DEADSTREAM

		Review by E.C. McMullen Jr.
DEADSTREAM - 2022 USA Release: Oct. 6, 2022 Winterspectre Entertainment, Cook Filmworks, Stonehaven Entertainment, Blue Finch Film Releasing, Shudder Rating: USA: N/A

Like all streaming services, Shudder has a plenty of great movies but is overwhelmed by all of its sludge.

That is to be expected because taste is subjective and what I love you might not and vice-versa.

For example, I love THE EVIL DEAD.

EVIL DEAD 2013?

Not a fan.

So how about this one, this Cinéma vérité DEADSTREAM?

It opens with a loud and obnoxious YouTube-style "influencer" (Joseph Winter) declaring "I'm Shawn Ruddy and I'm a piece of trash!"

In quick, YouTube Channel-style motion graphics and edits, Shawn zips through the scandal wot knocked him off his high perch of Online Celebutard and into six months of being kicked off of streaming services, and thus losing sponsors and being demonetized.

Shawn, however, is douche-bag desperate for attention, knows it, knows his audience knows it, and if he can make money off of indulging in his worst behavior that sure beats an hourly wage.

"I'm Shawn Ruddy the world's biggest wuss. And because I love attention and hate myself..."

He made as sincere an apology as he is able to the Internet, his disingenuous nonsense was accepted, and Shawn's back. Well not to YouTube, but LivVid.TV.

Yes he's desperate to curry favor with his new sponsor and win back his audience so he can be monetized again.

Available in the merch store.

Shawn's overwhelming ton of merchandise, all of it cashing in on a contrite persona so plastic it feels 3D printed, let's us know that his apology was goal oriented, not genuine. But Shawn brushes all of that aside in his effort to tear himself down. How?

For attention and money Shawn presents his ultimate act of contrition: live-streaming the one "Fear" he never faced in all of his years of confronting his long list of personality problems (well, all except his narcissism) - and his latest challenge is his fear of... Ghosts!

Shawn admits that he was raised in a religious household so believes in all manner of supernatural things. He also hates believing in it as it's part of what causes his multitude of anxieties. So...

Shawn is going to spend one night alone in a haunted house.

Armed with a plethora of GoPros, batteries, and what must be an expensive Internet connection even in this time of Starlinks, his show, WRATH OF SHAWN, is going to the most famous haunted house in the United States: Demon Manor.

Well, the most famous one that he can break into without getting arrested - which is somewhere in the boondocks of Utah.

Because Shawn "Knows himself", meaning his weaknesses, he'll remove any excuse making temptation to leave as soon as he gets scared. When he reaches his destination he pulls two spark plug cables from his car and throws them into the woods. After breaking into Death Manor, he locks the door from the inside with a padlock (how fortunate that the interior side of the door had a latch that could accommodate) and throws away the key.

Thunder rolls in the night. Thunder is also the name of his energy drink sponsor. And to get max views, likes, and subscriptions, Shawn will personally check out whatever noise, apparition, or wotnot that scares him in the house. That includes scary closets.

"Oh no! Ghosts love closets!"

That's the deal he made to his audience, that's what got him his sponsor, and his plan is working.

Also, he can't swear.

Of course, the movie wouldn't work unless the house really IS haunted and that's where the scares and comedy enter.

With the camera (often) pointed directly up his hairless Nair manicured nostrils, Shawn scares himself silly with all manner of imagined frights. He diligently sets up his cameras throughout the house for infrared and motion detection, speaking of the history of the house to calm his nerves.

DEADSTREAM is largely a one man show focused on Shawn, though throughout the movie he live-action answers his many viewers, a few of them fans, but mostly vicious trolls.

To provide context, he also plays media from previous Ghost Hunters who recorded their time in the house in the 1990s and early 2000s.

The key to this movie in both scares and comedy (which it delivers, smashingly), is how the folks making this movie addressed nearly every stupid Horror movie trope foisted on Horror fans for decades and did it in all the right ways that make the Horror and Comedy feel earned. Yes, Shawn gets himself into those stupid Horror movie cliches that you should never do, but if he didn't, he wouldn't be "Confronting his fears" and his show wouldn't be much of a Challenge.

Complicating matters is how the trolls on his feed endlessly taunt him, goading him into danger, and bringing up his true worst fear: losing sponsors and so the ability to support himself without getting a job.

Among his troublesome "fans" are Chrissy (Melanie Stone [also Producer]: NO PRECEDENCE, ONE SHOT, NOCTURNE, THE KILLING PACT, DEVIL'S GOT MY BACK, WE'RE ALIVE: FRONTIER [TV]),
Latin Professor (Perla Lacayo),
Latin Professor's Daughter (Cylia Austin-Lacayo),
Hamsa Kid (Hayden Gariety), and
Hettie (Pat Barnett).

There are so many cool things I'd love to tell you about this movie but I won't do spoilers, so instead I'll tell you this: in addition to being the lead actor, Joseph Winters was also the Co-Writer, Co-Producer, Co-Director, Co-Editor, Composer, and Camera Operator.

The person on the other side of those many "Co's" is Vanessa Winter (DEVIL'S GOT MY BACK), who shared Writing, Producing, Directing, and Editing as well as being Producer, and a blink-and-you'll miss her "Baby Moses Mother".

Many of the crew wore several hats. Jared Cook is Producer, Cinematographer, Animation, Specialized Camera Rigging, Post Production Colorist, and Location Manager.

Joshua M. Cook is Associate Producer and Sound Designer.

Friends and family came together for this one. In fact, they even had their own THE EVIL DEAD Ted Raimi for a Fake Shemp, as Dustin Winter handled Behind the Scenes, Production Intern, and Special Effects Assistant.

Speaking of Special Effects, DEADSTREAM wasn't lacking in the creature make-up department, adroitly handled by Mikaela Kester (BEHIND YOU, STAY OUT OF THE F**KING ATTIC, BABYSITTER MUST DIE) and Troy Larson (LIFELESS, BEHIND YOU, RED CANYON, ANIMALS).

DEADSTREAM may be the Best Horror Comedy ever made because it's genuinely funny AND genuinely scary. I've watched this crazy crackpot three times in three days. I think I'm falling in love with this movie.

All Five Shriek Girls.

This review copyright 2022 E.C.McMullen Jr.

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