Truth or Dare? (1986) User Reviews

A new respect....

[Bub_the_zombie · 6/10 · 31 December 2006]

Truth or Dare is one of those films that you'll never see anything else like it. Everything is completely over-the-top. The gore, action, comedy - the extremely catchy synth score - Everything is done in a way that's a complete parody within itself, but Ritter doesn't do it in an obvious form. He's poking fun at the film, but does it in a serious way. (Is that a paradox?) Nevertheless, this is an experience you'll likely not forget very soon. I'm sure Ritter was working out some hidden feelings or agenda's during the time this film was released. I had no idea that Ritter was only around 18 or 19 when he made this film - MAking a competent film at 19 - Hitting the top of the video rental chain - All before he was 20. I'm not sure how JR Bookwalter gets all the credit for revolutionizing indy film making. Tim Ritter certainly deserves more credit in regards to the straight to video market that kick started home entertainment.

I'm not saying Truth or Dare is a masterpiece, but what it is is a competently made horror film (now a cult classic) that was virtually written and directed by a teenager! Luck may have had something to do with it, but craftiness (not only in the directing department, but craftiness in the marketing department) has made his name a very welcomed sound to the old school horror fan.

BTW, the old man who played one of the mental patients deserved an award. At times, I'm not so sure Ritter didn't actually have the guy cut off his hand. Of course, I'm an idiot, but after one grasps how young the director was, they'll gain a whole new appreciation for this movie.

Well, it's certainly entertaining...

[capkronos · 6/10 · 18 March 2003]

Tim Ritter's 16MM debut (shot in North Palm Beach, Florida) is a sloppy mess, but it's a low-budget attention getter nonetheless. Mike Strauber (John Brace) is a successful married man who once suffered from a nervous breakdown, and now is going insane after discovering his sexy wife (Mary Fanaro) has been cheating on him. Mike leaves the house, picks up a busty redheaded hitchhiker (Kerry Ellen Walker) and heads to a campground for the night, where the two play a twisted version of Truth or Dare by campfire. He dares her to pull out her eye with a corkscrew...and she does!! Then she makes him cut off his finger, slash open his chest and rip out his tongue before disappearing.

He's found and rushed off to "Sunnyville Mental Institution" where he is eventually released due to "overcrowding". He heads back home to kill his ex-wife, but is captured again and rushed back to SMI where gory Truth or Dare games are played with other patients. All of the TorD game participants turn out to be delusions of Mike's deranged mind, an odd metaphor for insanity in general, I guess, and a means for lots of self-mutilation.

By the films end a head is blown off with a grenade, arms and legs are hacked off, a face is slashed up, a baby in a stroller is run over, a little kid is chewed up in a drive-by chainsawing, an old woman is clubbed on the head, Mike takes a semi-automatic rifle to three unlucky people waiting at a bus stop and much more. It's really just a bunch of violent nonsense, but it's pretty entertaining and the gore FX are fine.

Followed by several direct-to-video sequels starting with WICKED GAMES (1993). Also available is (was?) TRUTH OR DARE?-THE RETROSPECT TAPE, hosted by the director.

Possibly The Most Flawed Film I've Ever Seen...

[EVOL666 · 6/10 · 7 March 2006]

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

"His energy's gone in the wrong direction..."

[Vince-5 · 9 May 2001]

Truth or Dare is a campy, sadistic, truly warped horror movie. Shot on videotape and transferred to film, it actually benefits from its amateurishness, resulting in a genuinely disturbing experience that really packs a punch. This is one of the very few movies where video photography actually contributes the atmosphere instead of destroying it. It's incredibly gory and shows things that mainstream films wouldn't even imply. Where else are you going to see a baby run over by a car and a little boy chainsawed? And what's really interesting is that you never know where it'll go next. You think it's going to be a standard get-out-of-the-asylum-and-terrorize-the-ex-wife stalker plot, but things take a series of unexpected twists, with the bloodbath getting more and more demented. There are many moments where you don't know whether to laugh, scream, or get sick.

There are the usual bad-movie routines. The acting is variable--Kerry Ellen Walker, as the frizzy-haired hitchhiker chick, seems to have been plucked directly from a high-school production of Bye Bye Birdie. At the climax, the copper mask pulsates when the killer breathes. Still, it's all so numbingly brutal and unsettling that you can suspend disbelief ("hmm...very thin copper, apparently") and get dragged along on the bloody joyride. Kay Reed sings the hyper-dramatic theme song, "A Critical Madness," which is the source of my summary quote. Truly unforgettable, and not for the faint of heart or those concerned with "taste." As if children are immune to death!

Isn't This Movie Awful? I Dare You To Be Truthful

[Zanatos · 1/10 · 12 April 1999]

My sister, her boyfriend, and myself were wandering around the horror section one evening. We were having trouble picking something because there was little not one of us had seen already. Then, jokingly, my sister pointed at "Truth Or Dare?" That point was one of the greatest mistakes in her life. This movie is one of the worst I have ever seen. It is practically plotless and pointless. Okay, okay, so the budget was low. I admire good work when the budget is low...but no good work is here.

In this movie, an overworked man comes home early one day and finds that his loving wife is cheating on him. He quickly proceeds to go insane, and dreams up a woman who plays a game of Truth or Dare with him. He tries to kill his wife, but is stopped and is locked up in a mental hospital. There, he somehow gets some weapons (a knife, grenade) and plays a game of....guess what?...with some inmates. In the process, he cuts up his face. From that point on, he doesn't speak and wears an iron mask. My guess is that the actor playing the part asked for his entire salary to be bumped from one dollar to two, and he got fired, so they used his stunt man in a mask for the rest of the film! Well, he breaks out (surprise, surprise) and goes on a pointless killing spree (surprise, surprise), and goes after his wife again (wow, didn't see that coming). Meanwhile, we are subjected to the bothersome, bumbling cops who are tracking him.

This movie is by far one of the worst slasher movies you'll find, right next to "Don't Go Into The Woods." And this is coming from a fan of slasher flicks! So if you are playing a game of Truth or Dare, and someone dares you to watch "Truth Or Dare," then my truthful advice to you is to dare them to play a game of Spin the Bottle, and forget about watching this unwatchable garbage. And that is the truth. Zanatos' score: 1 out of 10.

What a piece of garbage!

[alanmora · 1/10 · 16 January 2007]

There are good horror movies, bad horror movies, and horror movies that are so bad that they are good...then there's this! A movie so hideously awful that all you can do at the end credits is gawk at the screen in disbelief and ask yourself "Did I really just waste 1.5 hours of my life watching that piece of trash?". The gore effects in this one are not bad at all but unfortunately that does not save this film. It is hideously acted with so many flashback sequences and sequences that are conjured up in the main character's imagination that it tends to make the viewer dizzy. The film is also HORRIBLY edited...actors and actresses are inexplicably cut-off in the middle of their lines! What's even worse is the fact that there was even more time and effort wasted making 2 abysmal sequels to this worthless flick (I HIGHLY doubt that the 'demand' for this one was that high). Sequels that are so amateurish and poorly filmed that a three year old child with a hand held camera could film more compelling stuff! To avoid the stench of this stinker...stay as far away from it as humanly possible!

Killed By Needless Comedy

[hbeeinc · 4/10 · 14 July 2014]

This might have been a magnificent piece of nastiness. The first half with Mike breakdown creeped me out several times. It's played straight and as brutally as the actors' talents permit. John Brace (Mike) gets better as he gets crazier. Ironically, as soon as the mask goes on, the film goes downhill. The wacky, incompetent cops show up and blow the tone of the film. It feels as if it got a makeover half-way through filming. Example: they walk all over a tense moment towards the end of the film to throw one more quick gag in. As a coup de grace, the end of the film comes with possibly the worst song ever written for film. It sounds like it was written by a social worker bingeing on coke, Quaaludes and Kenny Logins.

All told, entertaining at first and then frustrating.

Top notch low budgeter

[Thom-P · 7/10 · 9 April 2001]

After reading the other reviews of this film, it seems many people measure quality by the amount of money that went into a production. Go figure... Truth or Dare? - A Critical Madness was indeed made on a shoestring, but writer/director, Tim Ritter displays more imagination in 5 minutes than any of today's big budget horror films can manage in 2 hours. Ignore the naysayers and see this little gem from the 80s. Serious horror fans need only apply.

Truth or Dare?

[Scarecrow-88 · 3/10 · 9 April 2010]

Having recovered from a nervous breakdown, it seems that Mike has bounced back. He has a beautiful wife, he's made great strides in his career, and has been reaping the benefits of his success. Mike's life is shattered when he discovers his wife with another man..she was Jerry's secretary and he knew Mike personally.

Seeing people who aren't there, he is ordered by a figment of his imagination to slice his chest, pull out his tongue, and cut his finger off. Mike is more than a bit disturbed. He is later released by a mental hospital, and you better believe Mike will be motivated to find Jerry and his ex-wife Sharon, determined to get revenge. He's later placed back into the hospital, having hallucinogenic images of people he commands to destroy themselves during a game of "truth or dare", the same kind of game Mike participated in with an imaginary hitchhiker girl who told him to damage himself with a hunting knife.

He wears this weird "Iron Man" copper mask he made in the machine shop after tearing open his face with a knife. Soon Mike is able to escape when he surprises an orderly stabbing him in the eye with a stick, and is able to free himself from the hospital after dropping a security guard, commandeering another's car. This sets of a mindless rampage as Mike kills anyone that reminds him of those who he feels contributed to his current mental state of disrepair, whether it be a mother and her baby(he smashes through a baby stroller and backs over the woman making sure she's dead! Why such a hostile act? Because she reminded him of his mother!), a kid in a park(the boy reminded him of himself and so he assaults the kid with a chainsaw to the face!), a policeman, and even three innocent people sitting on a bench awaiting a bus! The guy has serious issues. Where Mike finds the time to collect all his weapons is anybody's guess. He smashes a complaining neighbor's(he run into her garbage cans, strewing trash all over her yard!) face with a spiked club! The scene where he shoots the bench people with a machine gun is enough to warrant this slasher movie a cult following. You have keystone cops, a bungling mental hospital which continues to find ways to let this lunatic out to endanger society, the accidental murder and burning of a drunk in a shack(one cop thinks Mike is in there so he proceeds to shoot and set the shack on fire instead of any attempt to arrest him!), lingering shots of the luscious Mary Fanaro(as Sharon)naked in bed with Jerry(Bruce Gold)or in the shower lathering her nude flesh, woeful attempts to develop sympathy for Mike's condition, constant unintentional hilarity as Mike murders innocent people in gratuitous fashion(there's one long shot of the kid, attacked in the face by the chainsaw, spitting up blood and twitching;the scene showing the bloody baby carriage that had been mowed over; the crude, belligerent punk whose car is caused to wreck after the victim almost hit Mike, set on fire then shot by the machine gun), and John Brace(as Mike)in competition with Eric Freeman(Silent Night, Deadly Night 2)for worst performance in a slasher film ever as the mentally unbalanced psychopath. How director Tim Ritter incorporates the game of "Truth or Dare" in the plot really feels forced as if he had already established the title in his mind before writing the script based on it's supposed marketability.

The showstopping highlight, if there aren't many to choose from, would have to be the head explosion when a fictitious patient plants a grenade in his mouth at Mike's command and the other nutcase cutting off limbs, bleeding out because he was dared to(both patients just appear in Mike's white-walled cell as he spins around, swept up in a deranged mania).

Mental Murderous Rampage

[The_Pat_Bateman · 7/10 · 27 January 2006]

Just recently picked this movie up because it sounded cool. If you have read the plot, it is about a man who finds his wife cheating on him with a friend. This is at the very beginning. he does not kill them though. I was disappointed. However, it drives him nuts. As the years go on he gets more and more nuts and plays Truth or Dare with himself. He gets institutionalized, but escapes What we see in the rest of the film is Mike go on a rampage. I was enjoying the film, but once the action started getting better all I can say is WOW.

He drives around with a large assortment of weapons and kills anyone he please. Be it pedestrians or cops.

If you like slashers, if you like gore, if you like over the top gore this is the movie for you. It was quite the find.

Not so bad its good... it's just bad.

[A-Ron-2 · 2/10 · 27 April 2000]

While I must admit that I am not surprised that this film has received some praise, I am a bit disappointed. As a big fan of horror and slasher films, I usually look forward to interesting excuses for carnage, especially when such excuses propel the film beyond the normal conventions of these films. I was looking forward to something truly unique in this film and found it, but novelty is not always equal to quality. I originally saw this film at some midnight showing somewhere (it was either on a super-8 projector or a wide-screened TV, I can't remember) about 12 years ago. All I remember was laughter and people leaving.

The film seemed to start in a promising manner but soon degenerated into pointless, and at times disturbing, violence. I did not enjoy this film, nor has anyone I ever knew. It has become a sort of rite of passage among us, a way of demonstrating one's ability to tolerate anything. However, it is not remotely entertaining, nor is it particularly scary, just unpleasant. If the director was looking to make a cheap film that instills an unpleasant feeling, then I suppose he has succeeded. If he was looking to do anything else, then he failed miserably. If you are simply looking to test your endurance of bad films, feel free to test yourself against this one (I have seen it several times, usually wandering into conversation somewhere in the middle). If you are looking for a good movie, or even a "so bad it's good" movie, look elsewhere.

Low budget 80's film making at it's bloody best

[shiftyrc5 · 8/10 · 22 October 2004]

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.

Impressive exploitation feature that reminds of a lost period in cinema

[LuisitoJoaquinGonzalez · 7/10 · 23 March 2008]

Tim Ritter is another of the multitude of directors that emerged during the post-Halloween abyss of low-budget horror and went on to build a career within a niche sub-genre. He is something of a legend amongst his ilk because he directed and produced his first feature at the tender age of 16. Much like Fred Olen Ray, David DeCoteau and Dennis Devine; Ritter has built a decent catalogue of self financed B-Movies that have allowed him to express himself and convey his cinematic vision to audiences across the globe. His films are notoriously gratuitous and he is amongst the extremist exploitation directors currently working in American film.

Truth of Dare was his second feature and since its release in the mid-eighties, the film has garnered a relatively large cult following. Its success opened up the chance for two sequels, and Ritter has worked continuously ever since.

Mike Strauber returns home from work one day to find his wife in bed with his best friend, Jerry. Visibly traumatised, Mike heads to the beach to clear his thoughts. After contemplating suicide, the emotion seems to trigger a violent schizophrenia in his mind and he begins suffering aggressive delusions, which make him play truth or dare with imaginary characters from his warped mind. Before long Mike succumbs to the grips of insanity and begins a violent trail of revenge on the society that he feels has outcast him.

Truth or Dare is a tough movie to judge. It has moments to be credited and moments of flagrant ineptness. Firstly, the performances are heinous from start to finish and John Brace is hilarious as the wild-eyed Strauber. The cast looked as if they were offered no guidance from an experienced dramatic adviser and they fall astoundingly short of delivering anything even remotely convincing. There are gaps in the plot that are large enough to swallow the Sahara dessert and the continuity is like something from a fairytale, with weapons and convenient props appearing as if on command.

There are many schoolboy errors throughout the feature, which demonstrate a lack of experience from the production team and especially from the teenage director. The movie starts astoundingly well and almost immediately sets a high standard, which unfortunately it fails to consistently maintain.

With that said, Truth or Dare is a memorable, powerful feature and it is one that deserves a stronger reputation amongst the slasher elite. Ritter came out with an intention to shock and he succeeded successfully in making a film that approaches areas that other more competently financed features would never have dared. In today's climate of extreme political-correctness and constant fear of audience offence, this movie is a fine example of a time when media was brave enough to voice an individualistic opinion.

The copper-masked maniac commits a few of the most gruesome acts ever filmed in slasher cinema. Three elderly pedestrians are randomly machine gunned whilst waiting at a bus stop and a cheery child is bloodily slashed to death with a chainsaw! By far the most shocking scene sees a pram-pushing mother and her baby gorily rundown and killed by the maniac (he even goes as far as to reverse back over them); and for the father of a nine-month old child, it's a tough scene to watch.

Despite Mike's extreme malevolence, the story initially builds sympathy for his journey into insanity. No matter how strong a relationship may be, everyone can have moments when they feel insecure and panic-stricken if they suspect that their love is not equally shared. How would you feel if you came home to find your partner in bed with your best friend? I doubt that many of you would put on a copper-mask and go on a killing spree, but kudos to Ritter for approaching a subject that sympathetic viewers can relate to. There's something frighteningly realistic about the scenes that see Strauber recollect memories of his relationship and realise that he should have picked up on the fact that his partner was betraying his trust. The opening is brilliantly handled and demonstrates the potential of a young filmmaker with a relevant message to convey.

Like many eighties slashers (Killer Party, Terror Night, Scalps etc), Truth or Dare suffered a nightmare production. Rumour has it that the producers became anxious once realising that Ritter was only 18 years old and they eventually pulled the plug, which meant that the final version of Truth or Dare is not the director's initial vision. Ritter has said that many of the plot holes are filled within the missing footage that's gatherinmg dust somewhere in a producer's cupboard and having seen the effect that a plagued production can have on a feature (Moon in Scorpio anybody?) Ritter deserves the benefit of the doubt.

Although technically the film fails to impress, it excels in its power to shock and it has a subtle political comment on the Reagan cost-cutting era of the eighties. I really enjoyed watching Truth or Dare and I feel that it's an excellent time-capsule of a cinematic period that will never be repeated. It starts well and despite a dip in its mid-section, the film ends with the flamboyance that was so flagrantly evident in its launch. Considering the fact that Ritter was only eighteen at the time and has grown into a key player and sponsor in the world of B-movie production, this is an excellent example of his ideas. On a side note look out for Backstreet Boy AJ McLean in the small film-part that he wishes he could erase from existence!

Indie horror rarity

[Leofwine_draca · 3/10 · 14 June 2017]

TRUTH OR DARE? is a very weird little indie horror film, made back in 1986 and shot locally in Florida. It's about a cuckolded husband who goes out of his mind after discovering his wife in bed with another man, leading him on an odyssey of self-mutilation (the film's most bizarre highlight), madness, and eventual murder. Truth be told, it's a silly little thing, entirely unconvincing and badly-acted to boot, and I found the whole thing to be poorly-scripted and dragged out to the nth degree. Still, fans of the era might get a kick or two out of it regardless...

I dare YOU to remove your face!!

[joeyramone78 · 8 August 2001]

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!

"Jesus Christ! Is that a gun?" Average low budget horror film.

[poolandrews · 4/10 · 14 April 2006]

Truth or Dare? - A Critical Madness starts with Mike Strauber (John Brace) finding his wife of five years Sharon (Mary Fanaro) in bed with his friend Jerry Powers (Bruce Gold), distraught Mike heads out into the woods to get back to nature but ends up having a game of truth or dare with an imaginary hitchhiker (Kerry Ellen Walker) which ends up with him cutting his own tongue out, slicing his finger off & being put in Sunnyville mental institute. Jump forward 13 months later & the institute is suffering from overcrowding, as a result Dr. Thorne (Rick Paige) & Dr. Evans (Mona Jones) need to make tough decisions to free some room up so they let Mike go. Mike is still a little bit angry & bitter so kills Jerry & attempts to kill Sharon, he gets put back into Sunnyville mental institution but manages to escape & plays the ultimate murderous game of truth or dare as he sets out to gain revenge on his unfaithful ex-wife...

Written, produced & directed by Tim Ritter I thought Truth or Dare? - A Critical Madness was average at best, it's by no means as bad as some micro budget homemade horror films I've had to endure but it's hardly mind blowing stuff. The script takes itself far too seriously but it moves along at a reasonable pace even if it's pretty basic stuff, the character's are simplistic to say the least, the dialogue is poor & it has low production values throughout. There are no sub plots which means the narrative is very linear & a bit monotonous. I don't believe that a mental patient could hide a survival knife & grenade without anyone noticing, this wasn't him getting out it was him being admitted! You would not be able to shoot three people on a busy road & not one single car stop or at the very least draw some attention to yourself, could you? Also I'm not sure someone could drive a car, start a chainsaw, stick it out of the window, kill someone, retain control of the vehicle & drive off like nothing ever happened, or maybe they could? If anyone's ever tried it let me know... Finally, if Mike originally cut his own finger off did a new one just magically grow back or something? You know I don't think that would happen, would it? I thought it entertained on a simplistic level but just don't expect anything amazing.

First time director Ritter does an OK job considering the poverty of the production & his inexperience. There's no scares or shocks & there's no tension or excitement either, this won't exactly get the pulse racing. The gore wasn't great, there's a fair amount of fake blood splashed around but not that much graphic violence, a cut off hand, an exploding head & some gunshot wounds.

With a supposed budget of about $200,000 Truth or Dare? - A Critical Madness is technically about as good as one could expect, which is not good. The acting isn't great but at the same time it's nowhere near as bad as in some low budget horror films I've seen.

Truth or Dare? - A Critical Madness is an OK watch, I thought it passed the time but didn't do that much for me. If you like low budget obscurities than you may want to check it out but if you prefer your films with a little more polish then I'd give this a miss.

Truth? I didn't like it. I dare you to watch it as well.

[BA_Harrison · 4/10 · 5 May 2020]

Housewife Sharon (Mary Fanaro) has got a great body, so her husband Mike (John Brace) is understandably crushed when he comes home early to find her bumping and grinding with her boss Jerry. What's a guy to do? Well, Mike spends about fifteen minutes wailing in despair, before driving to the woods for a spot of camping to get away from his problems. Along the way he picks up a busty hitch-hiker, with whom he plays a camp-fire game of truth or dare. Except that the hitch-hiker doesn't really exist: she's a figment of his mind, which has snapped under emotional stress. The imaginary, buxom hitch-hiker dares Mike to mutilate himself, which he does, his bloody, twitching body later discovered by a park ranger, who calls an ambulance.

After thirteen months in Sunnyville Mental Institution, Mike is released back into the community, and immediately goes to his wife's house, where he kills Jerry, but is wounded by Sharon, who escapes unharmed. Bleeding heavily, Mike collapses and is carted back to the loony bin, where he plays truth and dare with his imaginary friends, cutting his face with a knife that he has somehow smuggled into his room. Thirteen days later, Mike (now wearing a creepy metal mask) escapes from Sunnyville, and goes on a killing spree, using the arsenal that he must have found in the trunk of his stolen car: a machine gun, a chainsaw, a mace, a machete, and nunchucks! Will the police (who include a pot-bellied, moustachioed, hunch-backed cop in a loud shirt who roasts innocent people alive) find the nutter before he can kill Sharon?

Truth or Dare, director Tim Ritter's first 'professional' movie, features a car chase, stunts (including a full body burn gag), explosions, and other impressive mayhem, making it one hell of an ambitious project for such a low-budget effort from a fledgling film-maker; but that doesn't make it a good film. The script is risible, there's an uneasy balance between what is intended to be genuine horror and what is obviously tongue in cheek, the performances are passable at best, and, worst of all, the gore is wholly unconvincing and not nearly plentiful enough. While I applaud Ritter for having the guts to kill off a baby and its mother, and slice up a little leaguer with a chainsaw, I really expected more gruesome violence from someone who, according to IMDb, has read every issue of Fangoria and idolises 'the godfather of gore' Herschell G. Lewis.

3.5/10, generously rounded up to 4 for Fanaro, who provides the obligatory T&A, in the opening sex scene, sunning herself in a bikini, and soaping herself up in the shower.

This made Elijah Wood a horror fan?

[Aaron1375 · 2/10 · 9 September 2023]

I watched a lot of horror films when I was young, enjoying movies like The Shining, Halloween and too many others to count. I cannot point to one film that made me a horror fan; however, if this were the first horror film I had ever seen, I would likely totally hated the genre. I cannot believe that Elijah Wood cites this as his reason to enjoy horror films and one of the main reasons (besides the cheapness and horrible acting) is the fact it is barely horror. In fact, it at times seems like it is trying to be a comedy and the only reason I give it a two is that there were a couple of solid gore effects, but that aside the film literally has the killer wearing nun-chucks and carrying a mace!

The story, which to its credit you can say it has one, has a man walk in on his wife having an affair. Well he flips out (normal), goes for a drive (also normal) then picks up an imaginary hitchhiker and goes camping while mutilating himself playing truth or dare with said imaginary hitchhiker (not so normal). He goes to a mental hospital and the rest of the film is just him getting out from time to time to cause havoc and to try and kill that ex wife of his.

The movie is cheap, make no mistake about it. At times you have trouble seeing the actors' faces because the camera they are using is not top of the line. But beyond that, the film is still lousy with its strange tonal shifts going from hammy overacting to almost purposeful unfunny comedy. There is nothing about it scary in the least, no tension or dread, only hope for the film to end! So once again, a horror only in the barest sense of the word.

So if you think because the killer wears a mask that he definitely should not even of had in the first place considering he was in a mental institution and a bit of gore a horror movie makes then go ahead and watch it and introduce your friends to it as Elijah did. Me, I found it a bizarre attempt at perhaps a horror comedy that fails and would rather show my friends a whole heck of a lot of other films to introduce them to some good obscure horror films. This is not it, for me. Oh, I think it was Alien that made me the horror fan I am today...silly me, a horror film with tension and dread, not police chief having a bit with another cop in a Hawaiian shirt trying to do shtick.

A great movie even if there are so many holes

[abduktionsphanomen471 · 7/10 · 5 April 2021]

Truth Or Dare: A Critical Madness - 1986 - (I would rate B-)

Low budget, shot on video psychotic break after a failed relationship, revenge movie. Really shotty script with poor 80's cheese acting and filled with very far fetched scenarios. Way over dramatized in every scene. Senseless and brutal. Gratuitous boob shots. The soundtrack is cheap and often times disjointed and non sensical throughout. The song in the credits is truly dreadful! Yet. This is a great bad film and worthy of watching again.

Solid and enjoyable indie effort

[kannibalcorpsegrinder · 7/10 · 12 March 2019]

After finding his wife cheating on him, a man goes on a downward spiral of madness and psychosis when the incident triggers his joy of playing a Truth-or-Dare game as a kid and uses that as an excuse to launch a bloodsoaked rampage across the county leading to a crazed manhunt to stop him.

Overall, this one was quite an interesting effort. One of the finest qualities here is the fact that it manages to give a rather intriguing premise from the start of the film. Going right in on the couple caught in the act and then turning around to reveal all the incidents in the past that should've called him into what's going on, from the dinner conversations and phone calls they shared behind his back that sets up not only his psychosis but the premise of the film rather early on in a fine manner. The manner in which those incidents devolve into the game that he starts up in the second half. The second half of the film really ramps up the over-the-top nature of the guys' psychosis as the series of scenes and encounters here really plays on that aspect. Not only starting off with the scene at the campground where he meets the prostitute and is engages in the deranged game with her that may or may not be fully within his mind, but the scenes in the asylum where he sets up the inmates on a few wild and frenzied games enable that psychotic mindset even further. Sparking the fun even further is the endless round of attempts to free him or set him loose as the psychological banter that plays off these scenes has a fun, cheesy atmosphere to them. As well, the fact that they set up the wild rampage that plays out once he gets loose is the film's best part as the craziness that gets featured here is top-notch. From engaging in a wild car chase with a group of punks that includes some fantastic stunt-work, a truly mesmerizing attack on a child and a fun confrontation at the house which ends this all rather nicely. Coupled with the crazy low-budget gore and some nice nudity, these here manage to hold this one up over its negative aspects. The main aspect that really holds this one down is the issue of not really playing up the game more to further his madness. The rampage that occurs at the end isn't really connected to something that's brought about through the game as he doesn't go about doing that at all, there's nothing about what his fascination comes from other than just a simple flashback to the game being played as a kid and it never builds on anything associated with the game. That really could've been exploited more here, especially in the final half where the opportunities to bring it up could've been done, but other than maybe not following the low-budget of the film there isn't much else wrong.

Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Nudity, a sex scene and children-in-jeopardy.

HOW CAN WE GET THERE AGAIN?

[shiftyrc5 · 8/10 · 27 October 2004]

This was a masterpiece in film making. Well, not really. For all of our self indulgent films of crap then we should all take notes from this film. This is a "horror" movie that takes says that it is not. It is funny, clever, gruesome, and bad, but its badness makes it what it was. The over acting, extremely bloody death scenes, and the gratuitius nudity, make it an entertaining film. Nothing now can hold its own weight because they take themselves too seriously. This was, is, the true film that make made horror movies, not Scream or I Know What You Did when you were trying to scare me, fun. Attention all horror movies of our time, either do something that no one else has, or be creative and make us laugh. If you can't do that, then release this movie, as bad as it was.

Awesome little killer movie

[NewYorkRipper · 6/10 · 16 January 2011]

Awesome movie, what a way to spend 83 or so minutes.

The guy gets home to see his wife making out with another woman which drives him a little crazy.

Fast forward and we see a guy on a rampage, very similar to Nightmares In A Damaged Brain though just not quite as gory. Definitely worth a watch though to see him blow holes in various heads, chainsaw a little guy who was just playing baseball and machine gun down a bunch of people sitting on a bench just because he thought they looked like some other people in his mind.

Just awesome.

Shoot Me Now!!!!

[psavery54 · 14 March 2002]

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.

Truth or Dare

[BandSAboutMovies · 6/10 · 26 January 2023]

In the 1985 horror anthology, Tim Ritter created a short called "Truth of Dare" in the movie Twisted Illusions. A year later, he'd expand that story into this slasher.

With a budget of $200,000, this was shot on 16mm film so it's another one of those "if it's released on video, it's shot on video" films. Well, it was made expressly for the direct to video. Market and mom and pop shops, so there's that. Ritter was just 18 when this was made in Palm Beach County, Florida and due to creative differences with the producers he was removed from the film and producer Yale Wilson is listed as the director on the original VHS release.

There are several sequels, all directed and written by Ritter: Wicked Games, Screaming for Sanity: Truth or Dare 3, Deadly Dares: Truth or Dare Part IV and I Dared You! Truth or Dare 5, as well as a bootleg sequel, Writer's Block, which was sold as Truth or Dare 2.

Mike Strauber (John Brace) finds his wife Sharon in bed with his best friend Jerry and poor Mike has the kind of mental breakdown that inevitably turns one into a slasher villain. He heads off and picks up a hitchhiker and remembering a game of truth or dare where he cut himself with a razor blade, he listens to the hitchhiker's requests and slices himself up. Except that there's no hitchhiker. Mike's lost it.

A year later, Mike gets released from the Sunnyville Mental Institution. Blame budget cuts. Blame too many patients. Blame the fact that Mike is crazy but also smart. His good behavior is noticed and the first thing he does when he gets out is killing Jerry and then go after his ex-wife. When he's wounded in this murder attempt, he goes back to Sunnyville and is soon back to hallucinating disfigured patients telling him to destroy his face and wear a mask. After one of the attendants is dumb enough to taunt Mike with a photo of his ex-wife, he stabs the orderly with a pencil to the eye Fulci-style and finds a cache of weapons, because that's exactly what is sitting around a mental hospital.

At this point, Mike just goes wild, committing crimes such as hitting a stroller with his car - the baby launches high in the air - and then going back to roll over the mother; machine gunning an entire bench full of senior citizens; doing a drive-by chainsawing of a Little League player and finally trying to kill his wife all over again. Oh Mike, they're just going to put you back in Sunnyville.

Ridiculous in all ways and therefore worth watching. I also believe that Rob Zombie completely took the papier mâché first mask that Michael wears in his remake from this movie.

Not bad, especially for the 80's

[Caine-2 · 10/10 · 5 November 1998]

Let me start by saying that this review is a little one sided. I'm good friends with the film's real director Tim Ritter, and appeared in "Truth or Dare 3:Screaming for Sanity". The film does fall prey to its cheap production values, but they're not that cheap. Tim told me he spent close to a million bucks before completing this one. Plus, as an added bonus, if you live in Florida this is your lucky day. It was shot on location in the Treasure Coast area. Getting back to the movie, well, it's really not that bad; especially for the 80's. The gore quotient is high, acting decent and the plot, well...I've still never figured it out. I realize none of it makes much sense, but at least you won't feel ripped-off. There's enough blood for five movies by the end. Low-budget film fans, especially those who love cheeze, will be entertained for an hour-and-a-half.