If you happened to walk into any Mom 'n Pop video store in the 80's (or a West Coast Video for that matter) there's no doubt that you saw a copy of Tim Ritter's Truth or Dare sitting on the shelf in the horror section. Billed as the original 'made for home video' film, Truth or Dare was an 80's video store staple. I'm not going to bore you with the details (plenty of 'em are included on the disc extras) but there were rights issues and an age discrepancy led Ritter to have to fight to keep his name on the credits. Truth or Dare has been somewhat of a hard find in recent years, but thanks to the folks at Sub Rosa, the film and some interesting extras make an appearance on DVD.

Michael Strauber isn't having a good day, and it's not about to get any better. He returns home from work to find his wife balling his friend Jerry, saddened by the lack of compassion they show him, he storms off after his wife tells him to "start fresh, find some friends". Well, Mike finds a friend in a busty hitchhiker he picks up and the two decide to go camping (makes sense to me). Sitting out in the woods by the fire, guess what these crazy kids decide to do? That's right, play a friendly game of Truth or Dare! During the course of the game the hitchhiker convinces Mike to cut off a finger, cut open his chest and rip out his tongue (makes sense to me!). It's at this point that the audience realizes that 'somethin' just ain't right!'

13-months later and Mike is being released from a mental hospital because of "over crowding and budget cuts." Well, Mike obviously still isn't "well" as he heads straight over to his ex-wife's place successfully slicing her lover Jerry but winds up missing his wife 'by that much.' Jerry is placed into the hospital again, and manages to orchestrate another game of truth or dare with a few of the other patients. Mike convinces one of the guys to slice off his arm and leg while another blows his head up by placing a grenade in his mouth (Asbestos Felt of Killing Spree) while the orderlies arrive just in time to find Mike slicing off sections of his face. Mike is placed in solitary, now wearing a creepy copper mask, but these walls still can't hold him as Mike manages a bloody escape and his rein of terror continues on the streets.

As with Ritter's latter effort Killing Spree (review here) Truth or Dare is a far cry from substantial filmmaking. 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 (but of course) and while there are attempts to create sympathetic characters (some of the hospital moments / unnatural deaths are handled quite well) we never really get too far past pure exploitation mode. Part of the mish mash lies within the fact that too many hands were dipping into the pot and according to Ritter there were second units shooting scenes he wasn't aware of as well as other scenes that weren't even shot at all. There's something to be said for satisfying 80's cheese though and Truth or Dare is definitely that (Ritter goes into full detail on all of these production problems in the discs extras). I hadn't seen the film since I was a teen, yet I was surprised at how much I actually remembered as I recently re watched the flick.

Quality wise, I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't a bit disappointed. While originally shot on 16mm film, this DVD was obviously pulled from a video source - a direct transfer from film would have probably done wonders. As it stands now, the original source material was in pretty good shape with only a few nicks here and there, but the noise from the video transfer is what really does it in. Colors are OK, but are fairly dull considering the source material. It's a shame, because a direct transfer really could have given Truth or Dare new lease on life. It's mentioned in the extras that these are really the best materials that happen to still exist.

Audio is presented in a Dolby 2.0 mix and is fairly satisfying. There is some slight evidence of background hiss, but overall, dialogue (along with the crazy 80's synth score) is more than acceptable.

Extras include trailers for Truth or Dare 1, 2 & 3 and an excellent featurette called Reflections on Truth or Dare as told by director Tim Ritter with a background of behind the scenes footage and stills (approx 17-minutes). Last up is a full-length commentary with Director Tim Ritter and two guests, a prison guard (?) and Webmaster of b-independent.com. While the track plays off as an MST3K skit from time to time there are some interesting points brought up and Ritter is quite interesting to listen to. Although it was a bit perplexing to see that Ritter was a bit confused by the 1.85:1 framing on the DVD, as was I.

If it weren't for the lackluster presentation, Truth or Dare would have been a candidate for a higher recommendation. As it stands now, fans of the film should be prepared to view Truth or Dare looking EXACTLY the way they remembered. As usual with Sub Rosa, the extras are fairly spectacular and extremely entertaining. If there's a reason that you should pick up Truth or Dare, it's because of Tim Ritter's passion for the genre and for the opportunity to hear his stories and see bits and pieces of what and 18-year old horror fan can accomplish with the odds stacked against him.

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