A sequel to 2018’s Truth Or Dare would have brought its cast back in novel fashion, only for the pandemic to lead to its cancellation.
NB: The following contains spoilers for 2018’s Truth Or Dare.
Released in 2018, Truth Or Dare was far from the most acclaimed film to emerge from the Blumhouse horror stable, but it was still a huge hit comparative to its budget.
As a result, director Jeff Wadlow and his surprisingly large roster of co-writers (Michael Reisz, Jillian Jacobs, Chris Roach) began to think about a sequel. The problem was, most of the cast from the original film had already died at the hands of the vaguely IKEA-sounding demon, Calux.
Their solution? Borrow a post-modern move from Wes Craven’s New Nightmare, and make a pull back-and-reveal movie about Truth Or Dare's cast encountering Calux in the ‘real’ world.
Speaking to Variety, Jeff Wadow talked about the planned sequel – which may have been called Truth Or Big Bear or Truth Or Dare IRL – for the first time.
“Wouldn’t it be funny if Truth Or Dare happened to us while we were on vacation together, the actors?” he said. “The joke became that the sequel should be called Truth Or Big Bear [the name of a lake in California]. I thought that was a brilliant idea.”
Tyler Posey, who appeared in the first film, says he helped come up with the sequel’s concept.
“We all died in the movie, so there was no way we could do a ‘Part 2,’” Posey said. “But I’ve been writing since I was a kid and directing and filming stuff with my friends, so I always kind of try to find the best creative route that we could turn into something. So I started thinking, ‘Well, what’s a cool way we could all be in “Part 2″ and still make it work?’ And we were on our way in the truck and I remember coming up with the idea of, ‘What if it’s about us? We’re at the premiere of the original movie and we’re playing ourselves.’”
Blumhouse CEO Jason Blum evidently liked the project, since it was given the greenlit at some point around 2019 or 2020. Then the pandemic hit, which inevitably threw a spanner in the works. Blum initially had the idea of moving all the actors into a building on Universal Pictures’ lot, but as the realities of having everyone holed up in a confined space for days on end – not to mention all the overtime that would have to be paid out – the decision was made to scrap the film altogether.
Said Wadlow, “I think they started to realize that the health and safety risks involved at that moment, and also the cost implications of basically not letting people leave, would mean everyone was on overtime for the entire shoot, and they pulled the plug on it.”
Wadlow’s been keeping busy since the pandemic, though, having directed Fantasy Island and Bloodshot in 2020 and The Curse Of Bridge Hollow in 2022. His next film is also for Blumhouse: the haunted teddy opus, Imaginary. It’s due out in UK cinemas on the 8th March 2024.
Sadly, it sounds as though Truth Or Big Bear will never emerge. “Too much time has passed,” Wadlow said. “But I think that would have been a lot of fun to make and the audience would have dug it.”
