A US-based, UK-produced thriller called Choose or Die (UK, Toby Meakins, 2022) will be landing on Netflix next Friday.

The name changed during production, so, if you had Curs>r on your watchlist, this is the film you want. Described as ‘a dark twist on the ’80’s gaming obsession,’ it stars Asa Butterfield (Sex Education, Greed), Iola Evans (The 100, Carnival Row), Eddie Marsan (Sherlock Holmes, Happy Go Lucky), and genre legend Robert Englund (A Nightmare on Elm Street). Also appearing are Angela Griffin (The Hollow, Harlots), Kate Fleetwood (Beirut, Star Wars: Episode VII), Ryan Gage (The Hobbit, The Musketeers) and Joe Bolland (The Trial of Christine Keeler).

The plot summary from IMDb is as follows:

‘A broke student, in pursuit of an unclaimed $100,000 prize, plays an obscure 1980s survival computer game. After a series of unexpectedly terrifying moments, she soon realizes she’s no longer playing for the money, but for her own life.’

Toby Meakins directed the film from Simon Allen’s script, with a soundtrack by Liam Howlett of the Prodigy. Although Howlett’s music has been heard in plenty of movies, this is the first time he’s scored an entire film by himself. The producers are Sebastien Raybaud, John Zois and Matthew James Wilkinson.

You can see from the trailer below that Choose or Die a) looks pretty terrifying and b) is absolutely dripping with retro video game nostalgia. Make a beeline for it when it drops next Friday…