Choose or Die

Last updated

Choose or Die
Choose or Die film poster.png
Official release poster
Directed byToby Meakins
Written byToby Meakins
Simon Allen
Matthew James Wilkinson
Story byToby Meakins
Produced by
  • Matthew James Wilkinson
  • Sebastien Raybaud
  • John Zois
Starring
CinematographyCatherine Derry
Edited by
  • Tommy Boulding
  • Mark Towns
Music by Liam Howlett
Production
companies
  • Anton
  • Stigma Films
Distributed by Netflix
Release date
  • 15 April 2022 (2022-04-15)
Running time
84 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Choose or Die (formerly titled CURS>R) [1] is a 2022 English horror thriller film directed by Toby Meakins in his feature directorial debut. [2] The film stars Iola Evans, Asa Butterfield, Robert Englund and Eddie Marsan. [3]

Contents

Choose or Die was released on 15 April 2022 by Netflix. [1]

Plot

Hal, a married man with a dysfunctional family who is a collector of retro video games, receives a copy of an interactive fiction computer game called CURS>R. Hal installs the game and starts to play, expecting it to be nothing more than a classic 1980s text-based adventure game. However, when the objects around him begin to interact with the game, he realises it is something more, culminating in his wife Laura cutting out their son Gabe's tongue.

Three months later, college student Kayla is working as a cleaner to pay for her studies. She provides new and old technology to her computer-geek friend, Isaac, who in return helps her learn to code so that she can gain sufficient skills for her classes. Kayla's mother, Thea, has become a drug addict after the death of her son Ricky, and also suffers psychological and sexual abuse from her rent collector, Lance, who supplies her with drugs and forces her into prostitution in exchange for not being evicted from her apartment.

One day while visiting Isaac after work, Kayla discovers the CURS>R game in his apartment, along with a phone number offering a $125,000 prize. She calls the number and receives a recorded message from the Terror Director telling her to complete the game and insert the number code at the end of it to win the money. Attracted by the offer, Kayla accepts the challenge, thinking it will be easy money, and arranges a deal with Isaac to share the prize. That night, Kayla starts playing the game in a café and discovers that it can interfere with reality in different ways —the game level ending with a waitress eating broken glass and dying. The next day, Kayla tries to stop the game by destroying the tape. She tells Isaac what happened, but he finds her story hard to believe.

Later, while Kayla is working a graveyard shift, her mother desperately calls her for help. Kayla discovers that CURS>R has managed to escape to the net and is following her, forcing her to choose ways to save her mother from a giant rat. Thea eventually falls from her bedroom window and, severely injured, ends up in hospital. Later that night, Kayla goes to Isaac's apartment and together they try to discover the mystery behind the game. They find a sort of code in the sound of CURS>R, in an unknown language, and theorise it is what allows the game to interact with the real world. Together they manage to survive the night after the game exploits Kayla's trauma over the death of her brother, who drowned in a public pool. Isaac and Kayla hack the prize number to a storage facility where the game was created. In recording sessions of the making of CURS>R, they discover that the creator of the game, Beck, found a curse in different symbols and embedded the codes into the game to gain more benefits by using the suffering of gamers. When they discover the code needed, the game traps Isaac and forces Kayla to choose in order to save him, but ends up killing him.

The game orders Kayla to "beat the boss" and gives her a set of coordinates to follow that lead her to Hal's house, now a cruel man who tortures Laura and Gabe. Hal explains that he never ended the game and after two levels, it promised to leave them alone if he made more copies of it. The game then orders both Kayla and Hal to fight while reversing the pain that each experiences; i.e., if Hal is hurt, Kayla feels it and if Kayla is hurt, Hal feels it. An intense fight ensues, during which Hal is drowned and Kayla barely manages to survive. Kayla receives the game prize, which enables her to take total control of the curse. She uses this ability to kill Lance, which heals both herself and her mother. It is then revealed that the building in which Kayla worked is owned by Beck, who asks her who is next to suffer. Kayla answers that it will be only the ones who deserve to.

Cast

Production

In June 2021, it was announced that Butterfield, Evans and Marsan were cast in the film. [4]

Filming occurred in London and concluded in April 2021. [5]

On 30 March 2022, it was announced that the Prodigy's Liam Howlett would compose the musical score. [6]

Release

Netflix acquired worldwide distribution rights to the film in July 2021. [7] [8]

Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 30% of 43 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.00/10.The website's consensus reads: "Flickers of frightening promise are muffled by an excessively franchise-focused story in Choose or Die, with frustratingly forgettable results." [9] Metacritic , which uses a weighted average , assigned the film a score of 43 out of 100, based on 13 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. [10] [11]

Benjamin Lee of The Guardian awarded the film two stars out of five and wrote, "It's a film destined to live its days in the 'if you like' container." [12]

Josh Bell of Comic Book Resources gave the film a negative review, calling it "a disposable, forgettable modern horror movie that lacks the creativity and ingenuity of its rudimentary text-based inspirations." [13] Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com awarded the film one and a half stars and wrote, "Choose or Die too often feels like it's making itself up as it goes along." [14] Adam Graham of The Detroit News graded the film a "D" and called it a "cheap horror exercise that's forgotten before the end credits roll." [15]

Jude Dry of IndieWire graded the film a B+. [16] Ryan Leston of IGN gave the film a mixed review and wrote, "But beneath this terror-filled glimpse of the '80s lies not much more than a bog-standard horror flick. The scares are soon replaced with a meandering plot that doesn't quite know what it's doing, held together with obscure twists that would only make sense in a low-budget retro text adventure. Asa Butterfield brings a solid performance alongside Evans, but there's little either of them can do to save Choose or Die. Game over, man. Game over." [17]

Dennis Harvey of Variety gave the film a negative review and wrote, "Even the smallest feature-length film is a considerable logistical enterprise, so it's a bit flummoxing how little thought appears to have been put into Choose or Die." [18]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Englund</span> American actor and director (born 1947)

Robert Barton Englund is an American actor and director. Englund is best known for playing the villain Freddy Krueger in the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise and Willie in the V television franchise (1983-1985). Englund has received multiple accolades and honors, including a Saturn Award, a Fangoria Chainsaw Award, as well as a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

<i>Isle of the Dead</i> (film) 1945 film by Mark Robson

Isle of the Dead is a 1945 American horror film directed by Mark Robson and made for RKO Radio Pictures by producer Val Lewton. The film's script was inspired by the painting Isle of the Dead by Arnold Böcklin, which appears behind the title credits, though the film was originally titled Camilla during production. It was written by frequent Lewton collaborator Ardel Wray. It starred Boris Karloff. Isle of the Dead was the second of three films Lewton made with Karloff, and the fourth of five pictures Robson directed for Lewton.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peyton List (actress, born 1998)</span> American actress (born 1998)

Peyton Roi List is an American actress. List began her career as a child model for tween magazines and companies before transitioning to acting. List made her acting debut, as a child actress, in the 2008 film 27 Dresses, and played Holly Hills in the 2011–2012 Diary of a Wimpy Kid film series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brandon Soo Hoo</span> American actor (born 1995)

Brandon Soo Hoo is an American actor and martial artist known for playing Tran in the 2008 film Tropic Thunder and for his series regular role on the Cartoon Network sketch comedy series Incredible Crew. Soo Hoo played Scott Fuller on the El Rey Network horror-drama series From Dusk till Dawn: The Series, based on the film of the same name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Asa Butterfield</span> English actor (born 1996)

Asa Bopp Farr Butterfield is an English actor. He has received nominations for three British Independent Film Awards, two Critics' Choice Awards, two Saturn Awards, and three Young Artist Awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kiernan Shipka</span> American actress (b. 1999)

Kiernan Brennan Shipka is an American actress, best known for her roles as Sally Draper in the AMC drama series Mad Men (2007–2015), and Sabrina Spellman in the Netflix fantasy series Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (2018–2020) and the sixth season of The CW series Riverdale (2021–2022).

<i>Children of the Corn</i> (1984 film) Film by Fritz Kiersch

Children of the Corn is a 1984 American supernatural horror film based on Stephen King's 1977 short story of the same name. Directed by Fritz Kiersch, the film's cast consists of Peter Horton, Linda Hamilton, John Franklin, Courtney Gains, Robby Kiger, Anne Marie McEvoy, Julie Maddalena, and R. G. Armstrong. Set in the fictitious rural town of Gatlin, Nebraska, the film tells the story of a malevolent entity referred to as "He Who Walks Behind the Rows" which entices the town's children to ritually murder all the town's adults, as well as a couple driving across the country, to ensure a successful corn harvest.

Finlay Lewis J. Cole is an English actor. He is known for his role as Michael Gray in the BBC series Peaky Blinders (2014–2022). He also starred as Joshua "J" Cody in TNT's Animal Kingdom (2016–2022) and played young Jakob Toretto in the film F9 (2021).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Natalia Dyer</span> American actress (born 1995)

Natalia Danielle Dyer is an American actress. She is known for starring as Nancy Wheeler in the Netflix science fiction horror series Stranger Things (2016–present). She has also appeared in the Peacock comedy thriller series Based on a True Story (2023) and in the films Yes, God, Yes (2019), Velvet Buzzsaw (2019) and Things Heard & Seen (2021).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jo Hartley</span> British actress (born 1972)

Joanne Victoria Hartley is an English actress who has appeared in the films This Is England, The Young Victoria, Eddie the Eagle, Slaughterhouse Rulez and Torvill & Dean and in British television series This Is England '86, Not Safe For Work, After Life, Bliss, In My Skin, Sweetheart (2021) and Bank of Dave (2023).

<i>Slaughterhouse Rulez</i> 2018 film

Slaughterhouse Rulez is a 2018 comedy horror film directed by Crispian Mills. Written by Mills and Henry Fitzherbert, the film's cast features Asa Butterfield, Finn Cole, Hermione Corfield, Michael Sheen, with Nick Frost and Simon Pegg.

Sex Education is a British teen sex comedy drama television series created by Laurie Nunn for Netflix. It follows the lives of the teenagers and adults in the fictional town of Moordale as they contend with various personal dilemmas, often related to sexual intimacy. It stars an ensemble cast that includes Asa Butterfield, Gillian Anderson, Ncuti Gatwa, Emma Mackey, Connor Swindells, Kedar Williams-Stirling, Alistair Petrie, Mimi Keene, and Aimee Lou Wood.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emma Mackey</span> British-French actress (born c. 1996)

Emma Margaret Marie Tachard-Mackey is a British and French actress. Her breakthrough performance in the Netflix comedy-drama series Sex Education (2019–2023) earned her a British Academy Television Award nomination. Mackey has since starred in the mystery film Death on the Nile (2022) and portrayed Emily Brontë in the drama film Emily (2022). She won the BAFTA Rising Star Award in 2023.

<i>Fear Street Part Three: 1666</i> 2021 American film directed by Leigh Janiak

Fear Street Part Three: 1666 is a 2021 American supernatural horror film directed by Leigh Janiak, who co-wrote the screenplay with Phil Graziadei and Kate Trefry. Based on the book series of the same name by R. L. Stine, it is the third and final installment of the Fear Street trilogy after Part One: 1994 and Part Two: 1978 and stars Kiana Madeira, Ashley Zukerman, Gillian Jacobs, Olivia Scott Welch, Benjamin Flores Jr., and Darrell Britt-Gibson. The film follows the origins of Shadyside's curse in the mid-17th century and the survivors in 1994 who try to put an end to it.

<i>Straight Outta Nowhere: Scooby-Doo! Meets Courage the Cowardly Dog</i> 2021 animated film by Cecilia Aranovich Hamilton

Straight Outta Nowhere: Scooby-Doo! Meets Courage the Cowardly Dog is a 2021 American animated comedy film produced by Warner Bros. Animation, and is the thirty-sixth entry in the direct-to-video series of Scooby-Doo films. The film is a crossover between Scooby-Doo and the Cartoon Network show Courage the Cowardly Dog. The film was released on DVD and Digital on September 14, 2021.

<i>Flux Gourmet</i> 2022 film

Flux Gourmet is a 2022 black comedy film written and directed by Peter Strickland and starring Fatma Mohamed, Gwendoline Christie, Makis Papadimitriou, Ariane Labed, and Asa Butterfield.

Sacrilege is a 2020 British folk horror film written and directed by David Creed and produced by Mark Kenna.

<i>All Fun and Games</i> 2023 film by Ari Costa & Eren Celeboglu

All Fun and Games is a 2023 American horror film written by Ari Costa, Eren Celeboglu and JJ Braider, directed by Costa and Celeboglu and starring Asa Butterfield and Natalia Dyer. It is Costa and Celeboglu's feature directorial debut.

Iola Muthoni Catherine Evans is a British actress. Her films include Choose or Die and Out of Darkness.

References

  1. 1 2 Navarro, Meagan (3 February 2022). "Netflix Asks You to 'Choose or Die' With Robert Englund This April". Bloody Disgusting . Retrieved 10 February 2022.
  2. 1 2 Bone, Angelique (9 July 2021). "Netflix Acquires Survival Game Horror Movie CURS>R at Cannes". Dread Central . Retrieved 4 August 2021.
  3. ↑ Hamman, Cody (13 July 2021). "Curs>r: Asa Butterfield, Robert Englund star in Netflix release". JoBlo.com . Retrieved 6 August 2021.
  4. ↑ Ritman, Alex (7 June 2021). "'Sex Education' Star Asa Butterfield Joins '80s-Inspired Horror Film 'Curs>r'". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved 6 August 2021.
  5. ↑ Barraclough, Leo (8 July 2021). "Netflix Picks Up Worldwide Rights to Horror Film 'Curs>r,' Starring Asa Butterfield". Variety . Retrieved 4 August 2021.
  6. ↑ Aubrey, Elizabeth (30 March 2022). "The Prodigy's Liam Howlett to score new horror film, 'Choose Or Die'". NME .
  7. ↑ Wiseman, Andreas (8 July 2021). "Netflix Swoops On World Rights To Asa Butterfield Horror Film 'CURS>R' In Multimillion-Dollar Deal – Cannes Market". Deadline Hollywood . Retrieved 4 August 2021.
  8. ↑ Squires, John (8 July 2021). "Netflix Buys World Rights to Horror Movie 'CURS>R' Starring Asa Butterfield and Robert Englund". Bloody Disgusting. Retrieved 6 August 2021.
  9. ↑ "Choose or Die". Rotten Tomatoes . Fandango Media . Retrieved 7 July 2022.
  10. ↑ "Choose or Die". Metacritic . Fandom, Inc.
  11. ↑ "Choose or Die Reviews". Metacritic . Fandom, Inc. Retrieved 2 May 2022.
  12. ↑ Lee, Benjamin (15 April 2022). "Choose or Die review – gory Netflix video game horror". The Guardian . Retrieved 15 April 2022.
  13. ↑ Bell, Josh (15 April 2022). "Choose or Die's Killer Video Game Delivers Cheap, Forgettable Horror". Comic Book Resources . Retrieved 15 April 2022.
  14. ↑ Tallerico, Brian (15 April 2022). "Choose or Die". RogerEbert.com . Retrieved 15 April 2022.
  15. ↑ Graham, Adam (15 April 2022). "'Choose or Die' review: No good choices in retro-gaming horror movie". The Detroit News . Retrieved 15 April 2022.
  16. ↑ Dry, Jude (15 April 2022). "'Choose or Die' Review: A Cursed '80s Video Game Bites Back in Clever Netflix Horror". IndieWire . Retrieved 15 April 2022.
  17. ↑ Leston, Ryan (15 April 2022). "Choose or Die Review". IGN . Retrieved 15 April 2022.
  18. ↑ Harvey, Dennis (15 April 2022). "'Choose or Die' Review: A Video Game Kills Without Rhyme or Reason in This Disposable Netflix Horror". Variety. Retrieved 15 April 2022.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.