Truth or Dare?: A Critical Madness (1986)

Simply Perfect

Must See Movie...

A Masterpiece!

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Truth or Dare has been somewhat of a hard find in recent years.Truth or Dare is a far cry from substantial film-making. Truth or Dare sets out to deliver a laundry list of exploitation goods and on this note - is quite successful. With decent amounts of gore, including a drive by chainsaw attack and a baby carriage car crash, Truth or Dare is a fairly solid example of 80's cheese. The background story involves childhood trauma, and while there are attempts to create sympathetic characters, we never really get too far past pure exploitation mode. There's something to be said for satisfying 80's cheese though and Truth or Dare is definitely that.If it weren't for the lackluster presentation, Truth or Dare would have been a candidate for a higher recommendation. I think is has just a little ways from being totally spectacular and extremely entertaining. Nonetheless a great movie that should be picked up, IF you can find it.

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.

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.

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.