Thanks to the success of their hit series Stranger Things (2016– ), popular streaming service Netflix has been trying to squeeze their little retro goose that lays golden eggs with a series of productions that are based on nostalgia for the 1980s. The Fear Street saga, formed by Fear Street: Part One – 1994 (2021), Fear Street: Part Two – 1978 (2021), and Fear Street: Part Three – 1666 (2021), or the very recent The Adam Project (2022) starring Ryan Reynolds, Mark Ruffalo, and Zoe Saldana are just some of the most notorious examples of a practice that has also been used in Hollywood with blockbuster Super 8 (2011) or indie flicks Turbo Kid (2015) and Summer of 84 (2018) as the outstanding ones.
Netflix is releasing this week Choose or Die (2022) this. In the movie, after firing up a lost 80s survival horror game, a young coder unleashes a hidden curse that tears reality apart, forcing her to make terrifying decisions and face deadly consequences.
This is the debut feature film of Toby Meakins, a filmmaker who achieved some awards and nominations with his fantasy short films Breathe (2013) and Lot254 (2012). He is also the co-writer of the movie together with Simon Allen, a popular TV screenwriter who has worked in Das Boot (2018–) and The Watch (2020–), and Matthew James Wilkinson, a producer who has worked in Muscle (2019), Days of the Bagnold Summer (2019), Yesterday (2019), and Amulet (2020).
The main cast of Choose or Die (2022) is formed by Asa Butterfield, a former Hollywood kid star who has starred in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (2008), Ender’s Game (2013), and Hugo (2011), the always glad to see supporting star Eddie Marsan, spotted in so various films including Gangs of New York (2002), 21 Grams (2003), V for Vendetta (2005), The Illusionist (2006), Mission: Impossible III (2006), Happy-Go-Lucky (2008), Hancock (2008), The Disappearance of Alice Creed (2009), Snow White and the Huntsman (2012), The World’s End (2013), Atomic Blonde (2017), Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (2019), and many others, and horror icon Robert Englund, the one and only Fred Krueger from the original A Nightmare on Elm Street saga. Together with them, Kate Fleetwood, Ryan Gage, Angela Griffin, Iola Evans, Caroline Loncq, and Ioanna Kimbook also star.
This horror thriller is set to become part of the Netflix catalog on April 15, 2022. Watch the official trailer for Choose or Die (2022) here.
