Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Joseph Winter, Vanessa Winter
Starring: Joseph Winter, Melanie Stone
With Evil Dead, and more overtly Evil Dead II, Sam Raimi gave us largely a one man horror show, with that man played
by Bruce Campbell. Raimi cleverly combined Campbell's physical comedy
chops with innovative practical VFX and groundbreaking camera work. Now,
imagine those movies with a less comically talented actor in the role
and rather than the stunning camerawork of Raimi's films, the shakey-cam
style of found footage.
That's essentially what you get with the patience-testing
Deadstream. The film, which as its title implies, plays out as an internet
livestream, is centred on Sean Ruddy (Joseph Winter, who
co-directed with Vanessa Winter), a livestreamer known for
controversial and attention-seeking pranks. A recent stunt saw him
kicked off YouTube and so now he's trying to rebuild his following on
Livid, a fictional Twitch alternative.
Ruddy comes up with the not so original idea of spending a night in a
supposedly haunted house and live-streaming the events. He even records
his own synth score to accompany his misadventures. Choosing a remote
and dilapidated old house rumoured to be haunted by the spirits of
several people who died there in suspicious circumstances, Sean sets up
various cameras to try and capture some paranormal activity. Of course,
he gets more than he bargained for.
Deadstream shares the same issue that dogs many found
footage movies. That is, by presenting things almost exclusively from
the POV of the movie's protagonist, the audience is left to rely on said
protagonist explaining the plot. And there's a lot of exposition here,
with not only Sean filling us in, but his followers recording videos to
explain the supernatural relevance of various props he comes across,
along with the history of the house.
It feels like an age before things start to go bump in this particular
night, as we're left alone for a good half hour with Sean, one of the
most insufferable lead characters I've ever had the misfortune to spend
time with. In the final act the Raimi influence comes to the fore with
lots of old school rubbery monsters and demons making their presence
known. The trouble is we never get a proper look at the action due to
the shakey found footage format, making the efforts of the make-up and
creature design department a tad redundant.
With its tired critique of the insecurities of internet "celebs" and
found footage aesthetic, Deadstream might have seemed
innovative a decade ago, but in 2022 it's as stale as the various
rotting corpses its leading man stumbles over.
