Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Rob Savage
Starring: Annie Hardy, Amer Chadha-Patel, Angela Enahoro, Mogali Masuku, Jemma Moore
When the world went into lockdown back in March 2020, filmmakers
decided to knock out movies shot in their homes, often employing modern
communication platforms. The results were mediocre at best. One of the
better mediocrities was Rob Savage's
Host, which used the clever gimmick of a séance playing out on a Zoom call.
The movie was sloppily constructed in narrative terms and compared
unfavourably to the likes of
Searching
and
the Unfriended franchise, but Savage and his crew pulled off some highly impressive visual
effects given their almost non-existent budget.
Quickly picked up by horror streaming service Shudder,
Host became the most talked about horror movie of the
first lockdown era. Blumhouse were so impressed they awarded Savage with
a three picture deal. The first to arrive is Dashcam, which sees Savage continue in a found footage vein. So, what can the
British filmmaker achieve with a Blumhouse budget?
The answer is he's managed to create one of the most insufferable
movies I've endured in many a year. After capturing the early lockdown
zeitgeist, Savage continues to comment on this era, which makes his film
already feel dated. The protagonist is Annie Hardy, an American
rapper/anti-vaxxer who hosts a livestream show from her car in which she
improvises rap lyrics despite having zero talent for improv (a
12-year-old could literally do better).
Annie heads to England to hang out with her old bandmate Stretch (Amer Chadha-Patel) and is disappointed to find he's given up his hard-partying ways to
live a quiet life with his "feminazi" girlfriend Gemma (Jemma Moore). Stretch now earns a living delivering fast food, and when Annie tags
along she livestreams a confrontation with a deli proprietor who insists
she wear a mask indoors. When Gemma sees this footage she kicks Annie
out, only for Annie to steal her car and Stretch's phone. When the
latter receives a delivery request, Annie decides to pick it up and
treat herself to a free meal, but when she arrives at the restaurant
she's talked into accepting payment to drive an elderly woman, Angela
(Angela Enahoro), to a certain address.
The seemingly mute Angela promptly shits herself, but that's the least
of Annie's problems as it seems the old lady possesses supernatural
powers and is being tracked down by a shotgun wielding woman (Mogali Masuku). When Stretch catches up with Annie, the two find themselves on the
run from both the bloodthirsty Angela and the mystery woman.
Dashcam has an interesting setup, but it's dogged by
problems. The elephant in the room is Annie, the most unlikeable movie
protagonist you could possibly spend 80 minutes with. While watching the
movie I assumed Savage was parodying anti-vaxxers in a manner so broad
that the character simply became a caricature, as Annie behaves in a
manner that isn't recognisably human. No matter how much trouble she
causes or how much danger she finds herself in, Annie keeps speaking in
juvenile fashion, constantly saying things like "Shit in my mouth" and
"Come in my ass." It. Is. Unbearable!
But here's the shocking part. Annie Hardy is played by…Annie Hardy. Not being down with the kids, I had to hit Google to find out about
this person, who it turns out genuinely is a potty-mouthed, rapping
anti-vaxxer! I'm pretty cynical about our future, but discovering that
this cartoon figure actually exists has made me concede that we really
are truly fucked.
So rather than being a satire of a certain type of Karen,
Dashcam would seem to be a vehicle for Hardy's obnoxious
persona. The result is a movie with a protagonist that only the most
committed of the lunatic fringe could possibly root for. Horror movies
have had douchebag anti-heroes in the past, but the likes of Bruce
Campbell's Ash are charming douchebags, whereas Annie/Hardy is merely an
intolerable douchebag. The film is so self-indulgent and enamoured of
Hardy that it concludes with her improv rapping as the end credits roll,
which amounts to her telling us Savage is well endowed and various
executive producers like to "take it up the ass." I've always been
against the idea of cinema patrons demanding a refund for a bad movie,
but in this case they might have a point as they've been sold a found
footage horror and are instead presented with a manifesto of gibberish
they could have gotten for free on YouTube.
Hardy aside, the film simply doesn't work. There's barely a narrative
here, with some details teased only to never be elaborated upon. We
never really learn what's up with Angela, and that's part of the problem
with found footage movies – we only see things through the POV of the
camera-wielding protagonist and so we're deprived of crucial details. Of
course, the big question in badly made found footage thrillers is always
"Why are you still filming?" Here the camera is passed between Annie and
Stretch in the most implausible fashion and only a hybrid camera
operator/stunt performer would be able to capture the footage they
livestream.
The only positive I can come up with is that the visual effects are
quite impressive and the cheap video aesthetic makes them seem even more
convincing. But this is made with Blumhouse money so of course the
effects are going to be half decent. There's one shot that might have
made for a great "She's behind you!" moment if we actually cared whether
Annie lives or dies, but nobody in the audience will be screaming any
warnings to this horrible harpy.
