Would You Rather

Plot synopsis:
Iris (Brittany Snow), a young woman caring for her sick brother Raleigh (Logan Miller), is unable to afford to his treatment costs. Dr. Barden (Lawrence Gilliard, Jr.), the doctor treating Raleigh, introduces Iris to Shepard Lambrick (Jeffrey Combs), a seemingly philanthropic aristocrat, who offers her a deal: if she competes and wins in a game, his charitable foundation will pay for Raleigh's leukemia treatment and locate him a bone marrow donor. Iris reluctantly accepts.Arriving at the Lambrick's manor, Iris is introduced to his son Julian (Robin Lord Taylor) and the remaining contestants: Lucas (Enver Gjokaj); Travis (Charlie Hofheimer), a war veteran; Linda (June Squibb), an elderly woman paralyzed in a wheelchair; Peter (Robb Wells), a gambling addict; Cal (Eddie Steeples); Amy (Sasha Grey); and Conway (John Heard), an in-debt alcoholic.When the contestants are seated and dinner is served, Iris points out she is a vegetarian and refuses to eat the meat on her plate. Seeing this as an opportunity to begin the game, Shepard offers Iris $10,000 to eat the meat, which Iris accepts. Conway reveals to Shepard he is a recovering alcoholic after Shepard notices he hasn't drunk any of the wine. Shepard offers him two choices: $10,000 for drinking the glass of wine, or $50,000 for drinking a decanter of scotch. Conway accepts the $50,000 and reluctantly drinks the scotch.After dinner ends, the game begins and is revealed to be a version of the popular party game, "Would You Rather?" in which the guests will actually have to complete their choice of two undesirable options. Shepard offers his guests the chance to leave, but no one does. Bevans (Jonny Coyne), Shepard's butler and former special agent, enters the room with an electric shock machine and two wired headbands. Conway attempts to escape but is shot by Bevans. In round one, one of the players wearing a headband is given a buzzer with two buttons: one button is a self-inflicted shock, and the second delivers a shock to the other player. After the contestants take turns making the tough decision, the round ends with no one eliminated.The second round begins. Iris is given the choice of stabbing someone in the thigh with an ice pick, or whipping Travis three times with a sjambok. Travis tells Iris to whip him as stabbing would be more life-threatening. Lucas also chooses to whip Travis for this reason. When it is Travis's turn, he has the choice of stabbing Lucas or letting Bevans whip him. Travis once again chooses to be whipped. The dilemma then travels to Peter, who may either stab Linda in the thigh or whip Travis again. Knowing Travis won't survive another round of whips, Peter tells Linda that they have to work together. Peter stabs Linda in the leg, but pierces a major vein causing her to bleed profusely. Linda chooses to stab Amy since she can't stand up to whip Travis. Linda later bleeds to death. As the turn heads to Amy, she points out that the point of the game is survival, ultimately choosing to stab Iris. Agreeing with Amy, Cal's turn sees him choosing to whip Travis, leading to Travis' elimination from the game.The group attempts to run away as the round ends. Iris is able to escape from the dining room, but Cal is shot and eliminated while the other three survivors are forced to stay at the dinner table. Iris attempts to escape through the basement, but is stopped by Julian who tries to rape her. She manages to stab him in the knee with the ice pick and fight him off as a remorseful Dr. Barden, who was once the winner of the same game, arrives to save Iris. Before he can do so, Bevans arrives, shoots Barden in the head and takes Iris back to the table for the third round.The third round begins, which involves making a decision between the known and the unknown. The known requires one to have their head held in a barrel of water for two minutes. The unknown carries an unknown fate, in the form of a card: it can be deadly or it can be relatively harmless. Peter goes first and chooses the card, which commands him to ignite a firecracker in his hand. Peter reluctantly complies, but dies from a cardiac arrest when his hand is blown off. The turn goes to Lucas, who is forced to slit open his eye with a razor blade. Iris chooses to challenge the barrel, and manages to survive the two minutes. It is then revealed that Iris would have had all her teeth extracted if she had picked the card. Amy decides to go with the card, but the card reveals that she has to spend four minutes in the barrel instead of two. Amy drowns to death, mostly due to the start being called as she was opening her mouth to take a breath.The fourth round starts, with only Iris and Lucas left. Iris has the choice of sparing Lucas, and letting the two of them leave empty handed, or she has the choice of killing Lucas with a duelling pistol and taking the money to save her brother's life. Lucas attempts to talk Iris into sparing him, and begins to tell her why he came into the competition. As he pours out his heart and compares the struggles of his family to Iris's brother, Iris suddenly shoots Lucas in the chest, killing him. Shepard crowns Iris the winner and allows her to leave with the money, additionally stating they have already located a donor for her brother.Iris finds Raleigh asleep on his bed and proceeds to shower the blood off her. Upon further observation, she finds that Raleigh has committed suicide by overdosing on his medication. The film ends with Iris grieving over her brother's corpse, screaming, "What did you do?!"

Tags: mystery, cruelty, realism, murder, stupid, horror, suspenseful, sadist

Review:
The ending also felt so flat that it could hardly produce sympathy from the audience, an attempt to cater to the twist-necessitating crowd that has been delved since Saw's low budget first film hit our eyes.
the characters really don't hold much "character" at all), I did enjoy this suspense/horror film because it wasn't just another gore flick.This movie is, though sick, a very interesting look into the minds of people socially/internally/psychologically.
Overall, I do think the lack of character did make for problems; however, I would absolutely recommend this movie- more so, if you like psychological movies and/or enjoy taking a step back to look at your own mind and the choices you would have made..
It turned into a movie where you could predict every move up until the end.To me it kind of felt like hostel where if more time and effort had been taken it could have been really good and got the audience invested but sadly it was not the case.When watching a film like this I kind of hope to see the torture at hand but this movie lacked in this aspect.
Starring Brittany Snow (Pitch Perfect), Sasha Grey (my personal hard drive), Robb Wells (Hobo with a Shotgun), and John Heard (Home Alone), Would You Rather gathers a group of strangers for a wealthy aristocrat, played by Jeffrey Combs (Re-Animator) who pits his guests against each other in sadistic games where they have to choose between two options – each of which can either cause pain or death to themselves or another guest.So guests are put in awkward positions of having to decide whether to electrocute themselves or someone else or whether to whip a guest or stab another.
The goal is to become the last person standing and the reward differs on the needs of each individual.The main character to which the movie focuses around the table is Iris (Snow).
Still, the script by Steffen Schlachtenhaufen (Primal) is interesting enough in various character developments.Not likely to make many Top 10 lists by year's end, Would You Rather still offers valued entertainment and a few good self-inflicted wounds along the way.
Desperate to help her ailing brother, a young woman unknowingly agrees to compete in a deadly game of "Would You Rather," hosted by a sadistic aristocrat.Would You Rather is a leading contender of the most angst and depressing filled horror film of 2013.
Other things lacking from this film include plot, character development, and competent acting and scriptwriting.The reviews calling this a character study are way off the mark.
People don't seem to really like this movie, but I think that's because it shows us a side of human nature we don't really want to see.
No cheap thrills or gore-for-the-sake-of-gore here -- which in itself is always refreshing when it comes to modern horror movies.There were a few unique twists and turns, but not enough to call it a strikingly original feature.I would still recommend this as a watch, if only on a day you can't find anything decidedly better and really need to get your horror fix.
Just like others described it, it's Saw at a dinner table.Willing to do anything to get the money she needs to help her dying brother, Iris (Brittany Snow) signs up for a game of "Would You Rather" unaware that it isn't just any typical party game, it's a competition to the death.Alright, I have to admit it had my attention the whole time, something very unusual for dumb movies like these, it's just that a couple of characters in the dinner table were kind of cool people and not just the annoying cynical horror movie characters I'm getting used to by now.I liked the moral choices the characters had to face during the movie, it wasn't paying that much attention to the gory aspects, but instead to what they're going to decide to do to get out of there alive.
What I didn't like about it was the performances, specially the bad guy who was trying too hard to rip-off Dennis Hopper's character in "Blue Velvet" and some scenes were just amateur and silly.I'd recommend it to anyone who liked "The Hunger Games", "Saw", "Sinister", and/or "Battle Royale" (it isn't as good as any of those movies though)..
Desperate to help her ailing brother, a young woman (Brittany Snow) unknowingly agrees to compete in a deadly game of "Would You Rather," hosted by a sadistic aristocrat (Jeffrey Combs).There are two issues I have with this film that I would like to get out of the way from the beginning: first, the complete implausibility of the whole thing.
Some might put this in the "torture porn" subgenre of horror, but I felt like it never sunk to the depths of "Hostel" or the later "Saw" films.
Her character (Amy) is the wild card that brings the situation towards complete chaos, and that is where the game gets challenging.No masterpiece by any means, but with the right editing, this could have been a slightly stronger film.
As anyone who is even remotely of this ever-present media plague's existence, she has had her breathing passage obstructed for much longer than that and lived to tell the tale, to all our chagrin.The "twist" ending is the thought creation of the kind of people who are as stupid and unimaginative as their low IQ audience.Watch "Se7en" instead, not this piece of amateurish tripe.
I just saw this film and all i have to say is i got bored out of my mind!!I did not like the script at all..The most exciting thing about this movie was that a porn star was in it and that's it!!Jeffrey Combs seemed like he was bored,the guests were random and Britney was the only one who gave it some effort..well at least she tried..This movie tries to show how far people can actually go for the money.I found the tortures rather boring and if i had to watch a torture movie then i would go for Hostel or Saw..this movie did not cover me at all so as you can guess i don't recommend it to anyone unless you have absolutely nothing else to do or see....
Their constant changing of the rules makes clear they intend not to study the limits of human interaction but rather to enjoy the suffering of others for what appears to be absolutely no feasible end.It's a shame because the concept of the film would have been exciting had it been properly thought through - in the vein of the earlier Saw films the "game" could have been an effort at redemption but instead revolves around escalating rounds of torture porn without imagination.
While its obviously your prerogative to watch 30mins of a film, but that it in no way whatsoever qualifies as sufficient in terms of giving any meaningful or even relevant review, opinion, or commentary about said film.This film by no means was an excellent, stand out horror movie, but I must correct the extreme misinformation that the above review states.
Because if you have seen them(rather than mere minutes of a film and then proceed to offer a review and critique) you would have a very real understanding and actual knowledge of what torture porn is and most importantly(re: the subject at hand) you would realize that this movie doesn't even begin to qualify for that tough to digest category..Again, my intent is not to give a raving review of this mediocre film, but rather to correct extreme misinformation stated in the above review.
The writer and other creative members responsible for this piece of trash display no understanding of what made those movies compelling and watchable despite their harsh (much harsher than in this movie) content.I wouldn't call any of those movies great works of art, but in order to use an analogy in proper proportion to just how pointless and vapid and terrible this movie is, if Hostel was a Monet, Would You Rather would be an untalented 3-year old's finger-painting, but lacking whatever small bit of charm the average such finger painting might have.Poor acting and cinematography and offensively bad writing, with characters and entire sub-plots, shallow as they were, dropping out with no notice and no actual justification within the story to have ever been there in the first place other than to pad screen time.Big fan of loveablely bad movies; this one's just offensively bad, and a waste of time and celluloid/digital data..
It's difficult to know if David Guy Levy's film is taking the rise out of the current horror market's propensity for torture porn, or if it is as it seems, a lazy exploitation flic pandering to an undemanding audience?Eight strangers with financial problems are invited to the mansion of rich nutter Shepard Lambrick (Jeffrey Combs) to partake in a game, the winner of which will get their utmost requirements met.What starts out as a promising piece soon descends into a boorish reliance on shock tactics as the guests are required to do "unspeakable" things to each other.
The premise is interesting; what would you be willing to do/risk to have a big problem in your life solved - and if something seems too good to be true, well, it usually is.Our main character is given a vague offer and she ends up attending a dinner party, before which all participants are still given the chance to leave if they wish to back out.
The movie starts out fine, really good acting and characters but a bit slow and you could lose interest easily.
Combs was a very strong actor and really made the movie more interesting, and he did make it seem like at the beginning that the game wasn't going to be too bad, but wow is that wrong.
Iris must make time sensitive choices under gruelling conditions if she is to survive and help her brother.This film brings with it an interesting look into the human mind and the choices that people make whilst under duress, taking into account values, morals, and the basic human instinct to survive..
It's that system that gives the film its story, how far would a girl go to change her brother's life.It starts off fairly mild, then gets more and more grim, without being visually gratuitous, that I think benefits the viewer, leaving the imagination do its work.
You feel the enjoyment the twisted benefactor Shepard Lambrick gets from each 'game,' Jeffrey Combs is undoubtedly the standout in the film, but Robin Lord Taylor and Brittany Snow also stand out.I wouldn't say it's ultimately satisfying, but it's still a good watch..
I went in to the move expecting to see gore, because the movie is a torture film, but I barely saw any blood.
In the genre it's really easy to lapse into over-the-top histrionics or fall into clichés of the genre, which are too numerous to mention and for readers of this review, you probably know what they are anyway.It's an ensemble cast of eight people who show up at a mysterious dinner given by an extremely wealthy man who offers promises of financial help if they are willing to take part in a "game." That premise alone would normally send up glaring red flags, but it's clear that all the dinner guests are taken in by the host's (skillfully portrayed by Jeffrey Combs) polite and convivial manner.While it is an ensemble cast, the script and cinematography benefit from being told through a desperate young woman's eyes (Iris, portrayed by Brittany Snow).
There are enough twists and turns to make the story even more compelling and when the "game" starts after a luscious dinner, the plot gets cranking.The movie's only shortcoming, at least to me, was the generic musical score.
If you have a chance to watch either "Cheap Thrills" or this film, I would advocate for Cheap Thrills, as it is very well done, has better writing, characters, and includes some great humor to balance out all the psychological torture, violence, and gore.
I found myself waiting for them to get to the point, rather than to see what would happen.Overall, to me, this is a movie only worth watching if you've long anticipated seeing it or have a particular love for one of the actors.
Really makes you think what would you rather do in that situation.I won't spoil too much, but although a lot of people might disagree with the ending, I find it perfectly ironic and goes well with the theme of the movie.Surprisingly very good!
The multiple twists are foreseeable in that you know they're coming, but you just aren't entirely sure how many, when, and what they are.Many others I've seen or heard comment stated that the film could've benefited from building more backstory into characters other than Iris.
If you like seeing just how sadistic and twisted people can be, this is the movie for you.Anyone who's played the game "Would you Rather" knows what it's all about.
But the real game, unlike the movie, sometimes has two good things to choose from like would you rather be able to fly or have super-strength.
Well, Would You Rather was one of the most discomforting movies I've had the pleasure of seeing.I have watched intensely gory movies, films with the express purpose of disgusting the viewer or making them physically ill, and essentially every horror flick I could get my hands on from a young age on...but this movie was deeply unsettling.At its core, it's a story of human nature and kin selection, forcing the viewer to question just how far we might go for those we love...but it's so much more than that too.The cast was fantastic.
All in all, a pretty decent film that can be uncomfortable to watch at times, and might make you think what you might do in that situation.
I don't really believe these kind of torture-porn movies reflect a depressing study of human behavior because, let's be honest, the chance of ending up in situations like these are fairly inexistent.
I was fairly surprises that for the SAW-like genre, this movie didn't try to scare you with lots of blood and guts, the tension builds up really well at some point as to make you want to bite your nails.
The film is really low budget and amateurish at times (in acting, cheesy music, melodrama, etc.) but it's sick and twisted enough to make it plenty interesting for horror fans.Snow stars as Iris, a young woman who desperately wants to find funding to get her brother Raleigh (Logan Miller), who's sick with leukemia, the medical treatment he needs.
But when the main movie starts, which is a demented kind of "Ten Little Indians," the acting thins out terribly, and the writing gets lame.What is meant to be interesting and is hard to get into because of the brutal gore is a kind of mind game amongst a group of "contestants." They've been mysteriously invited to a dinner and game by a demented seeming man who offers them a lot of money.
There's never any real reason to care about whether they live or die, as it become pretty predictable what their fates will be.The only thing that really motivates one to continue watching are the surprise "games" that characters must play and a satisfactory ending.
You should watch this movie if: -You like sadistic movies but aren't too thrown off by predictable -You can enjoy a low-budget horror film without a stick up your butt -You want to see Sasha Grey do a really good job at acting -You don't mind not getting to know every character.
-You actually prefer not getting to know every character(like me) So I voted it a 9 out of 10 because as far as bad horror movies so it's the best.
To finish up, if you like films where people will do anything for money and watching some good ol' horror cruelty then watch this...if you wanna know why they are doing it for money however...you will not find out.
There are intense scenes that brings the viewer to be in the place of the characters and to decide their reaction instead of them, although the actors performance are not so surprising neither extraordinary, specially the performance of Jeffrey Combs, who plays the roe of the magnate Shepard Lambrick but that looks like a clown in the movie with a completely unnatural acting.
Nevertheless is a good movie to watch and learn what a human being is able to do for money ...the real thing.
Would You Rather (2012)*** 1/2 (out of 4) Extremely good horror/thriller about a woman (Brittany Snow) and eight others needing financial help out of their problems and agreeing to take part in a "game." This game turns out to be the title where the sadistic host (Jeffrey Combs) makes them select whether to hurt themselves or others playing the game.
Watchable, But Only For Fun. If you only expect a fun popcorn horror out of this movie, you won't be entirely disappointed with this film.But even then, it's not that good.
"Would you rather...?"I've never considered movies like this to be horror films because for me there has to be actual scares involved and not just gory scenes.
I have played this game with my family, albeit not in the sadistic way we're privy to here.I liked the beginning - how the story was established, and how it introduced it's main character and her situation.
Some of the acting is pretty lame, but surprisingly Jeffrey Combs, who is usually pretty over the top with some of his stuff, does a really fine job of playing a sadistic, bloodthirsty host and he is actually the best one in the film.Would You Rather isn't too bad of a movie to watch and as long as you don't expect anything amazing then you'll be fine..