“Nerve” screamed “MTV” the moment I saw the trailer. A teen thriller, slightly trashy looking yet interesting because, let’s be honest, trashy movies are catchy movies. I thought this would be a surface-level movie, you know, one-dimensional and upsettingly superficial.

However, I felt the rush of adrenaline buzz through my body as I sat down in the theatre. I remembered to bring my blanket this time around, and I prepared myself with a bag of popcorn. I knew beforehand that the movie would give me slight terror and anxiety so I brought my friend with me, making sure her arm would be free for me to grab when I needed a limb.

Although some moments were unoriginal, cliché high school scenes, the movie had incredible depth and a great message. The movie mainly revolves around high school senior Venus, or Vee, as she goes by (Emma Roberts) and Sam / Ian (Dave Franco) (he uses the pseudonym “Ian” for most of the movie).

In the game of Nerve, there are two roles you can choose between. Players play the game, meaning they are subjected to dares conceived by the Watchers who come up with the craziest of dares without thinking of the consequences.

Vee, the shy school-girl, finally decides to live her own life by playing Nerve. Her first dare is to kiss a “total stranger” (spoiler alert, its Sam/Ian, a caring but daring biker). They predictably fall in love. Instead of going on frilly and cute dates, they suffer through life-or-death moments together. Be warned, the ending is a total shock.

The acting was great, and there were so many daredevilish scenes in which I felt my heart drop multiple times. The message was clear: not many truly understand the consequences of sitting behind a dangerous device. This applied so well to our present-day society, showing how people interact when safely sitting behind a wall of anonymity — it isn’t so impressive, folks.

The movie overall was top-notch with a complete slack-jaw, plot twist ending. The action and scenes were great considering it was in the category of teen, dystopian-ish movies. Franco and Roberts did a great job in their contrasting roles. “Nerve” was a great teen thriller, but if you want to see something Oscar-worthy, don’t waste your time. This is a fluff movie with vibrant tones and scandalous humor.