Netflix film ChooseOrDie promises a retro horror story, but never fully commits to the potential of its '80s gaming premise.
I can say with some degree of certainty that I am the target audience for Choose or Die, the Netflix film from director Toby Meakins about a woman whose decision to play an obscure, text-based survival game from the 1980s sets off a nightmarish adventure.
Directed by Meakins from a script penned by Simon Allen , Choose Or Die casts Iola Evans as Kayla, a broke computer-science student whose best friend Isaac, played by Hugo and Ender’s Game star Asa Butterfield, finds a rare, unopened copy of CURS>R, a horror game from the ’80s. Intrigued by the still-unclaimed prize money the game offers anyone who can finish it, Kayla restores the game and begins to play it.
Sadly, as Kayla gets pulled deeper into the game’s gruesome challenges, the film abandons the more retro elements of her interface with the game, pivoting to her smartphone and various other pieces of tech around her. Eventually, the story decides to ignore the conventions of the game entirely — and the rules it had established for victims’ encounters with it — and Kayla’s ordeal turns into a series of brutal contests and torture sequences.
As Kayla, Evans carries the lead role well, finding the sweet spot between being a victim of the game and being smart enough to look for ways to beat it. Meanwhile, Butterfield hits all the right marks when some humor is called for in the story. Marsan is such a talented character actor that any role he plays is fun to watch, and although he’s not given a lot to work with in Choose or Die, he makes the most of it.
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