Choose or Die – A Game that Hits Harder Behind the Screen Than On It
When the film Choose or Die was released by NetFlix in 2022, the film was embraced with nostalgic delight. It is a supernatural survival thriller about competing in a deadly version of an 80s video game. But underlying the pop culture references, the special effects, and the youthful exuberance of the game, there is another story – one about the emotional burden of the scrappy filmmakers trying to bring the story to life.”
A Deadly Game from the Past
The film features Kayla, played by Iola Evans, a frustrated university drop out living in a dilapidated apartment while suffering from the burden of taking care of her sick mother. Kayla’s life is a string of dead end jobs, unpayable bills and a neighborhood that swallows all hope. This all changes when Kayla comes across CURS > R, a 1980s gaming cartridge that rapidly reactivates and draws the player into an alternate reality where the player must make life or death decisions.
Kayla must deal with trauma, guilt, and ethical dilemmas with each level. Escaping this retro game in the beginning becomes psychological torture. However, with the addition of her friend and programmer Isaac, the game creates even more suffering, logically and illogically.
Iola Evans: A Breakout Performance Born from Real-Life Pressure.
For Evans, the role of Kayla in Choose or Die was a watershed moment. Evans had been in her role for a series of small TV appearances and was part of the workforce. She was financially struggling, much like her character, and she shed light, in some interviews, on Kayla’s exhaustion; she, too, was pursuing a dream in a relatable and familiar way, with a crushing weight of reality on her shoulders.
Evans’ connections to the character of Kayla meant she was going to do more than what the expected archetype for a horror movie would do. Evans’ expectation was the ideal balance of anger and frustration, paired with the kind of resilience and quiet desperation that allows the audience to connect. Evans character portrayal had fatigue, like absense of choice in life, and that reality and portrayal pulled the film above a supernatural slasher to another level.
While Evans was off screen, she formed a great friendship with the whole crew. Many recounted her professionalism, as she took the time to rehearse scenes with different actors who she later described as having a professional work ethic, as she did. Evans was especially concerned about creating a special friendship with actors playing the role of Kayla and Isaac.
Asa Butterfield’s Unique Presence
Asa Butterfield, who is recognized for his parts in Sex Education, Hugo, and Ender’s Game, had a different kind of persona as Isaac, the smart and socially awkward character, who later has a position partnership with Kayla in trying to escape from CURS>R. Butterfield filmed and completed a bunch of scenes during the times he was on a break from his other principal roles and was working on other big projects, balancing the intense horror film with.
Surprisingly, Butterfield was more of an introvert and spend most of the time on set trying to grasp the game mechanics, retro programming, and game tone for certain scenes. In order to add more character and personality to Isaac, he Diego nervously crafted and added humor Ike to the character, but making him to be a bright young child who can use sarcasm as his weapon whenever he needs to.
A number of crew members said that he would, at times, use his imagination to add some anxiety to the character Isaac, especially when he was in the character by making subtle actions such as finger tapping, adjusting his glasses, and fidgeting with his hands, and would do this whenever he was not talking. These little details can bring more life to the character and add more complexity to the character.
Behind the Scenes: Producing Horror at an Extremely Low Budget
The cutting streaming giant Netflix does not have any plans to produce large scale productions of Choose or Die. It is a niche experimental film from producers trying to mesh new style psycho drama with \”retro\” horror.
The Game Visuals: Low Tech by Design
The production crew avoided modern-day effects and heavily utilized a glitch analog aesthetic. They employed real 1980s prop televisions and cables, and the monitors attacked. Most glitch effects attained were done in-camera through light manipulation at warped playback in a non-digital way to avoid any over-reliance on modern recall.
The Diner Scene Disaster
One of the most chaotic behind-the-scenes stories comes from the diner level, where Kayla is forced to choose how a waitress gets hurt. The props team struggled with the glass and metal illusions; early attempts looked too unrealistic. After several failed setups, they rebuilt part of the diner table overnight. Cast and crew pulled through sleepless hours just to nail the gruesome gag in one controlled take.
Iola Evans later said that the emotional breakdown Kayla has in that scene felt “too real” because she was exhausted from the repeated attempts and the freezing temperature inside the set.
Night Shoots and Location Troubles
Much of the film was shot during night hours in gritty streets and cramped apartments. Several scenes had to be reshot because passing cars, loud clubs, or unexpected neighborhood chaos interrupted takes. The crew worked in narrow alleys, humid basements, and barely lit backrooms to capture the sense of urban decay that defines Kayla’s life.
The Creative Experiments That Made the Film Stand Out
Director Toby Meakins embraced bold, sometimes risky choices:
Actors were often not told exact details about a scare, allowing their reactions to feel more instinctive.
Practical lighting — harsh, flickering neon, handheld lamps, and CRT screen light — shaped the tone more than digital color grading.
Improvised lines were encouraged, especially in tense scenes where decisions had to be made quickly.
One of Iola Evans’ most iconic moments — whispering “I don’t choose the game anymore” — was an improvised line that Meakins kept instantly.
Fan Expectations, Online Buzz, and Release Impact
Before release, the trailer stirred excitement among fans of retro horror, especially gamers who were fascinated by the cursed VHS-game concept. Social media lit up with theories tying CURS>R to classic 80s pop culture, and the involvement of Robert Englund (Freddy Krueger himself) as a cameo voice added massive hype.
Though Choose or Die wasn’t a mainstream box-office film, its Netflix release brought significant global streaming numbers. It trended in several countries during its opening week, and horror influencers praised its originality, pacing, and dark video-game style.
Viewers especially loved the moral dilemmas, the glitch aesthetics, and the intense emotional performances by Evans and Butterfield — two rising stars carrying the weight of a whole supernatural nightmare.
A Horror Film That Hurts Because It Feels Real
What makes Choose or Die memorable isn’t just the cursed game or the retro thrills. It’s the human side of the story — the struggles of a young woman fighting both supernatural torment and real-world poverty. It’s a cast that poured personal experience into their characters. It’s a crew that pushed through tight budgets, long nights, and creative experiments to produce something unsettling and fresh.
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