Deadstream (Movie Review)

Screened as part of the 2022 SXSW Film Festival. 

Movies set in the middle of the woods, with a creepy cabin, possession elements, and an off-beat campy sense of humor are incapable of outrunning comparisons to The Evil Dead. Deadstream, the feature debut of husband and wife team Joseph and Vanessa Winter, certainly meets the criteria for the comparison, but they’ve brought something modern to the party by tossing its familiar conceits into the screen life sub-genre. The results are decidedly nothing groundbreaking, but it’s a tremendous amount of fun with plenty of hair-raising moments complemented by outrageous jokes and gross out gags.

Deadstream follows a disgraced Internet personality, Shawn Ruddy (played by co-director Joseph Winter), as he attempts to get back into the good graces of his followers by spending a night all alone in the famously haunted Death Manor. Once inside with all of his fancy equipment in place Shawn begins to explore the house and provoke the spirits inside at the behest of his livestream audience. As the saying goes…play dumb games, win dumb prizes; and before long Death Manor’s vengeful spirit begins tormenting the streamer with a bevy of live viewers to enjoy the show.

Like most low budget bottle films with a severely limited cast the actors need to be on their A-game to keep the audience engaged for a full 90-minutes. With found footage there’s a tad less pressure since the first person camera is in a state of constant motion and the viewer is always gathering information about what’s in front of them. Winter is a talented entertainer here, and does a great job of portraying the boisterous personalities of YouTube and Twitch streamers. He also gets a chance late in the movie to take the veil down a bit to address the controversy that landed him in hot water, which is really the only point in the film that attempts to switch up from the found footage jump scare-a-thon and the sometimes slapstick jokes and humor.

Speaking of controversy, Deadstream also sideswipes at social commentary as it pertains to these streaming personalities who lean on the constant pressure of entertaining that they let slip offensive rants or complete stunts in poor taste. Shawn’s channel goes by the name ‘Wrath of Shawn’ which is all about performing Jackass-like stunts to face the things that scare him. One such stunt went terribly and caused him to lose a large swath of followers and prompted an apology video that many felt was insincere. Now, Deadstream does not really engage fully in this dialogue to really make a meaningful statement or depiction, but it’s an honorable attempt by even including something like this in something so silly and burying it amidst a series of jump scares and gore.

The it factor that Deadstream brings is simply its dedication to the bit. This is literally obnoxious fame seeking streamer vs. evil, and as insufferable as that might sound, it’s a hell of a lot of fun and packed with clever found footage payoffs. Deadstream certainly does not reinvent the screen life subgrene, but it’s a testament to how the format can work with the right material and plenty of indie spirit and passion to spare.

Deadstream was acquired by Shudder prior to its premiere at SXSW.