Truth or Dare?: A Critical Madness

This is a true gem and, unfortunately, one that can never be duplicated due to the ease at which low budget films can be made very high quality today. The creativity in the use of many types of killing weapons is very unique-everything from a chainsaw to a mace(that wooden stick with the spikey ball on the end). There are some decent examples of stunts/dummy heads being blown away as well. What really blew me away was the fact that an original song was composed and performed for the end credits of the film.

The movie is about a total psycho and the original song is performed by a gospel choir-very strange. On a sidenote-see if you can spot a future member of the backstreet boys as he is killed. Here's a hint-chainsaw.

This film is truly one the crown jewels in the kingdom of So Bad It's Funny. This charmer was shot in the mid 80's and it follows the exploits of Mike Strauber, a schmuck who has the worst luck with women. Upon returning home from work he finds his big-breasted hottie wife doing the nasty with their best friend, he obliges them with a hilarious dramatic reaction before taking off in his gold Firebird to, uh, drive around for a long, long time. As the story unfolds, we see poor Mike suffer a nervous breakdown that results in hallucinations and self-mutilation. It's all the more tragic because this poor slob can't even get an IMAGINARY girl to score with him! Anyway, we spend the rest of the movie finding a masked, disfigured, murderous Mike out to exact revenge upon his good-for-nothing cheating wife with the great tits. Of course along the way he manages to kill a number of innocents including: a group of old people at a Bus Stop, a little leaguer, some cops, a couple of "punk rockers" and even a baby in carriage using a number of weapons including a submachine gun and a battle mace! "Truth Or Dare" showcases some of the worst acting, wrting, and music ever committed to film, and believe me, it all works in this film's favor! If you're looking for 90 minutes of sick, jaw-droppingly bad horror hilarity, this is the film for you!

I was at the video store with my friend, and while trying to find a third movie, I mentioned this, and she took it from the shelf and said, "We're getting this. Come on."

Ugh, of all the movies....

There are bad horror movies (which I've had my fill of) and there is this. This movie probably could have been disturbing or bizarrely entertaining, but it just sort of came off as tiresome and plodding.

If you've read the other reviews, you've gotten some idea of the plot. I hadn't really understood what the movie was about, but it's as basic as it seems. A guy comes home to find his wife cheating on him with another man. He leaves, and slowly goes insane (well, actually, it's pretty quick) and begins playing these sick Truth or Dare games, first with a hitch-hiker he imagines and goes on a camping trip with, and then in the mental hospital with two inmates after he kills his wife's lover and tries to kill her. He eventually breaks free from the hospital, wearing a weird copper mask, and goes on a senseless, inane killing spree. Throw in two detectives and a return trip to finally kill off the wife, and you've got a movie. Not a very good one, but a movie.

Yes, the film is gory at times. There's gratuitous violence, a few scenes of nudity, and virtually no structured plot. Some people can appreciate that. Yet, somehow, this is a really boring movie! It all gets so routine and actually quite slow that you'll find yourself getting quite tired. It's also quite ridiculous. People are being killed in public, and no one else notices. (ie: the three people at the bus stop) And it's also a bit tasteless. (Come on, running over a mother and baby?)

The one thing I feel almost obliged to note is the song during the closing credits, properly titled "A Critical Madness," sung by some hack and her choir from a church (!) Listen to this song, I dare you, it's almost disturbing. I found it to be the only entertaining part of the movie.

Do I recommend this? What do you think? I guess if you need to see it to see what the deal is with this movie (like I did) sure, see it. But really...you could do better.

A million dollars... A million dollars... I could have made a better slasher flick with the Blair Witch budget! I was having a pretty peachy day when I found out that my favorite bad movie cost approximately one million dollars to make. What kind of idiot gave this guy a million dollars? And to make thing worst he made two sequels. It is the best worst movie of all time, but it was a lot better when I thought an amateur adult film director made this flick with about the same amount of money his past projects cost. Sorry if I have insulted anyone, but after all my pick for the worst film of all time is not even on a single list.

WOW.....I knew this was a low-budget trash film, but going into it, I had no idea just how completely inept TRUTH OR DARE? A CRITICAL MADNESS would turn out to be in every possible way. Claiming to be one of the first films ever produced strictly for the video market (big accomplishment there guys...so you're basically saying that you knew right off the top that no one would pay to see this mess in a theater, right?...) - TRUTH OR DARE? has more problems, plot holes, inconsistencies, horrible acting, atrocious music, juvenile Special FX (except for the few explosion scenes - those are cool...), and all around poor overall execution than any single film I've ever seen. Writer/Director Tim Ritter attributes many of these issues to personal problems between himself and the financiers and 2nd Unit Directors - who he claims all failed to film or support whole sections of the plot that should have made the final product make more sense. But unfortunately, that's pretty much the same as me saying that I set out to paint the Mona Lisa - but due to personal problems, all I came up with was a stick-figure. As the Writer/Director of this mess, I hold Ritter responsible for his work and can only review the final product - not his unfulfilled "vision". Now that all being said - TRUTH OR DARE? does have a strange charm and entertainment value for such a fundamentally flawed feature, that does keep it from being a TOTAL waste of time. It's relatively fast-paced and there are some pretty amusing moments...

Mike Strauber is a guy who's had it pretty rough. He was picked on as a kid, had a nervous breakdown as an adult, and just when things start to look up for him - he catches his wife boning some joker in his bed. This causes Mike to crack, and he goes on a nice little drive to clear his head. Along the way he meets an imaginary hooker that he takes camping (!?!). She talks him into playing truth-or-dare, and cutting his finger off and pulling his tongue out (?!?!). this lands mike in the loony bin for a while - but he's released 13 months later (with tongue and finger mysteriously intact...). He immediately goes and kills his ex-wife's lover, and attempts but fails to kill her too...which lands him back in the psych ward. Somehow, Mike sneaks in two knives and a hand-grenade (???) and plays a hilarious and bloody game of truth-or-dare with two wackadoos that he's locked up with - culminating in some gory but goofy self-mutilation and head explosion. Mike manages to escape the facility, steals a car, and "magically" has access to assault weapons - all while wearing a retarded looking bronze mask that he made in machine class at the psych facility (as I'm sure that most respected psychiatric treatment facilities offer top-notch machining classes which gives mentally disturbed patients the opportunity to play with heavy and dangerous machinery...). On the loose - Mike goes on a rampage: running down a baby, chainsawing a kid, machine-gunning innocent bystanders - basically being an all-around nuisance - all while avoiding the "best" efforts of the local cops to catch him. One such attempt results in one of the brighter cops mistakenly immolating an innocent man, and is immediately allowed back on the street by his superior to join in the investigation (????????). Eventually the police chief sets Mike up and brings his violent spree to an end...

Unbelievably, this film actually spawned two sequels which I haven't yet seen, but judging from the trailers, would venture to bet that they're equally, if not more lacking (if that's possible) than this entry. But again - with all the ridiculousness that goes on in this film - TRUTH OR DARE? A CRITICAL MADNESS is still pretty entertaining and may be worth a look to low-budget 80's-style horror fans. If the director is to be believed from his commentary - this film seems to have a pretty big "cult" following - and may even be able to be classified in the "so bad it's good" category of films. I can't say that I enjoyed this one that much due to the glaringly obvious problems that seeped their way into every pore of this work's production - but I'll settle on a 6/10 for what it tries (and often fails miserably) to accomplish...6/10