If the idea of Jumanji got combined with the violence from Saw, then filtered through a stand-up arcade machine, you’d have the new Netflix film Choose or Die. From director Toby Meakins and writer Simon Allen, Choose or Die stars Iola Evans (The 100) and Asa Butterfield (Ender’s Game) as two people who stumble upon an old video game that’s not what it appears to be.
First of all, winning can apparently result in an actual cash prize. But more urgently, what these two gamers don’t realize is that the stakes are deadly—and that’s where things take a turn for the worse. Check out the trailer to see for yourself.
So hopefully you see what we mean. It’s like a video game sucks the characters in, a la Jumanji, with the violence (eating glass, poking needles into bad places) of Saw, but there’s also a healthy dose of creepypastas, such as the urban legend surrounding the game Polybius. Basically it looks like Allen and Meakens threw that all in a blender (oh god, please no blender scenes) and out popped this intense, gory-looking horror film.
The cast also includes everyman Eddie Marsan (Deadpool 2, The World’s End, V for Vendetta) and, according to Netflix’s press release, Robert Englund. Yes, Freddy Krueger. IMDB lists England as playing himself, which seems odd, but not more odd than a video game that can impact reality. So that should be exciting to see.
Ultimately though, Choose or Die is going to face the exact same problem of its title. It’s a Netflix film, meaning either everyone chooses it in its first week or two and it becomes a sensation, or it dies in obscurity because it didn’t garner enough buzz. We’ll find out in a few short weeks which fate this intriguing horror film has.
Choose or Die drops on Netflix April 15.
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