When Horror Became a Choice — The Odd Cultural Phenomenon of Choose or Die
When Choose or Die was released on Netflix in April 2022, I predicted it would be an unremarkable low-budget entry in the Netflix catalog. The British techno-horror lacked commercial appeal, and I was sure the retro arcade horror game aesthetic would only attract a small audience of dystopian Black Mirror fans. Yet somehow, this unusual blend of 1980s nostalgia, psychological horror, and social commentary managed to escape the confines of the screen and spawn conversations, memes, and even some fashionable commentary on personal responsibility and technology.
The film did not simply ask the characters to make choices. Each scene forced the audience to consider the extent to which personal agency has been relinquished in the game of life to screens, algorithms, and instinctual drives.
From Pixels to Panic — The Game No One Could Quit
The film was directed by Toby Meakins and features Iola Evans, Asa Butterfield, and Eddie Marsan. Choose or Die focuses on Kayla (Evans), who lives in the near-poverty and has a low-paying job as a coder. One day, she discovers an old text-based computer game called CURS>R. The game claims to offer a reward of $125,000 to whoever manages to complete it. Kayla eventually realizes that each of the game’s decisions has a direct impact on the real world, in some cases, in very violent and gruesome ways.
At first, it might seem like an innocent recall the 1980s nostalgic video games, but it changes pretty quickly into something insidious, evoking a feeling of control. Control of systems, within classes, and even control of trauma. In the most horrifying way, the game and system fantasizes Kayla’s every possible choice, keeping her tortured by deciding the most extreme sleights of sadism- who must live, who must die, who must suffer, and even how much a sufferer must endure, and the a linear freedom of torture, and control.
Fans, and even viewers quickly noted the sub-text of the social reactions and the social horror. Twitter and Reddit, as digital communities, flooded and framed Kayla’s battle as horror but within the social system of ‘CURS>R’. They even framed it as capitalistic trauma, and a traumatic battle-incurred within the generation of ‘fighting a system’.
“Choose or die — that’s every job application, every system update, every moral decision we face online,” a viral tweet read, encompassing the horror and social commentary.
Kayla’s Rage, Iola Evans’ Rise
The emotional heartbeat of the film ‘Choose or Die’ was without a doubt, Kayla. Iola Evans played the role phenomenally. Kayla was no typical horror film heroine. She was weary, and bore a dreadful rage and trauma, as a disposed of horror victim.
Off-screen, Evans was Living to survive, just juggling a few TV parts and working other roles to become a working actor fighting for a balance economically before landing her role. “It felt like the film was speaking directly to people who hustle just to exist. “In numerous interviews, she explained how close she felt to Kayla’s struggles with class and invisibility. ‘It spoke directly to people who hustle just to survive,’ she explained to ScreenRant. ‘It felt like the film was speaking to people who hustle just to exist.’
During pre-production, Evans was reported learning about retro tech, the sound and syntax of early computing, and even working with actual Commodore systems. Director Toby Meakins suggested Evans “treat the game like a toxic relationship,” making her “confront each of her fears hidden within every keystroke.”
The rawness of her performance made Kayla relatable, not just to horror fans, but to everyone fighting a battle against an unforgiving system and losing. After the film her fans, TikTok’s all celebrated her defiant and resilient style “Kayla-core”, characterized by thrift-store hoodies, cracked sneakers, and an unshakable stare.
The Butterfly Effect of a Meme
It wasn’t long before Choose or Die became a meme factory. Everywhere people posted and commented on screenshots of the game featuring the prompts in ominous green text. In a flash, the game’s most viral line “CHOOSE: YOUR FRIEND OR YOURSELF?” was remixed into jokes about exams, relationships, and other everyday challenges.
People on Instagram posted stylized screenshots, versions of the game. One of the most popular ones featured the text:
CHOOSE: SLEEP / RESPONSIBILITY
All of us picked wrong, the narrator commented, and the post became a popular lament of modern life.
The retro glitch font and green-tinted aesthetic made for great fashion ideas. In India and the UK, indie streetwear brands began to produce “CHOOSE OR DIE” oversized tees, taking the film tagline and turning it into a Gen Z slogan for rebellion and speaking exhaustion.
The irony of the technological enslavement theme in the film was not lost on fans. “We turned the curse into merch,” said a Redditor.
Horror Meets Hashtag Activism
It is interesting to note how Choose or Die seeped into conversations outside of the typical film circles. Some fans used the movie’s core theme, the illusion of choice, in political and social discourse. In the context of debates around exploitation of workers, digital privacy, and economic inequality, posts featuring the hashtag ChooseOrDie described situations people felt trapped in, with systems pretending to offer freedom.
Conversations surrounding burnout culture have observed growing interest in the phrase’s use during the discourse in India. College students on X (formerly Twitter) started posting memes such as:
“CHOOSE: Sleep / 2 a.m. assignment submission.
Guess what I picked?”
Reaction quotes evolved from the film, especially the line “The system doesn’t care about your choice,” proliferating in political discourse and corporate satire reels.
Even Toby Meakins seemed amused by the unintended social afterlife of his film. “We made a horror about a cursed video game,” he laughed in a festival Q&A, “not realizing the real curse would be how much people saw themselves in it.”
Digitally Manifesting the Game’s Code — Making Fear Digital
Using a creative approach on a shoestring budget, the film’s retro aesthetic was the result of genuine 8-bit software emulation. Production designer Elinor Meredith paid so much attention to detail that she tracked down and procured vintage CRT monitors from collectors across the UK, and even sourced old computer hardware from other collectors.
The actors were actually typing during takes, a rarity in digital thrillers, which made the CURS>R interface stand out in the industry. For the fans, this provided a tactile realism that Meakins’ film captured beautifully. For the audio glitches and looping sound design, he recorded old modem noises and distorted dial-up tones. Meakins referred to this as an auditory curse.
Eddie Marsan, who played the sinister developer Beck, described the set as a “love letter to fear through technology.” He even improvised several of his lines, including the chilling final monologue: “In the end, we all play someone else’s game.”
Watch Free Movies on MyFlixer-to.click