Film Review: TRUTH OR DIE (2012)

Even though it has a very common plot behind it, I was actually entertained by the by-the-numbers film Truth or Die (2012) which has a group of British students being lured to a mansion out in the middle of nowhere to celebrate the birthday of a former classmate they all made fun of years before.  When the friends get to the mansion they realize that no one else is going to show up, not even the birthday boy himself but instead only the birthday boy’s older brother.  Since there is free booze they all decide to stay anyways and have their own celebration but as the night draws on they soon realize that they’ve been lured there under false pretenses and that they must play a deadly game of truth or dare in order to survive the night as one by one they are put to the test to reveal what really happened the night they all decided to play a harsh joke on the missing birthday boy. 

The reason why the film is so effective is because the cast is really good in this cabin in the woods thriller where secrets come to light that reveal each person in the room cannot trust each other.  Written by Matthew McGuchan and directed by Robert Heath, Truth or Die keeps you on the edge of your seat simply by playing against your expectations.  It also helps that the film has a great location on hand and the production design is impressive, even though for the most part the film is in a single location.

In less capable hands this could have easily been a film that falls flat but this is an entertaining film that’s worth taking a look at if you like these type of close quarter thrillers.  It even has a few moments of gore thrown in just when you least expect it.

Book Review: RESIDENT EVIL: APOCALYPSE by Keith R.A. DeCandido

If you are a fan of the Resident Evil films than picking up the adaptation of the second film Resident Evil: Apocalypse is a no brainer but in truth I never cared for the second film and the only reason why I decided to finally pick up the novelization is because I liked the way that writer Keith R.A. DeCandido presented the previous novel in the series Resident Evil: Genesis.  In that novel he expanded on the stories of all the characters exponentially and he does the same thing in this novel which is a good thing since the film lacks this characterization.  Another thing that I like about this novel (rather than the film) is the fact that DeCandido references many things that he set up in the previous film which makes the character of Alice a very interesting and well rounded individual.

The story begins just after the events of the previous novel (just like the films) and continues the story of Alice as she tries to escape Raccoon City on the verge of the zombie outbreak.  The city is being shut down to contain infection and the last few remaining survivors band together with Alice in order to try and find a way out of the city but the genetic weapon Nemesis developed by the Umbrella Corporation has been deployed and its job is to stop Alice at all costs.  There is also a ticking clock running against Alice as the nefarious Umbrella Corporation will stop at nothing to contain the zombie outbreak even if it means disposing of the entire city in order to orchestrate a cover up.

I’ve never played any of the Resident Evil games (from any of the different gaming platforms) but I am a fan of the zombie genre which would be my initial way into the films and thus the novels.  As a fan of the zombie novel this novel is slightly light as compared to the Genesis story as more time is focused on the Nemesis character and the Lickers and the Umbrella Corp. itself.  Zombie fans may be a little put off by this but DeCandido does make up for it in terms of expanding on the universe that was only touched upon in the previous novel and the novel is bigger in scope than the film, which glosses over a lot of the details.