Choose or Die

Name: Choose or Die
Director: Toby Meakins
Released: 2022

Toby Meakins

2022

Synopsis

In pursuit of an unclaimed $125,000 prize, a broke college dropout decides to play an obscure, 1980s survival computer game. But the game curses her, and she’s faced with dangerous choices and reality-warping challenges. After a series of unexpectedly terrifying moments, she realizes she’s no longer playing for the money but for her life.

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Recommendations

83
IndieWire
Choose or Die is a perfect entry point into genre for younger viewers, one that will also satisfy old school diehards even as it takes some pointed (perhaps deserved?) jabs at them.
75
The Playlist
Even though it’s more of a vision board of what it could be, the film introduces a nifty premise that recalls not just “A Nightmare on Elm Street” but how that series was able to make multiple irresistible sequels. Choose or Die is also the rare mid-budget Netflix movie that gets better and better as it goes along, owning its weirdness and not playing it easy.
60
Los Angeles Times
Though the movie lacks a strong central story, screenwriter Simon Allen and director Toby Meakins have come up with a genuinely clever concept that could be repeatable in multiple sequels — provided that the first wave of Netflix viewers aren’t too put off by the film’s many gross-out moments.
50
Movie Nation
Although I can’t go all-in on Choose or Die, I will say that there’s a lot to be said for a horror movie with clever twists, a top flight cast and a witty consistency to its conceit.
50
IGN
Choose or Die boots up a retro-style survival horror that will muster up a few delightful scares for the generation of gamers who grew up with Zork and The Valley of the Minotaur. But beneath this terror-filled glimpse of the ‘80s lies not much more than a bog-standard horror flick.
40
The New York Times
If any creativity went into Choose or Die, a by-turns creepy and hacky feature debut from Toby Meakins, it appears to have been directed solely toward nastiness.
40
The Guardian
[Toby Meakins] doesn’t quite take enough advantage of his reality-shifting game sequences (the Englund voice cameo serves to remind us just how wild Wes Craven made those nightmares way back when) but it’s a cut above the average Netflix genre guff.
40
Polygon
The creators’ quest for deeper meaning feels strained and overreaching, and it overwhelms the adventurous spirit of the film’s first half. If anything, this is at least a great jumping-off point for Evans, who never wavers, even when everything around her does.