although the concept and ultimately trajectory of the narrative is tired, it's a restrained, low budget entry that is more about breaking your heart than making you throw up. This emotional involvement you end up feeling however turns Would You Rather into less of a film and more of an experience. Not a nice experience at all but if you come to your horror to feel fear, distress and all the rest then you've come to the right place. Highly recommended.

Think About It!

Locke, the world's worst film snob.

What would you rate, 'Would You Rather'?