Netflix's "Choose or Die" wants to be "Saw" so badly that it fails to develop its own identity. Sure, it uses retro video games as a narrative impetus, but so what? Video games have been used as cinematic inspiration for decades, and Toby Meakins' directorial debut crashes without a complete call stack.
The film follows Kayla (Iola Evans), an academic dropout living in a rundown apartment with her ailing mother (Angela Griffin), torn from her young son's accidental drowning years back. This sad state of events is all the emotional drive the picture offers, as our heroine is otherwise devoid of personality outside, oh yeah, she's a wannabe coder.
Their creepy landlord (Ryan Gage) is another problem all-together: present for plot convenience and some hammy acting, there is no mention as to how a man who deals in illicit vices (including but probably not limited to prostitution and drugs) is never reported to the police. He's a tertiary character in desperate need of an explanation, unless it's some vague commentary on today's society. Tsk tsk, if only "Choose or Die" was that clever.
No, instead Kayla and her derpy "boyfriend not boyfriend" Isaac (Asa Butterfield) stumble upon a vintage computer cassette called "CURS>R," one with a "prize for beating it."(Wonder if the 80's cash reward is adjusted for inflation...) Enough money to move her and her mom out from the slummy residence she must think, since she snatches the tape and tells Isaac to meet her at a local diner at 2am. Why 2am? Why a diner? Why not then and now? I dunno, maybe I nodded off from overeating during Easter brunch.
Without spoiling much, the game is cursed (ahem, "curs>d"), forcing the poor player to choose between two options. Are they both bad choices? I dunno, but we see someone eat glass, chased by a giant rat, get their tongue cut out, and more. Yet for how strikingly similar it is to the aforementioned "Saw" franchise, "Choose or Die" is surprisingly light on onscreen gore, instead simply suggesting what happened. Yet instead of helping build suspense or create an atmosphere, it feels like a decision made for budgetary reasons. I don't know how much money the filmmakers had to work with, but this looks no more expensive than your average episode of Full House, and just about as frightening. (The hairspray! The shoulder pads! The horror!)
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