Director:Â Henry Joost,Ariel Schulman
Cast: Emma Roberts,  Dave Franco,  Samira Wiley,  Kimiko Glenn,  Juliette Lewis,  Emily Meade
Rating:Â 15
Running Time: 96 mins
Release Date:Â August 11th, 2016
NERVE is directed by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman, these names might sound familiar if you’re fans of the PARANORMAL ACTIVITY films for which they directed the third and fourth films. They also directed the 2010 documentary CATFISH. This should give you an idea of the types of themes we’re dealing with.
NERVE is like a game of Truth or Dare (just without the truth – which is a risky game to play in the first place). When put into the wrong hands – i.e the NERVE Watchers, it’s no longer a game, it’s real – you don’t play with Monopoly money, it’s real money and real lives. Unfortunately for Vee, (Emma Roberts, SCREAM QUEENS) she finds out the hard way.
Vee is a shy school girl stuck in the shadow of her outgoing and adventurous best friend Sydney (Emily Meade, THAT AWKWARD MOMENT) Vee would rather be behind the camera, a ‘Watcher’ than in front of the camera. Which is why when a game like NERVE comes along it’s so tempting. It takes her out of her comfort zone, she catches the eye of fellow NERVE player Ian (Dave Franco, NOW YOU SEE ME 2) and the two embark on a series of dares.
Like most games it’s all fun and laughter when we begin – kiss a stranger for $100, try on a dress for $2500, it starts off easy – easy dares for easy money. And let’s face it, it sounds tempting. But for each ‘successful’ dare, comes an even more terrifying challenge – you’re still playing the game and you’ve just gone up a level.
NERVE is a deadly competition, fuelled by the loyal watchers. What’s unNERVEing about this film (pardon the pun), is that a game like this could so easily take off – in fact Joost and Schulman play around with the films similarities to real life. For example, let’s take the Watchers – they watch and film peoples dares. They follow the players around and film their movements which is streamed live to other Watchers. Just type in a username and you can literally just watch someone – a little bit weird right?
Well let me ask you a question, have you ever looked at someone’s Facebook profile? Or viewed someone’s Snapchat story? Aren’t we all just watchers of a lesser degree? Everything we do, everywhere we go is documented on the Internet. And when you’re in a game like NERVE there’s no escaping.
Joost and Schulman turn New York into a video game; there’s neon game pieces marking your every move and we’re constantly tracking the character’s movement. The majority of the film takes place at night, against a backdrop of neon lights, Ian’s motor bike even glows like it’s from TRON.
Joost and Schulman’s film, is very much a product of the 21st Century, it epitomises our underlying fear of the Internet and the anonymity that it offers people. Masked individuals with nothing but a phone and a Wi-Fi signal can prove to be quite the challenge.
Go on – I dare you to watch it.
Verdict
