Netflix’s Choose Or Die : Will you play the CURS>R movie ?

Choose or Die on Netflix introduces us to Kayla, a poor woman who is caring for her devastated mother. She unintentionally becomes entangled in the eerie universe of a cursed vintage video game called CURS>R, which requires its players to make unpleasant decisions for others in order to preserve their own lives. Kayla eventually uses her coding talents to defeat the game, gaining access to the curse’s power.

What happens in the movie : The story starts on with a family disturbed family what you may call. While the husband Hal (Eddie Marsan) sits in another room obsessing over his 1980s video games – as is typical – a rebellious teen and his frantic mother dispute loudly. He cranks up CURS>R, a text-based game from 1984 and is one of those, with the exception that it appears to have the ability to change the user’s reality, like when Hal cracks a BEHIND YOU! Pale Ale, and as he turns over, he notices that the label now reads FOOLED YOU! It also types out his ideas in real time.  We meet KAYLA (Iola Evans), continuing the story after 3 months. She hangs out with Isaac (Asa Butterfield), a fellow retro-gear nerd who wants to be her lover, but she warns him to ‘keep it in its pocket’.  They stumble uncover a copy of CURS>R, which she takes to a restaurant and install on her laptop. The game then takes control of Kayla’s waitress, forcing her to chew and swallow pieces of glass.

She gives Isaac her ‘I-know-this-sounds-crazy-but’ story  and it takes some reasoning , “I don’t see how a video game could murder someone. He yells, “Pac-Man doesn’t go around devouring people!”  but soon believes her. They utilize their computer skills to look into the beginnings of CURS>R, and it is as scary as it sounds.

Despite the involvement of Asa Butterfield, the film Choose Or Die is mostly about Iola Evans. She roots the fantastic set pieces with genuine dread and passion, making it an impressive feature debut.