Deadstream (2022)


I can safely say not many people really like influencers.  This is not a blanket dismissal of content creators, many of whom work hard and do a great job on presenting commentary.  It should not be a surprise that I like seeing people reacting to music or movies for the first time and many of them have interesting or new takes on the subjects.  That is much different than those who make a living trying to call attention to themselves by doing ridiculous stunts and then wonder why they are suddenly looking at having to navigate the job market in the real world. 

Shawn Ruddy (Joseph Winter) runs a YouTube channel called The Wrath of Shawn in which he films himself facing his biggest fears.  That may sound fine until one realizes he does so in the worst ways, such as filming himself being smuggled over the U.S. border from Mexico or making himself a general nuisance to others and law enforcement.  After getting cancelled for one of his stunts and losing his sponsorships Shawn apologizes and decides to make a comeback by investigating a haunted house in conjunction with a sponsorship from the fictional video service Livvid. 

The house is in an isolated part of Utah and is said to be host to the spirit of an eccentric poet named Mildred who committed suicide and is now collecting the souls of anyone who lives in or on the property.  In order to make things more difficult he disables his vehicle and throws away the house key after locking himself in.  However, as he livestreams his night in the house, strange things actually occur.  A fan named Chrissy (Melanie Stone) shows up to help with the investigation and gets him to chant some words of protection which turn out to be anything but.  He soon finds himself pursued by Mildred and the other ghosts in the house as he endures being mocked by a public interested in seeing him fail. 

Joseph Winter and his wife Vanessa wrote and directed the movie, filming in a house previously used for the movie Made Men.  All the effects are practical and quite a number of references are made to the Evil Dead films.  It starts out a bit iffy but once things get going we find out more about the house and about why Shawn is such a despicable person.

The big problem, however, is that Winter does too good of a job portraying Shawn as a shrill manbaby.  The character is hard to endure for the running time of the movie as he screams and runs about only to gather strength whenever his fragile ego is threatened.  In a way it's a great parody if this sort of online personality while also being almost impossible to watch for any length of time.  Thankfully Melanie Stone has some natural acting talent and balances out Wiuter's performance.

Deadstream (2022)
Time: 87 minutes
Starring: Joseph Winter, Melanie Stone
Diretors: Joseph Winter, Vanessa Winter

 

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