The
rich have been playing sadistic games with human lives for their own amusement
in movies ever since The Most Dangerous Game. Would You Rather is a low key, but effective
variation on the same theme. No one
reinvented the wheel or anything here, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t get the
job done.
A
rich man (Jeffrey Combs) invites eight down-on-their-luck strangers to a dinner party that
promises to change their fortunes. During the meal, he plays games with them to test their
willpower. The stakes are small at first, but
things become deadly when he has them play an extreme version of Would You Rather.
The first round involves them
electrocuting each other and the rounds only get crueler and more twisted as
the game wears on.
The
fine cast help to milk as much mileage from the set-up as possible. Brittany Snow makes for an ideal leading lady
and Combs is a hoot as the twisted host of the party. The dinner guests are well-cast too. I especially liked seeing John Heard as a
conspiracy theorist drunk and ex-porn star Sasha Grey as the most cold-hearted
contestant.
The
film is a lot like Saw as Combs forces his guests to make split-second
decisions in life or death situations.
Since it lacks that series’ endless moralizing, it means it can have a
bit more fun with the premise. Would
You Rather is a smallish, three-chord, down and dirty horror flick that puts
the emphasis on tension and dread and delivers more often than not. Sure, you can anticipate where a lot of this
is going, but director David Guy Levy keeps things moving at a healthy clip and
delivers the goods.
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