When I first saw the trailer for Nerve, I was automatically intrigued by the film. I thought it looked like a cool adventure/crime/mystery flick, that had an overarching thriller tone. I’m happy to say that I was correct.
Nerve is directed by Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost, the director duo that was behind 2007’s Catfish, Paranormal Activity 3 (which i thought was the best one after one of my best friends told me to watch it… I’m still not over it) in 2011 and they also did Paranormal Activity 4 in 2012, which I still need to check out. I think that they make interesting films, and as soon as I saw “From the directors of Paranormal Activity 3” in the Nerve trailer, I knew I had to check it out.
The film follows Emma Roberts (The Art Of Getting By, Scream Queens, We’re The Millers) character Vee, who is in her final year of high school and is scared to take the plunge into the next chapter of her life. Always playing it safe, she decides to become part of this online game of truth or dare…but its basically just only dare. Where this online community called “Watchers” give her increasingly thrilling and crazy dares. She eventually meets up with Dave DeFranco (21 Jump Street, Superbad, Now You See Me) who plays Ian, and they team up together. Its an interesting concept for a movie, I thought it was quite original and I was literally on the edge of my seat for the hour and forty minute run time.
I thought that Emma Roberts and Dave DeFranco had great chemistry, and its always great to see Emma Roberts acting, I truly believe that she is a great actress, and I definitely look forward to seeing what she does next. I started watching Scream Queens, but it slipped onto the back burning when I attempted watching other shows, but I definitely will return to the show, as it was superbly entertaining.
I thought the overall tone of the movie was solid, there wasn’t really any scene in the film that I was like “why is this here? what does this have to do with the plot?” it was very precise. My only gripe with the film was that it was a bit slow in places, and a little predictable, which is definitely alright with me.
If your in the mood for an original, but a little predictable plot, look no further than Nerve. I will be purchasing the blu-ray and I hope that we see more films similar to this from Joost and Schulman.
Overall I give Nerve an 4/5. Great thriller, great acting, and original.
my next review will be the new Cillian Murphy film Anthropoid, as I will be attending an advanced screening of it on Wednesday evening, so stay tuned for a review either on Wednesday night or Thursday afternoon.
As always, thanks for reading!
-Andrew