‘Choose or Die,’ directed by Toby Meakins, is a horror-fantasy film centered around a survival game named ‘CURS>R.’ Kayla (Iola Evans) is a college dropout who is just scraping by. Her little income from working as a janitor at a mysterious corporation named Kismet allows her to care for her ailing mother. She discovers a bootleg copy of ‘CURS>R’ when visiting her friend Isaac (Asa Butterfield) to sell 1980s computer hardware. She starts playing the game, hoping that the $125,000 reward for completing the last level will still be valid.
Kayla quickly realizes, much to her dismay, that the curses in the game can appear in real life, and that she and everyone around her is in grave danger as she plays the game. The story of ‘Choose or Die’ revolves around ‘CURS>R.’ ‘CURS>R’ was the title of the film at one time. By closely following Kayla as she travels through the game, the plot unfolds. Its rules and levels set the stage for her adventure and character growth. Everything you need to know about it is right here. WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD.
What Are the CURS>R Rules?
‘CURS>R,’ which was released in 1984, contains a total of five levels. The player has five days to finish it. If they succeed, they will be awarded the grand reward. The stages don’t appear to follow any set pattern, but instead are rearranged and re-engineered to suit the needs of each player. Certain general rules, however, apply to all levels. One of these is that the player is always presented with a pair of options. These decisions have severe effects for someone close to the player or for the player themselves. If the player refuses to make a decision because they are afraid of the repercussions, they will perish. This is where the title of the film comes from.
The game’s primary goal is to make the cursed suffer. The curser gains more power the more they suffer. People around a player become the cursed and endure the repercussions of the player’s choices (obviously, who becomes the player or, for that matter, who is picked as the cursed is decided by the person managing the game — the curser). In Level 1, the cursed person is the waitress. Kayla’s mother is the one who is cursed at level 2. Isaac becomes the cursed in Level 4. In Level 5, when Kayla and Hal (Eddie Marsan) battle it out to see who would be the hero and final boss, they are each cursed for the other.
How Does CURS>R Affect Reality?
After completing the third level, Isaac hacks into the phone line and locates an address: Ferryman Storage Inc., 4924 Martinway Road, Unit 254, 13158 New York, using the prize line number supplied on the game’s cover. After travelling for almost four hours, he and Kayla arrive and discover no one. They track down the answering machine where Robert Englund’s voice is broadcasting the prize money messages.
At first, Isaac and Kayla believe this is a dead end with no reward money. Following the power cords, they eventually arrive to the same room where the game was created. They come across a videotape with the caption ‘CURS>R Beta 1’ on it. This indicates that the tape was made during the ‘CURS>R’ development stage. The creator, or Beck, marks the date as March 12, 1984 on the video. Beck and his companions are said to have uncovered a devastating curse. They discovered out that it’s extremely powerful despite not being able to find its origin or translate its exact meaning. Its symbolism have an impact on reality. Each sign represents something different – from fire to water to blood – and when combined, these symbols have the ability to influence the reality of the player.
CURS>R Level 1
Hal begins the movie by playing ‘CURS>R.’ We find afterwards that he purchased the game at a clearance deal. He unwittingly unleashes the curse when he starts the game. Initially, his choices are minor, ranging from getting another beer and exiting the cave to turning on or off the lights. However, it quickly turns dark, requiring Hal to choose between his son Gabe’s tongue and his wife Laura’s ears.
When Kayla initially starts playing the game, she is given the option of either coffee or cake. When she choose coffee, the waitress appears out of nowhere and immediately begins pouring coffee into her cup. Her next level decisions are whether or not the waitress should take a break and whether or not she should smash additional glasses or clean up.
In addition, the game begins to reveal what she and the waitress are saying before they say it. Kayla tries to exit the game forcibly by closing her computer, but she ends herself in the same area where her brother, Ricky, drowned. The game’s version of Ricky informs Kayla of the game’s main rule: she must select or perish. Kayla tries to stop the waitress from swallowing the shards of glass, but the owner transforms into a glitching frame and blocks her path, emitting the same screeching sound that Hal heard, hinting that she isn’t allowed to save the cursed.
CURS>R Level 2
Level 2 appears like a retro arcade game, whereas level 1 was text-based. When the game resumes at 2 a.m. the next night, Kayla is alone at work at Kismet. It now refers to her apartment building as a tower. She must save her mother, who is now cursed, from being devoured by a swarm of rats. Kayla is forced to play the game when a rat, which is a gaming version of rodents, assaults her mother in real life.
She has to pick between the living room and the bathroom, the bathroom and the bedroom, and whether to charge or gnaw through the door. She gives her mother advice over the phone while making decisions to postpone her mother’s confrontation with the rats. She eventually persuades her mother to jump out the window just as the rats are about to chew through the bedroom door. Kayla’s mother survives the fall despite her shattered limbs.
CURS>R Level 3
Kayla is playing Level 3 with Isaac by her side. The game begins at 2 a.m., and Isaac is described as a devoted squire. Help or no help, red door or blue door, and rescuing Isaac or Ricky are her options this time. Kayla chooses Isaac to assist her despite her reservations. They chose the red one, which leads them to a maze-like neon-lit tunnel that leads to Ricky’s drowning pool. Kayla chooses Isaac and completes the level despite the fact that it isn’t her own brother.
CURS>R Level 4
Before 2 a.m., Level 4 begins. Beck, who appears in the video, addresses the two players directly and accuses them of cheating. Isaac becomes the cursed one when he tries to disconnect the monitor. Film strips start to spill out of his lips as the area around him turns into a glitching frame. Kayla is forced to pick between Rewind and Fast-forward by Beck. Isaac begs her to make a decision since she will die if she does not. Fast-forward is Kayla’s choice. Isaac dies in her arms as she completes the fourth level.
Kayla and Hal will compete in the fifth and final round. By consenting to reproduce the game, the latter believed he had escaped the curse. After that, it’s likely that it spread, and Hal benefitted from it. Kayla is most likely the first player to reach the last level, which implies she must battle the man who is responsible for the curse (other from Beck). Kayla and Hal go head-to-head in this boss battle. Only one person will be able to defeat the final boss.
CURS>R Level 5
Kayla is led to Hal and his family’s home by the game. Since the last time we saw them, it appears that the family has endured significant and troubling changes. Hal delivers grace while the song “Are ‘Friends’ Electric?” by Tubeway Army plays in the background. When Kayla and Hal begin battling, they quickly find that they can only injure the other player by injuring themselves. This suggests that they are cursed by each other. Kayla drowns herself, killing Hal, but Laura saves her life by pulling her out of the water.
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