Diksha Sundriyal
Starring Lucy Hale and Tyler Posey, ‘Truth or Dare’ follows a group of friends who get entangled in a sinister game of “truth or dare.” The story begins with a group trip to Mexico over spring break. However, a chance meeting with a stranger in a bar leads them to an abandoned church. They start playing “truth or dare” as fun, but then, the game follows them home, and they realize that if they don’t play by the rules, they will die. Directed by Jeff Wadlow, the 2018 supernatural horror film takes the characters on a thrilling journey in which surviving the game comes at a great cost. The audience, on the other hand, is left wondering about the real consequences of a seemingly harmless game. SPOILERS AHEAD.
The Fictional Truth or Dare Was Developed as a Spontaneous Pitch
‘Truth or Dare’ is an entirely fictional film, developed from the story by Michael Reisz, and turned into a screenplay by Jeff Wadlow, Reisz, Jillian Jacobs, and Chris Roach. The idea of creating a film based on the popular game originated with a pitch from Universal Pictures’ CMO, Michael Moses, to Blumhouse’s Jason Blum. However, it wasn’t until Blum met with Wadlow that a proper story started to develop. The ‘Kick-Ass 2’ director revealed that he was called in for a meeting with Blum, where they hit it off, and Blum offered him to make a film about “truth or dare.” With a completely clean slate, Wadlow snowballed the idea of an opening scene in which a woman sets a person on fire after being dared to do so.
Blum loved the idea and was interested in seeing where Wadlow would take the story from here. A group of writers was assembled to work with Wadlow on developing the script, staying true to the idea discussed in the original pitch. Since the truths and dares were the driving factors of the story, the writers brainstormed about all the high-stakes truths and dares they could subject their characters to. It wasn’t just about the danger, but also about the hidden secrets that would come out because of the game. Once they had a clear map of the questions and the dares, they used the details to add more meat to the characters. At the same time, they were also highly conscious of the order in which truths and dares would take place.
The idea was to escalate the intensity of each dare and each secret revealed through the truth over time. This allowed them to set certain plotlines for the characters. For example, the idea of someone coming out to their parents at a critical point, or someone being asked if they write fake prescriptions during their med-school interview, set the tone for how certain characters were to be presented to the audience. A major point for the writers was that they wanted the characters to be more than just dead bodies being dropped throughout the film. They wanted every single person, no matter how early they are killed in the film, to have a personality and a rich backstory, allowing the audience to connect with them and feel the stakes getting higher.
The Director Wanted the Horror to Feel More Real and Immediate
While the truths and dares form a significant part of the film’s thrill, Jeff Wadlow knew it was equally important to establish the antagonistic entity. A demon named Calux is revealed to be the culprit behind all the bad things that happen to the characters. Wadlow wanted him to present in a way that felt more grounded and unsettling. In a general game of truth or dare, the director noted that it’s the friends who are the villains, because they ask you all the pointed, difficult questions and force you to do things that you wouldn’t otherwise. So, he decided to go with a similar thing in the movie, where the people around the characters are possessed by Calux, prompting them to choose truth or dare.
In the case of possession, he wanted to go beyond the milky eyes or the black eyes. Since the game’s and the demon’s natures are mischievous, he wanted to bring out that emotion during the possession. This led him to the idea of a devilish smile. Interestingly, he used to doodle an evil smile since high school, and he thought a distorted version of that could do the trick. He was also thinking about the Snapchat filters and how they distort a person’s facial features. Wadlow was also thinking of the Sound Garden video from the 90s Black Hole Sun when he came up with the smile.
When the actors came on board, they brought their own versions of the smiles, which were digitally enhanced in post-production. Though Wadlow noted that actors like Tyler Posey did such a great job of creating the unsettling smiles that they barely made five percent changes to them. In this way, the filmmakers were able to create something scary and unnerving without relying too heavily on CGI. At the end of the day, Wadlow noted that the story is meant to make viewers think about the people around them, particularly their friends, and to imagine how far they would go to win such a game.
Read More: Truth or Dare (2018) Ending Explained: Do Olivia and Markie Survive?
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