The main character (and co-writer/director) of the horror movie Deadstream is an obnoxious idiot, and that’s the point. His online persona and livestreaming are a composite parody of every irritating, inexplicably famous YouTube and Twitch channel where millions subscribe to watch smugly talkative ‘influencers’ unbox stuff or punch each other in the throat like Jackass-lite stunts that feel like they’re bringing out the worst in us.
The main protagonist would be Shawn Ruddy whose Wrath of Shawn online platform ordinarily featured him doing such dumb ‘face your fears’ things as being rolled across Mexico illegally or fighting a big homeless man. The second action led to his effective cancellation because he did send the unsheltered victim to hospital with a serious illness causing him to lose all sponsors. Now Shawn wants a comeback with this new sponsor, but before that, he sets up his own stream for his life(or death)-surviving the most haunted place he could think of (one which isn’t too well-known and didn’t cost any money). On October 6th, Shudder will be streaming Deadstream as part of spooky season.
Deadstream cleverly introduces us to this world in rapid succession but in fast pace. Given that it is entirely found footage film (one sub-genre within ‘screenlife’ movies taking place only on our technology’s screens), the opening basically is similar to teaser episodes of Shawn’s show. Through frenetic ADHD editing and ironic blocks of text commonly associated with these videos, the beginning of Deadstream provides an intelligent look into who this man actually is and what Deadstream’s logical structure will be.
These logical structures are essential in found footage; without knowing exactly where cameras are positioned, why they were placed there & how any potential editing was executed then it may all appear as if a cheat has been used. This foundation would later create an overall cinematic geography through its motion-activated cameras, tablet-based screen remotes, online comment boards and a bulky rigging that Shawn has both outwardly and inwardly positioned cameras built onto himself.
With the physical space of the house having been established, accompanied by Shawn’s humorously moronic banter, the desperate dunce explains the lore of the house. It was once inhabited by an ostracized poet who hung herself before ever finding an audience (a cute link to Shawn’s pitiful quest for viral fame again). There have been multiple deaths in this house since then with some sort of evidence or report claiming so over several decades.
Shawn is scared shitless of ghosts but more afraid of being unpopular or ‘canceled,’ so he takes out his truck’s sparkplugs and throws them into the woods and locks himself inside; it would be tragic if he were not such a dumb-ass comedy. He sets up something like a command center within which is situated only at one room in the house that has never had any supernatural reports on it before or had terrible deaths, after which there is a long process of poking this metaphorical animal.
This is Shawn’s show, Deadstream, for much of it – he’s the only one talking and we don’t see another live person for a while. It isn’t as artistic or claustrophobic as Locke or Buried, but it isn’t pretentious either. It is in satirical way that following Shawn becomes fun even if seeing him suffer seems cruelly sadistic to watch. Coincidentally, Deadstream would definitely win over someone who loves or hates internet stars like these. This could be seen as an homage or clever imitative act by anyone who likes PewDiePie, Benji, iJustine and similar people about Shown considering how much he resembles them.
However, most of us will take great delight in such mediocrity being given flesh and beard form only to be scared out of the living daylights within this “Deadstream.” And scary it is alright. You laugh all through at Deadstream as it explores Shawn but just when you think that you’re safe due to well-built up cinematography, cool practical effects and occasionally earned jump scares things change dramatically.
But there are too many horror comedy films that embrace one genre at the expense of the other; however, Deadstream strikes a rather nice balance there. The movie stays true to its playful “look at this idiot” attitude in order to get a number of laughs out of us but also has its really frightening moments. The film looks into livestreaming absurdities both in terms of form and content while also highlighting their possible fusion with found footage genre resulting into something new and innovatively terrifying.
There’s one problem which makes Deadstteam ineffective as Horror: acting. Joseph Winter (who with his partner Veronica Winter) – filmmaker and star does have the energy and charisma sufficient enough to keep viewers attention until the end of the film „Deadstream“ where he performed very well on comedy aspects unlike fear part. Essentially, he just never seems scared. He can play the YouTuber so well he can’t play a person, somebody completely terrified. This adds some humor, but it also tends to take away from the scary atmosphere in the movie.
On second thoughts, Winters has taken upon himself one of the hardest roles in Deadstream being responsible for some of the main camerawork here as well. When he is within that house, he must watch where he moves, how it glows like hell and how many cameras are attached to him amongst others while keeping on with his “ignorant yokel” facade.
In addition to editing and providing music for this film (which was his first feature as a director), Winter had a lot of work on his plate and succeeded most times even though not always. The reason why it did not get too muddled up was because she worked very hard behind the scenes with Jared Cook acting as Director of Photography.
Deadstream is a very interesting topic but it’s better not to say anything. This may sound like a spoiler (although the ‘twist’ was so obvious that provided by Shawn’s comment section in the livestream). But what can be said finally is that Troy Larson, Mikaela Kester, Kelly Donahue and an art department with more people than anything else makeup this crew have done wonderfully well with the make-up and practical effects. There are lots of bad dreams brought together here; however Deadstream reminds one of Sam Raimi’s work on Evil Dead films where we had low budget but artistically rich monsters.
The plot kind of loses its way at the end where certain random points are made and they appear as if they were silly or even uncalled for. Still, there are some jokes mixed with horror that just do not fit. While its gory finale might not have been thought out entirely, it enjoys every bit of a spine-tingling ride to get there. Deadstream is a refreshing take on found footage genre which only narrowly missed some of the pitfalls associated with this form yet managed to expertly reproduce some of its clichés.
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