Deadstream

Deadstream

After a public controversy left him disgraced and demonetized, a washed up internet personality tries to win back his followers by livestreaming himself spending one night alone in an abandoned haunted house. When he accidentally pisses off a vengeful spirit, his big comeback event becomes a real-time fight for his life (and social relevance) as he faces off with the sinister spirit of the house and her own powerful following.

  • Released: 2022-03-11
  • Runtime: 87 minutes
  • Genre: Comedy, Horror
  • Stars: Melanie Stone, Joseph Winter
  • Director: Joseph Winter, Vanessa Winter
 Comments
  • selfdestructo - 21 April 2024
    Freaking Mildred. She's such a C!!
    I'd consider Deadstream to be a pretty niche movie. Your level of enjoyment hinges on a number of things. I'm not here to tell you I hate found footage, so this sucks. Or I don't like horror-comedies, so this sucks. Or, worse still, "This wasn't even horror!" So it sucks. Let me just say, this is a comedy, with horror elements, a parody of social media "influencers," found footage (though not in the truest sense), and extremely meta. Our main character is very aware of every horror and paranormal trope... and he's scared to death of them! And this is where the fun begins.

    Husband and wife filmmaking team Joseph and Vanessa Winter knock it out of the park with their with their debut foray, on a tiny budget. This is exceptionally well-made, edited, written, acted, and conceived "found footage." Full disclosure: I'm a big fan of effective FF, genuine scares and surprises, as well as wacky ideas. Deadstream is right up my alley.

    First of all, played to obnoxious perfection by Joseph Winter, is Shawn, a YouTuber who livestreams his stunts (trying to face his seemingly vast array of fears), complete with running comments from all his skeptic fans and haters. I thought he was hilarious, and full of priceless, panicky one-liners. So, considering Winter, essentially, has the task of carrying the film's 88-minute running time; If you don't like his character (think Chris Elliott's Panicky Guy from old classic 80's Letterman, for an entire film), you won't like this movie.

    So Shawn, trying to get back into his audience's good graces, agrees to stay locked inside a haunted house for an entire evening ... after being disgraced by paying a bum to fight him, and putting the guy in the hospital! Also, being snuck over the Mexican border in the trunk of a muscle car, driven by two Mexican/Hispanics...

    This has all the hallmarks of found footage, and paranormal TV shows. Yet it's being streamed live, so not really "lost." He enters a supposedly haunted and abandoned house (a creepy, though slightly limited location), and sets up his security cameras to capture anything out of the ordinary. I can't give away anything more, There are some genuine scares... and each one of them is a freaking RIOT (again, more of a comedy).

    There's a great twist in here as well, that the filmmakers sort of lull you into. And if you don't pick up on it the first time, you'll notice a few examples of foreshadowing on a repeat viewing. Other things I found clever; Normally FF is done to dead silence, or a device (Paranormal Activity actually started a soundtrack trend). The Winters circumvent this altogether, by having Shawn bring his own Halloween electronic mixtape, with a song for each mood! (music: also by Joseph). There's a great sequence where Shawn straps a camera to a fallen demon with a cleaver lodged in its skull... knowing full well, it'll be back. I thought Deadstream was a blast. And accomplished, especially given how green its filmmakers are.

    If you liked this movie, definitely check out the Winters' segment in V/H/S 99 (and skip everything else). It was the single best segment that series had produced since V/H/S 2! Also filmed in Utah, as was this.
  • ravenousrena - 5 November 2023
    It's decent.
    People going into this looking for something scary, or something excessively funny, you will probably be disappointed, since rather than a horror-comedy, it feels more like a horror-themed satire on controversial content creators that cross the line... so unless you like videos made by obnoxious personalities, you'll likely find the main character unfunny and/or cringe, though even if you dislike those types, you might find some enjoyment out of the film.

    Those kind of content creators, when they go too far, often have less than sincere apology videos when their channel gets blocked or they're in danger of getting 'canceled'. Then they end up desperate to 'redeem' themselves to the public, and might even attempt to change the narrative of their career... which is the route the main character goes to get back in his viewers good graces.

    The influence of Evil Dead (specifically Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness), seems pretty apparent with the make-up and effects, as well as the goofy confrontations between the protagonist and the various entities he encounters and the behavior of the antagonist.

    I actually found the 'stream' to be the more humorous part of the movie, just because it felt authentic to the actual chat in a stream. From trolls, to skeptics, to the innocent sounding people who wholeheartedly believe in the creator and encourage them or want to help them so they do research or make suggestions.

    I'm not too fond of people like the main character; however, I found him kind of interesting, since he more-or-less felt authentic in regards to the role he was trying to portray, and I thought he did a decent job acting, flip-flopping from his streamer persona to acting more like an average guy in a bad situation.

    A lot of people are either calling this movie awful, or acting like it's a masterpiece. It's neither. It's by no means unique, and it can often be cliché, though I assume the director did that purposely to make the film more 'ironic', though using clichés ironically is also nothing groundbreaking.

    I thought the movie was a decent watch, and I believe it can be fun if you are into the whole streaming angle of the film, and you curb your expectations.
  • TheTruthofItIs - 4 September 2023
    Really fun livestream horror/comedy
    "Deadstream" (2022, 90-mins, unrated (PG-13), Shudder) is a low-budget horror, comedy, thriller that's a pretty fun ride. My wife wasn't impressed/didn't "get it", but I thought it was a blast. Joseph Winter wrote/directed/starred which typically doesn't end well but this is that rare gem that does. (His co-writer/co-director was wife, Vanessa.) His character, Shawn, attempts to redeem his streamer reputation by spending the entire night in the most infamous haunted house and mayhem ensues though tinged with comedic elements, the best of which was the livestream side-scroll comments from his viewers - if you miss that element then you're not enjoying the film's full potential. The pace is pretty fast, too, which is unusual for this type of movie which usually depends on long pauses then jump scares. The monster/ghoul-makeup was much better than expected, too, another treat. Trust me on this.
  • jadavix - 15 December 2022
    The wrong approach
    If you've heard anything about "Deadstream", you've probably heard about the gimmick it employs of being entirely shot like a YouTube video filmed by a streamer, with mounted cameras and selfie angles.

    In this regard it reminded me of the 2020 flick "Host", which was entirely shot with webcams. "Deadstream" isn't as good as that flick, however, and nor is it anywhere near as effective as a horror film.

    Watching it, I was trying to work out why. There are scenes and revelations that should be scary, but aren't, at least up until the admittedly effective ending. I think the problem is the gimmicky approach. A disgraced "influencer" puts himself through a night in a haunted house after one of his previous attempts at stealing views and likes instead resulted in outrage and loss of sponsorship. He's just like your typical YouTube star: they say that to be famous online you have to be yourself, but bigger. He does it to an obnoxious extent, his desperate-for-attention face always filling the screen, and his incessant voice blocking out all other sounds.

    The trouble is this is just too much like a typical YouTube video. In fact, it loses something in comparison to one of those videos, because we know it isn't real. The filmmakers needed to distance themselves from standard YouTube movie making, rather than totally embracing it. They needed to use the art of standard motion pictures. This would have allowed us to view the streamer's antics from the outside-in and be able to assess them in kind. Instead, it's like we're being forced to watch an obnoxious influencer, who, if the algorithm forced us to watch one of his videos, we'd probably click the dislike button.
  • aryopermono - 12 November 2022
    Enjoyable
    Turns out it is quite enjoyable.. The plot story is okay..

    But

    The acting is unnatural... Many nonsense...

    How could he not suspice the girl when he meet her at the first time?

    She come out of nowhere in the dark without any single lighting gear with her.. Didn't it suspice him?

    Naturally people will be wondering and suspicious about who she is..But he just talk casually instead.. That is a Very unnatural reaction I suppose...

    Frankly , most of his reaction for most of circumstances are very weird, annoying and unnatural..

    But overall,. It is enjoyable for someone who like this kind of movie..
  • belleabu - 2 November 2022
    Scary and laughs
    I am not one to seek out comedy horror, this popped up on my recommendation page.

    Internet prankster who pissed off so many, wants to reinvent himself.

    This is a great combination of scares and laughs. The main character was actually likable and genuinely funny. Loved his screams. The interaction with viewers was great with skeptics, haters and admirers.

    The abandoned house was creepy and gross. Jump scares were unpredictable. Not obvious as with other where the camera angle may warn you.

    I really enjoyed this movie. I would definitely recommend this to horror fans for a nice change of regular found footage.