Hi all,
Today I am back with a new horror film review! Choose or Die was released on Netflix April 15th and the minute I saw the trailer, I knew it was something I would be interested in watching. It follows Kayla (played by Iola Evans), a broke college student who decides to play an obscure 1980’s survival computer game in pursuit of an unclaimed $100,000 prize. After a series of unexpectedly terrifying moments, Kayla realises she is no longer playing for the money, but for her own life. If you want to know if this film is worth the hype, I will share all the positives and negatives below. Without further ado, let’s get into it!
WHAT WORKED:
Right, so…what worked? I don’t want to be horrible because I know this was the director’s film debut but sadly, I did not enjoy it at all. It was a lot of wasted potential in my opinion. If I had to provide a positive, I would say the concept was fun and there was a surprising amount of gore. I actually felt quite uncomfortable in some of the scenes. It wasn’t afraid to get bloody and intense. Unfortunately, that’s where my mercy ends.
WHAT DIDN’T WORK:
My biggest issue with this entire movie was the pacing. If you’re going to release a horror about a deadly computer game from the 80’s, it needs to be fast. The momentum should be constant. This film moved at a snail’s pace. It just didn’t match the idea. Furthermore, I didn’t connect or care about any of the characters. There just wasn’t enough backstory or length (the running time is only 1 hour and 24 minutes) to become fully invested in what was happening. I believe this would have worked better as a Black Mirror episode. In certain parts, I was quite confused. I wanted an explanation as to why the landlord was so interested in Kayla’s mother and more information on the game’s origin. Lastly, there were some outright cheesy scenes. Spoiler alert: we witness a man forced to eat his own arm and the way he pretends his own limb is forcing it’s way down his throat is laugh-out-loud cringy. It could have been incredible; think the horror version of Jumanji or Ready Player One but it fell flat.
OVERALL STAR RATING:
I gave this 1/5 stars. I know this movie has very mixed reviews, so please don’t be discouraged by my own.
Thank you so much for reading! Let me know if you’ve watched this film. Did you like it?
Peace & Love xoxo