Kayla Edwards (Iola Evans) is a college programming student living paycheck to paycheck as a window cleaner and caring for her drug addicted mother, Thea (Angela Griffin). On the side, Kayla restores old technology for her friend, Isaac (Asa Butterfield), who specializes in coding and old computer programming. When Kayla comes across a copy of old 80s computer game CURS>R in Isaac's collection, she decides to play the game for a chance at possibly winning unclaimed prize money related to the game. However when Kayla plays the game, CURS>R's choices have real world consequences and in order to survive Kayla will have to choose or die.
Choose or Die began life under the title Curser (spelled CURS>R) back in 2019. When it was first announced, the project was envisioned as a "short form" series for the ill-fated Quibi streaming service that folded less than a year after its launch with Ridley Scott serving as a producer through his Scott Free label. When Quibi folded so too did this incarnation of the project, but while Ridley Scott dropped out as a producer, UK company Anton relaunched the project as a traditional feature film with director Toby Meakins and writer Simon Allen still involved. The film marks Meakins' first feature debut, as well as the first feature writing credit of Allen who's better known for his TV work such as BBC's The Watch or The Musketeers. Choose or Die has an interesting premise on the surface, but underneath its initial hook this is a bare basics rehash of those post 2002 The Ring "cursed object" movies you've seen only with unintentional hilarity.
When I'd heard about the premise for this film revolving around a cursed 80s text based adventure game, I was reasonably optimistic about the premise as I'd seen the concept done before in the episodic horror game Untold Stories where a play plays a text based adventure game that suddenly turns into a dark reflection of a past wrong they committed. Unfortunately that's where the comparisons end because the movie doesn't have characters who are all that interesting and are given the bare minimum as place holders to go through most of the same beats you've seen in movies like Polaroid, Countdown, Friend Request, and every other horror movie of the past 5 years you probably forgot existed. But Choose or Die stands out a little from those movies as it goes beyond being generic and into unintentional comedy.
The first "choose or die" set piece where Kayla inadvertently causes an unsuspecting waitress to commit suicide by eating glass is somewhat unnerving, but every subsequent set piece beyond the first one amps up the ridiculousness beginning with a sequence where the game creates a giant rat that terrorizes Kayla's mother Thea in their apartment, but we don't actually see this rat as instead the sequence is shown to us with pixelated black and green graphics complete with MIDI music that makes a scene that should be horrifying gut bustlingly funny. And it only gets worse from there as poor Asa Butterfield reaches a low point in his career where he acts out a scene regurgitating unspooled Betamax tape in fast forward. But the absolute cherry on top comes from the very end of the movie where you'll be fully aware this was once intended to be a Quibi series because it sets up continuation in a way that positions it for a genre switch from horror to superhero.... I'm not joking.
Choose or Die on the surface seems like yet another rehash of the cursed object formula, but it goes beyond simply being generic and can't be taken even the slightest bit seriously thanks to ill judged scenes that make something that should be horrifying instead humorous. The bland cast are feebly trying to bring some credibility to this material, but it's a fools errand as the premise gets more and more deranged culminating in an ending that feels like a remnant from when this was envisioned as a Quibi series.
Choose or Die began life under the title Curser (spelled CURS>R) back in 2019. When it was first announced, the project was envisioned as a "short form" series for the ill-fated Quibi streaming service that folded less than a year after its launch with Ridley Scott serving as a producer through his Scott Free label. When Quibi folded so too did this incarnation of the project, but while Ridley Scott dropped out as a producer, UK company Anton relaunched the project as a traditional feature film with director Toby Meakins and writer Simon Allen still involved. The film marks Meakins' first feature debut, as well as the first feature writing credit of Allen who's better known for his TV work such as BBC's The Watch or The Musketeers. Choose or Die has an interesting premise on the surface, but underneath its initial hook this is a bare basics rehash of those post 2002 The Ring "cursed object" movies you've seen only with unintentional hilarity.
When I'd heard about the premise for this film revolving around a cursed 80s text based adventure game, I was reasonably optimistic about the premise as I'd seen the concept done before in the episodic horror game Untold Stories where a play plays a text based adventure game that suddenly turns into a dark reflection of a past wrong they committed. Unfortunately that's where the comparisons end because the movie doesn't have characters who are all that interesting and are given the bare minimum as place holders to go through most of the same beats you've seen in movies like Polaroid, Countdown, Friend Request, and every other horror movie of the past 5 years you probably forgot existed. But Choose or Die stands out a little from those movies as it goes beyond being generic and into unintentional comedy.
The first "choose or die" set piece where Kayla inadvertently causes an unsuspecting waitress to commit suicide by eating glass is somewhat unnerving, but every subsequent set piece beyond the first one amps up the ridiculousness beginning with a sequence where the game creates a giant rat that terrorizes Kayla's mother Thea in their apartment, but we don't actually see this rat as instead the sequence is shown to us with pixelated black and green graphics complete with MIDI music that makes a scene that should be horrifying gut bustlingly funny. And it only gets worse from there as poor Asa Butterfield reaches a low point in his career where he acts out a scene regurgitating unspooled Betamax tape in fast forward. But the absolute cherry on top comes from the very end of the movie where you'll be fully aware this was once intended to be a Quibi series because it sets up continuation in a way that positions it for a genre switch from horror to superhero.... I'm not joking.
Choose or Die on the surface seems like yet another rehash of the cursed object formula, but it goes beyond simply being generic and can't be taken even the slightest bit seriously thanks to ill judged scenes that make something that should be horrifying instead humorous. The bland cast are feebly trying to bring some credibility to this material, but it's a fools errand as the premise gets more and more deranged culminating in an ending that feels like a remnant from when this was envisioned as a Quibi series.