“I’m Shawn Ruddy and I’m a piece of trash,” are the first words spoken in DEADSTREAM, and over the course of the following 90 minutes, we get to see just how true that statement may be. Written and directed by Vanessa and Joseph Winter, DEADSTREAM introduces us to Shawn, a disgraced YouTuber attempting to make a comeback by livestreaming a night spent alone in a haunted house. He plays up the scares to win back his followers, his view count, and his precious monetization until he comes to realize that this haunting is all too real. Under contract with the company that is sponsoring the livestream, Shawn locks himself inside and attempts to survive the night in this horror-comedy.
Shawn (played by co-writer and director, Joseph Winter) is an interesting character—good news considering that he is on screen for almost the entirety of the runtime, and he truly has to carry the movie. He is the kind of guy who shrieks in fear at the sight of a coat rack and refers to haunted areas as “paranormal G-spots.” We also learn, via a brief snippet of an apology video played in his comeback announcement, that he has done something bad—although the specifics of this transgression are smartly withheld from us until much later. We get the opportunity to know him before being told the severity of what he’s done. In a movie like DEADSTREAM, the challenge becomes creating a character that the audience will care enough about to watch for a whole movie, but who is also a big enough jerk that it’s still enjoyable to watch him get wrecked by ghosts and demons, and in Shawn, that delicate balance is found.
Before that though, we are quickly and efficiently acquainted with the rules of the movie as Shawn lays them out for his livestream audience. He must stay all night, he must investigate any strange noise he hears, and he cannot swear for risk of demonetization. DEADSTREAM is presented almost exclusively via Shawn’s livestream, allowing the audience to feel integrated into Shawn’s base of followers, watching his every move. It’s similar in that way to Eugene Kotlyarenko’s SPREE from a few years back. Films like these two are just the beginning of an exciting wave of found footage livestream horror films.
The trickiest part of making a found footage movie sometimes can be justifying the cameras rolling and filming everything that is going on. With a movie like DEADSTREAM, that potential problem is solved effortlessly by making the act of filming integral to the character and his behavior. This tactic also allows for moments oscillating between comedy and terror as viewers in the live chat participate in the stream. The live chat both holds some of the funniest lines in the movie, such as “it’s a wedgie board,” and provides genuine scares when they point out things that Shawn is too oblivious to notice. I was grateful to be watching DEADSTREAM at home so I could pause the movie and read every individual message, however, I also couldn’t help but imagine how much fun this movie would be in a dark theatre with a bunch of people. The live chat also provides an essential foil to Shawn, giving his absurdity a place to land and bounce off of. This opposition allows Winter’s performance to be consistently funny and engaging to watch.
Perhaps the weakest part of DEADSTREAM is when the film cuts away from the events inside the house to archival footage or videos sent in from fans trying to assist Shawn. Although these moments feel somewhat heavy handed, they provide us with necessary information quickly rather than dragging out the exposition. Everything else about the livestream process, however, feels very authentic, and for those of us entrenched in this variety of online content, it does not take that big of a leap to imagine something like this actually happening. From the behavior in the chat, to the way Shawn interacts with his followers, it feels familiar and true to life.
It’s something we have seen time and time again. A YouTuber makes a tearful apology video for reprehensible behavior and after an undetermined period of time they carry on, albeit with a fraction of their previous audience. It is easy to replace Shawn with the likes of a Shane Dawson or a David Dobrik—the latter is even the subject of another film premiering at SXSW, documentary feature, UNDER THE INFLUENCE. This idea in DEADSTREAM opens an interesting conversation about how much atonement absolves an influencer for the bad things they’ve done, if any. Being an influencer gives a person a lot of power and responsibility. Bestowed upon anyone with a camera and a WIFI connection, even someone like Shawn who is, for all intents and purposes, an idiot, can amass a fan base willing to dedicate their time, money, and energy to their hijinks. This whole world of YouTubers and content creators that DEADSTREAM engages with is fascinating and unexpectedly thought provoking when presented in this way.
Because of elements like this that make DEADSTREAM feel so true to life, it is also incredibly immersive. From little glitches in the livestream that tricked me into thinking something was wrong with my internet connection, to jump scares set up so expertly, I was watching certain scenes through my fingertips. DEADSTREAM puts you right in that house with Shawn, for better or worse. Fear is, of course, as relative as comedy, and this movie takes on the difficult task of balancing both in equal measure. Those who share a sense of humor with the movie are all but guaranteed to have an absolute blast with it. While DEADSTREAM is not able to nail everything all of the time, when the elements of terror and comedy work, they work unbelievably well together, taking the audience along for an exhilarating ride. DEADSTREAM is a messy, gooey, sick, raucous, tornado of a movie that flies absurdly off the rails in the final minutes, making it one I am looking forward to revisiting for many Halloween seasons to come. Shawn Ruddy may be a piece of trash, but DEADSTREAM is a true gem.
Tags: Deadstream, Eugene Kotlyarenko, Film Festivals, Found-Footage, Haunted Houses, Joseph Winter, Spree, SXSW, SXSW 2022, Vanessa Winter
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