The Dare Project, directed by Bram Raphael and starring Jake Robbins and Adam Faison, is a poignant short film that evolves from a high school coming-of-age moment into a quietly complex emotional portrait of queer identity, repression, and memory. It begins with a simple premise: two teenage boys, Ben and Johnny, are dared to kiss during a game of truth or dare. What unfolds, however, is far from playful.
The film unfolds in two parts — the original short from 2013, and a 2018 continuation that picks up five years later. The 2018 segment reintroduces Ben and Johnny as young adults whose paths cross again after years of estrangement. While the original moment of their kiss may have seemed fleeting to outsiders, it left a mark on both. For Ben, it awakened something deeper and unresolved. For Johnny, it was something he buried. This difference in how they processed the moment drives the core emotional tension of the film.
What makes The Dare Project especially powerful is its stripped-back realism and its emotional honesty. It doesn’t sensationalize queerness or trauma — instead, it captures the quiet anguish of missed connections, the pain of repression, and the fragile hope of resolution. The performances are subtle and raw. Robbins as Ben brings a longing vulnerability, while Faison’s Johnny masks his inner conflict with guardedness. The direction uses minimalism effectively — a single conversation in a car becomes a minefield of emotion and subtext.
The film's strength lies in its ability to say so much with so little. Clocking in at under 15 minutes, it leaves viewers reflecting long after the screen fades to black. It’s a rare example of a queer narrative that focuses not on romance or tragedy, but on accountability, self-awareness, and the emotional residue of teenage choices.
While The Dare Project concludes with ambiguity, there's room to explore the next chapter. In a fictional sequel, The Dare Project: Afterlight, we follow Ben and Johnny three years after their last encounter. Now in their late twenties, both are navigating the adult world — Ben as a social worker in LGBTQ+ youth services, Johnny as a closeted paramedic struggling with internalized shame.
The sequel explores themes of healing, chosen family, and the long arc of coming to terms with one's identity. A tragedy — a hate crime Ben’s organization responds to — brings Johnny back into his life unexpectedly. This forces them to confront not only their past but the lives they’ve chosen since. Can Ben forgive Johnny’s earlier denial? Can Johnny accept himself without Ben’s validation?
In Afterlight, the story shifts from confrontation to emotional growth. It repositions queerness not as a burden but as a source of strength, pain, and ultimately, liberation. A slow-burning reconciliation leads to a final scene where the two attend a high school pride event — not as lovers, but as individuals who have made peace with their past.
