Would You Rather...

So, Joey gave the idea to do a review for the '12 psychological horror/horror Would You Rather since I restarted doing them to help my friend catch up with his for his online mag last year.

Every time Joey talks to her mom, she asks her if she's seen this or that, and tell her.  Normally, her mom finds stuff on Netflix, and when we had it we got rid of after the last price hike just because they added their ad-latent tier as the lower, but DOUBLED the next tier that was w/o, so Netflix go bye bye.

Anyway, about Would You Rather, it was directed by David Guy Levy for IFC Midnight.  It starred Brittany Snow, who was Chloe in the Pitch Perfect trilogy, as Iris, Jeffrey Combs, who was Vannacutt in the House on Haunted Hill remake, as Shepard Lambrick, Jonny Coyne, who was last seen as Spiros in '23's The Family Plan, was Bevans, Lawrence Gilliard Jr., who was Bob in The Walking Dead, as Dr. Barden, Enver Gjokaj, who was Joseph in the Resident Alien series, as Lucas, Sasha Grey, Who played Viola in the Saints Row video games, as Amy, the late John Heard, who was Peter in Home Alone, as Conway, Charlie Hofheimer, who was Wallace in last year's Lady in the Lake series, as Travis, Eddie Steeples, who was Eddie in The Guest Book series, as Cal, June Squibb, who was Thelma in this year's Thelma, as Linda, Robin Lord Taylor, who played Will in the You series, as Julian Lambrick, Robb Wells, who's Ricky in the Trailer Park Boys franchise as Peter, and Logan Miller, who was Ben in the Escape Room movies, as Raleigh.

Desperate to help her ailing brother (Miller), a young woman (Snow) unknowingly agrees to compete in a deadly game of "Would You Rather," hosted by a sadistic aristocrat (Combs).

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.  Nothing comes free.  These're the lessons to be learned from Would You Rather.  Of course, our would-be benefactors don't know that...until they do.

Set for the majority in Lambrick's mansion, there's a sense of claustrophobia, especially with the group flanked by gun-toting henchmen that will use them.  And, why would they put themselves in that position? Travis, a war veteran, Linda, a paralyzed elderly woman, Peter, a gambling addict, Amy, an empathetic mother whose husband killed their daughter, Conway, an alcoholic debtor; and Cal's generally a good guy, but is just a follower.  Iris's the only one there for an altruistic reason.

Lambrick explains that his game of Would You Rather's the game at its rawest form, and by choosing to be there, they're choosing to potentially solve their problems.  If they choose to leave, they're choosing to wallow in said probs...oh, and as in life, there're no do-overs.

Of course, we start simple with Iris being a vegetarian, which she put on her profile card leading to the date, but they're intentionally served meat.  Does she, or doesn't she?  It only gets worse from there...Lambrick's sadism knows no bounds with his butler, Bevans, seemingly being the author of the would yous and rathers.  These consist of an electric torture machine, choosing between stabbing another person with an ice pick or whipping Travis 3 times with a sjambok whip, and choosing what's on the card or being having their head held under water for a couple minutes to several.  The last two're caught in a catch-22.

We didn't get the impression anybody phoned in their parts, and since we studied Psych in college, it's always interesting to pick out the relationships with characters...especially when an indefinite amount of money's on the table.

Joey loved the movie.  She thought there was specific pattern Lambrick had to off contestants to keep the rest in line.  She loved how uncomfortable things got quickly, and the end was the clincher...you'll see.