This movie reminded me a lot of The Purge. Not because they really have anything in common as movies but more that they both, very easily, could happen.

Nerve is an online video chatting forum type website where people are tasked with doing dares and these dares are rewarded with money. The more risque the dare the more money they earn. But, of course with all trends like this, it goes too far and people have died.

We follow Vee, a young girl who enjoys having a good time but isn’t too risky. Her friend Sydney tells her she needs to become more spontaneous, so, to prove her wrong she joins Nerve and does a simple little dare that soon becomes an addiction.

She meets a guy called Ian who has a history with Nerve. They end up being put together by the watchers of the website and have to complete dares together. This all comes to a head however when the finale happens. All or nothing, and they’re tasked with shooting each other. Whoever shoots first wins.

This seems like the sort of ‘after school special’ your mum would make you watch about the dangers of the internet. It’s a very fun film to watch and has good twists and turns but it’s main thing is that it makes you think about internet trends.

Did you hear of Blue Whale? Blue Whale was very similar to Nerve, could’ve been inspired by Blue Whale actually, where teens would have to complete a set of tasks to win and the last task would be to kill themselves. And many kids actually did it. It’s quite terrifying when people can be this easily persuaded to do something so permanent and damaging.

But isn’t that the issue with the internet and teens? I know when I was a teenager I thought the world was against me and found solace with people online. Everyone had a good few sessions on Chatroulette with their friends during its heyday.

You meet people you think you have a connection to but really they may not be who they say they are at all. It’s pretty terrifying and when you’re young and all you want to be is accepted it’s easy to do things you wouldn’t normally do.

But what can we do with this problem? Well the people in the movie hack the website and tell the watchers they are doing something illegal and could result in many years in jail. It’s pretty cool actually but we can’t exactly do that now can we? Do the police force really care that much about an online game when there’s actual murderers walking our streets?

I think this movie is really fun to watch and you come away with a very interesting conversation. I don’t think the internet should be censored or blocked or anything like that but I do think parents and authority figures have to be more knowledgeable in what is happening on the internet with younger people as these things may seem trivial to start with but will definitely grow to be something that may become irreversible.

I mean, who didn’t accidentally see someone’s *parts* that they shouldn’t have seen on chat rooms when they were underage? That person could be put on the sex offenders list yet they think they’ve done nothing wrong and they’re just messing about.

Scary right?

What did you think of Nerve?

Until next time.

Published by shonaharding

Media graduate with a passion for reviewing film and TV. View all posts by shonaharding