Paul Andrews Truth or Dare? - A Critical Madness starts with Mike Strauber (John Brace) finding his wife of five years Sharon (Mary Fanaro) in bed with his friend Jerry Powers (Bruce Gold), distraught Mike heads out into the woods to get back to nature but ends up having a game of truth or dare with an imaginary hitchhiker (Kerry Ellen Walker) which ends up with him cutting his own tongue out, slicing his finger off & being put in Sunnyville mental institute. Jump forward 13 months later & the institute is suffering from overcrowding, as a result Dr. Thorne (Rick Paige) & Dr. Evans (Mona Jones) need to make tough decisions to free some room up so they let Mike go. Mike is still a little bit angry & bitter so kills Jerry & attempts to kill Sharon, he gets put back into Sunnyville mental institution but manages to escape & plays the ultimate murderous game of truth or dare as he sets out to gain revenge on his unfaithful ex-wife...Written, produced & directed by Tim Ritter I thought Truth or Dare? - A Critical Madness was average at best, it's by no means as bad as some micro budget homemade horror films I've had to endure but it's hardly mind blowing stuff. The script takes itself far too seriously but it moves along at a reasonable pace even if it's pretty basic stuff, the character's are simplistic to say the least, the dialogue is poor & it has low production values throughout. There are no sub plots which means the narrative is very linear & a bit monotonous. I don't believe that a mental patient could hide a survival knife & grenade without anyone noticing, this wasn't him getting out it was him being admitted! You would not be able to shoot three people on a busy road & not one single car stop or at the very least draw some attention to yourself, could you? Also I'm not sure someone could drive a car, start a chainsaw, stick it out of the window, kill someone, retain control of the vehicle & drive off like nothing ever happened, or maybe they could? If anyone's ever tried it let me know... Finally, if Mike originally cut his own finger off did a new one just magically grow back or something? You know I don't think that would happen, would it? I thought it entertained on a simplistic level but just don't expect anything amazing.First time director Ritter does an OK job considering the poverty of the production & his inexperience. There's no scares or shocks & there's no tension or excitement either, this won't exactly get the pulse racing. The gore wasn't great, there's a fair amount of fake blood splashed around but not that much graphic violence, a cut off hand, an exploding head & some gunshot wounds.With a supposed budget of about $200,000 Truth or Dare? - A Critical Madness is technically about as good as one could expect, which is not good. The acting isn't great but at the same time it's nowhere near as bad as in some low budget horror films I've seen.Truth or Dare? - A Critical Madness is an OK watch, I thought it passed the time but didn't do that much for me. If you like low budget obscurities than you may want to check it out but if you prefer your films with a little more polish then I'd give this a miss.

movieman_kev Poor Mike Strauber returns home one day to find his wife, Sharon sleeping around. This sends him on a downward spiral into nutzoid land and landing him into a mental hospital. But do to budget cuts and over-crowding he's sent home again. Where he challenges everyone to games of Truth or Dare. So refreshing to clear my mind of good well-made and intelligent movies every now are then and see a film (and I use the term quite loosely) that not only knows that it's crap, but relishes in the fact with insane dialog, moronic acting, and heaps & heaps of plentiful, if not particularly believable, gore effects. Some laugh out loud moments to be had, but all of those come in the second half of the film and you'll have to suffer through the first 45 or so minutes.Eye Candy: Mary Fanaro as Sharon gets topless My Grade: D DVD Extras: Commentary by Director Tim Ritter; a 17 & a half minute respective Making of; Film facts; 2 Promo trailers, and Trailers for "Truth or Dare2" and & part 3

capkronos Tim Ritter's 16MM debut (shot in North Palm Beach, Florida) is a sloppy mess, but it's a low-budget attention getter nonetheless. Mike Strauber (John Brace) is a successful married man who once suffered from a nervous breakdown, and now is going insane after discovering his sexy wife (Mary Fanaro) has been cheating on him. Mike leaves the house, picks up a busty redheaded hitchhiker (Kerry Ellen Walker) and heads to a campground for the night, where the two play a twisted version of Truth or Dare by campfire. He dares her to pull out her eye with a corkscrew...and she does!! Then she makes him cut off his finger, slash open his chest and rip out his tongue before disappearing.He's found and rushed off to "Sunnyville Mental Institution" where he is eventually released due to "overcrowding". He heads back home to kill his ex-wife, but is captured again and rushed back to SMI where gory Truth or Dare games are played with other patients. All of the TorD game participants turn out to be delusions of Mike's deranged mind, an odd metaphor for insanity in general, I guess, and a means for lots of self-mutilation.By the films end a head is blown off with a grenade, arms and legs are hacked off, a face is slashed up, a baby in a stroller is run over, a little kid is chewed up in a drive-by chainsawing, an old woman is clubbed on the head, Mike takes a semi-automatic rifle to three unlucky people waiting at a bus stop and much more. It's really just a bunch of violent nonsense, but it's pretty entertaining and the gore FX are fine.Followed by several direct-to-video sequels starting with WICKED GAMES (1993). Also available is (was?) TRUTH OR DARE?-THE RETROSPECT TAPE, hosted by the director.

joeyramone78 This film is truly one the crown jewels in the kingdom of So Bad It's Funny. This charmer was shot in the mid 80's and it follows the exploits of Mike Strauber, a schmuck who has the worst luck with women. Upon returning home from work he finds his big-breasted hottie wife doing the nasty with their best friend, he obliges them with a hilarious dramatic reaction before taking off in his gold Firebird to, uh, drive around for a long, long time. As the story unfolds, we see poor Mike suffer a nervous breakdown that results in hallucinations and self-mutilation. It's all the more tragic because this poor slob can't even get an IMAGINARY girl to score with him! Anyway, we spend the rest of the movie finding a masked, disfigured, murderous Mike out to exact revenge upon his good-for-nothing cheating wife with the great tits. Of course along the way he manages to kill a number of innocents including: a group of old people at a Bus Stop, a little leaguer, some cops, a couple of "punk rockers" and even a baby in carriage using a number of weapons including a submachine gun and a battle mace! "Truth Or Dare" showcases some of the worst acting, wrting, and music ever committed to film, and believe me, it all works in this film's favor! If you're looking for 90 minutes of sick, jaw-droppingly bad horror hilarity, this is the film for you!