Film / Choose or Die

CHOOSE OR DIE?

Choose or Die (originally titled CURS>R) is a 2022 sci-fi horror thriller film directed by Toby Meakins.

Kayla, a broke college student, decides to play an obscure 1980s survival computer game in pursuit of an unclaimed $100,000 prize. After a series of unexpectedly terrifying moments, Kayla soon realizes she is no longer playing for the money, but for her own life.

Starring Iola Evans, Asa Butterfield, Eddie Marsan, and Robert Englund, it was released April 15th, 2022, on Netflix.

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BROWSE THE MOVIE'S TROPES OR LEAVE?

• Actor Allusion:
  • Once again, Eddie Marsan's character dies by drowning.
  • Once again, Asa Butterfield's character is roped into playing high stakes video games.
• Asshole Victim: Lance definitely had it coming.
• Attack Backfire: The final challenge has Kayla and the previous victim Hal fight to the death, but with a catch. Any attempt to attack the other is reflected upon themselves. However, as Kayla quickly figures out, self-inflicted injuries also count, so the challenge becomes an exercise in who can kill themselves first.
• Big "NO!": Kayla after her friend Isaac dies at the conclusion of Level 4.
• Bittersweet Ending: Kayla survives and wins the ultimate prize: the command prompt that enables her to manipulate reality which she uses to kill Lance, fully heal her injuries and save her mother. But the experience has changed her, innocent people have suffered and died along with her friend Isaac and Beck is still out there. That and with this newfound power, she confides in Beck that she'll use it to inflict the same sort of punishment onto others.
• Body Horror: Not exaggerated, but mutilation still qualifies.
  • Isaac, when Beck accuses him of “cheating”, begins to violently vomit ropes of recording tape from his mouth, which eventually kills him.
• Equivalent Exchange: The horrors inflicted on the victims of Curs>r become boons for those responsible for inflicting it.
• Evil, Inc.: Kismet, the company Kayla worked for as a cleaner, was founded by Beck. Besides the (miserable) cleaning crew and their jerkass boss, the only other visible employee is Beck himself and the only thing they seem to produce is suffering. This is justified, however, as the nature of Curs>r means Beck materially benefits from forcing others to suffer.
• Facial Horror: Lance's situation at the end when he jams his face into a sink filled with used needles.
• Jerkass:
  • Lance, a drug dealer that has been dealing drugs to Kayla's mother, is a total creep who wants to sleep with Kayla.
  • Beck's Beta tester, despite being a paid volunteer, is an utter jerk who threatens to beat up Beck once he's paid. Sure, Beck made him wait an unreasonably long time stuck in a room with no food, but it was only four hours.
  • Kayla's boss, who is either supervising the workers, belittling them, or firing them.
  • The waitress's boss at the diner where Kayla plays Level 1 is said to be this.
  • Beck himself, the man who discovered The Curse and created a digitized version of it that he has used to cause suffering to countless people for his own prosperity.
• Language of Magic: Curs>r's underlying source code is an array of symbols that allow the user to force a victim to suffer various forms of abuse.
• Large Ham:
  • Beck during the first successful Beta test in 1984 and Game!Beck during Level 4.
    Beck: Sometimes, a curse can be a gift. (disturbing laughter)
    Game!Beck: Level 4. You're in 1984.
    Game!Beck: REWIND OR FAST-FORWARD!
  • The first victim as well.
    Hal: Fuck the 80s?!
• Nothing Is Scarier: The giant rat that terrorizes Kayla’s mother is never seen onscreen, only demonstrated through a simplistic image on the screen playing Curs>r. If her mom’s reactions are anything to go by, it’s not pretty.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: Hal has turned into one by the end of the film and is designated as "The Final Boss". He laments that people like him (white males) can't be the hero anymore.
• Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure: Kayla has apparently never heard about Robert Englund.
• Punny Name:
  • Isaac's computer repair shop is named "Byte Me".
  • "Curs>r" is a clever pun, since it can refer both to the "cursor" in the adventure game's prompt and the role of the game as a "curser", that is, passing on the curse to whoever is playing it.
• Reality Warper: Curs>r. The very game not only warps reality, but it reads it as well.
• The Reveal:
  • Kayla and Isaac find the original location where Curs>r was developed. They watch a video recording documenting the first Curs>r beta test made in March of 1984. The game is based on an ancient curse that was digitized by a man named Beck—the cursor—who uses it to prosper to the detriment of the player—the cursed.
  • Kismet, the company that Kayla has been working at as a janitor and owns the apartment building where she and her mother were about to be evicted from is owned by Beck, who is still alive and well and was behind everything that happened.
  • Curs>r is not a supernatural entity that has woken up, but a supernatural curse that is utilized by the cursor on its victim.
• Sadistic Choice: The third game forces Kayla to choose between saving Isaac or her brother. Since the latter is already dead, she understands it's a misleading choice and saves Isaac.
  • The second game has Kayla’s mother be chased by an unseen mutant rat. Kayla’s mom eventually has to pick between jumping out of a window to her potential death, or getting definitely killed and eaten by the thing. She chooses the former.
  • When Isaac tries to unplug the computer, Beck curses him to vomit ropes of recording tape, and gives Kayla the option to either “fast forward” or “rewind”. Both options seem incredibly painful to him and he ultimately dies anyway, and it’s clear that the choice didn’t really matter.
• Standard Office Setting: Kismet, the building where Kayla works is an office building that employs a number of cleaning staff. But the floors they work on appear to be mostly empty with only a few work stations and, apart from owning apartment buildings, we see no other employees and it's not clear what they produce.
• Worthy Opponent: In the final scene, Beck calls Kayla.
  Beck: You've suffered. I've prospered. Yet, somehow, you managed to beat my game.
  Kayla: Beck.
  Beck: Tell me. Who will suffer next?
  Kayla: Only people who deserve it.
• You're Insane!: Isaac's opinion of Beck after watching the Beta test tape.

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"CHOOSE OR DIE!"