Deadstream (2022) Review

After an incident which leaves his career as an influencer hanging by a thread, Shawn Ruddy (Joseph Winter) aims to win back his followers and resurrect his LivVid streaming service show by spending a night in a house which is reputedly haunted – well, it’s referred to as Death Manor, so there’s a reasonable chance there are ghosts kicking about.

Shutting himself in there with only his cameras and various tech (both high and low) to keep him company, his clumsy investigation into the paranormal accidentally resurrects a vengeful spirit and from then on it’s a battle to escape both the house and the ghoul in the most stupidly dangerous episode of “Wrath Of Shawn” to date…

Getting the set up out of the way in double quick time and then continuing to keep up the cracking pace almost throughout, Deadstream avoids the usual plot of the found footage genre to deliver set piece after set piece, Winter cutting an Ash-like figure as he crashes through the place, slips on every fluid he steps on and is bounced off almost every available wall as the spectral menace amps up.

The comedy is generally of the very silly type, including the marvellous Wheel Of Stupid Things which is, as you may have guessed, a wheel with stupid things on it that Shawn must do if the arrow lands on a particular task. It’s impossible not to laugh along as your host bemoans his lot in life and squeals at every noise he hears.

Deadstream may have its tongue firmly in its cheek but it also knows how to deliver a damn good jump scare with precision and, as the plot somehow steps up a gear in terms of frenetic incident, there’s a genuine sense of fear accompanying the fun.

For a film which spends the bulk of its time following just one guy around a building, there are very few flat spots. Part of that is down to Winter’s terrific, comedic performance and his deft playing of the slapstick sequences. Backing this up is extremely clever writing which uses the conventions of the online world to further the plot or to provide background details in a rapid, economical fashion.

The screenplay, by Winter and his wife Vanessa, may confine the action to a relatively small space but they also know how to open out the world by pulling in various contributors from cyberspace, who show up to dispense vital advice via instant messages or video attachments whenever Shawn gets into a real jam. This also has real world consequences for our hero as he desperately waits for a file to download, not knowing whether something’s going to jump out on him before it’s completed.

Clearly, er, influenced by the first two Evil Dead movies but, homage or three aside, using Raimi’s classics as the inspiration to strike out in an amusingly different direction, what would normally be lurking at the edges of the frame in this subgenre lands front and centre here in a shower of pleasingly gloopy gore effects and some close-up, running repair on nasty injuries which will have you both wincing and chuckling.

Wonderfully over the top, this is a whip-smart piece of work masquerading as a dumb, throwaway flick. The term “comedy horror” often fills me with dread because it’s such a difficult mix to blend successfully, but Deadstream often follows up laugh out loud moments with sudden dread or a shock that comes out of nowhere. The heightened atmosphere means that the tonal shifts work extremely well and the Big Bad’s gradual transformation from ridiculous myth to terrifying entity is something to behold.

There are so many jokes and scares vying for attention in this that you may start to feel a little fatigued around the hour mark but even then there’s little time to catch your breath as Shawn, armed with the knowledge acquired from his acolytes and some crudely fashioned weaponry acquired from stuff lying about, faces off with his demonic nemesis in a gruesome, hilarious final showdown which makes inventive use of webcams.

Spoofing the found footage genre something rotten while simultaneously breathing new and invigorating life into it, Deadstream will have you rolling on the floor one moment and hitting the roof the next. With a screenplay steeped in tropes which it subverts time after time, this is a breath of fresh air and I would have happily watched it again the minute the credits stopped rolling. Step forward Shawn Ruddy, for you are horror’s new icon of heroic idiocy.

Movie Rating:

Trailer: