So it's been a while since I saw this film, but recently caught the latter half again.
While not particularly scary, containing nothing more than the unsettlingly stretched facial features, it's a fun dark-thriller at best.
The frustration however comes in when the writers attempt to create a twist ending using a game with very strictly defined rules:
You tell the truth or you die You do the dare or you die Refuse to play and you die.
With an extra rule seemingly arbitrarily revealed only when it becomes relevant to the plot:
Only two truths are allowed in a row - After two Truths, the next person is required to choose Dare.
This last rule is the one which kills the ending. The antagonist trickster demon Calex ends up playing the game with Olivia as the only other player. Markie was previous in the turn order and had just (accidentally, and very letter-of-the-law-ishly) completed her dare.
This leads to Calex entering the game and choosing "Truth". Olivia asks how to end the game, to which he states it's now impossible since prerequisites for a game ending ritual can no longer by fulfilled.
Olivia then invites thousands of people to the game at once, perpetuating it.
However: considering Olivia was willing to sacrifice both her and Markie's lives to end the game, the correct order of events should now be:
Olivia chooses Truth.
Markie's turn: Dare. Refuse to do this (As she's just refused a moment ago but accidentally completed the dare anyway) and thus die.
Calex: Either Dare, in which you dare him to end the game. Or Truth.
Olivia: Truth.
Calex: Now forced into a dare. Again, leading to an end to the game.
While not particularly scary, containing nothing more than the unsettlingly stretched facial features, it's a fun dark-thriller at best.
The frustration however comes in when the writers attempt to create a twist ending using a game with very strictly defined rules:
You tell the truth or you die You do the dare or you die Refuse to play and you die.
With an extra rule seemingly arbitrarily revealed only when it becomes relevant to the plot:
Only two truths are allowed in a row - After two Truths, the next person is required to choose Dare.
This last rule is the one which kills the ending. The antagonist trickster demon Calex ends up playing the game with Olivia as the only other player. Markie was previous in the turn order and had just (accidentally, and very letter-of-the-law-ishly) completed her dare.
This leads to Calex entering the game and choosing "Truth". Olivia asks how to end the game, to which he states it's now impossible since prerequisites for a game ending ritual can no longer by fulfilled.
Olivia then invites thousands of people to the game at once, perpetuating it.
However: considering Olivia was willing to sacrifice both her and Markie's lives to end the game, the correct order of events should now be:
Olivia chooses Truth.
Markie's turn: Dare. Refuse to do this (As she's just refused a moment ago but accidentally completed the dare anyway) and thus die.
Calex: Either Dare, in which you dare him to end the game. Or Truth.
Olivia: Truth.
Calex: Now forced into a dare. Again, leading to an end to the game.