Review: Deadstream is a hilarious and horrifying delight

Very few found footage films delicately balance between humor and horror with such precision like Deadstream. It is this year’s Host — a bonafide blockbuster that’s able to send chills down your spine one moment and make you bust out laughing the next. It takes great care with the material and thoughtful execution for all the pieces to fit together into the perfect masterpiece. And Joseph and Vanessa Winter, co-writers and co-directors, have done it. They have struck gold with a film that will surely turn more than a few heads, on and offscreen.

Shawn Ruddy (Joseph Winter) is a popular streamer. He’s been making outrageous stunt-focused content for seven years, but he came under fire six months ago after he exploited a homeless man in a video. In another, he enlisted two Mexican-American men to smuggle him over the border into Mexio. Well, the internet didn’t take too kindly to his antics, and Shawn saw all his sponsors pull out. He was even demonetized across all his platforms. His career was all but over — that is until he issued your typical teary-eyed, totally disingenuous apology video. Now, back in the good graces of his fans, he plots his next big stunt: confronting a fear of ghosts. Don’t worry, he grew up in church and knows all about ’em. His plan is simple: spend the night in a not-so-famous haunted house and live stream the experience. He can’t leave, and he must be brave for the camera. His fans (and sponsors) demand it.

Once inside, the wrath of Shawn is absolute buffoonery. He taunts the spirits, spins a color wheel to decide what to do next, and plays up every moment to the camera. But when actual paranormal events start happening, his demeanor does a complete 180, and he cowers in the safe room (the only space to not have a single report of ghostly things). He pleads with his fans just to give him a chance to prove himself. Once Chrissy (Melanie Stone), an obsessed fan, shows up, his fans turn on him (Team Chrissy! they proclaim in the live chat) and vote for her to stay and partake in the ghoulish festivities.

Throughout Deadstream, wonderful frights clash with humorous gags. It’s a gonzo barrage of bumps in the night, jarring jump scares, and jokes that stick and slide down the walls. And the horrific story of Mildred Pratt serves as an ample backdrop to it all. The story goes: Pratt, a poet, once fell in love. When her lover died, she killed herself in the upstairs hallway, so terribly stricken with heartache and loneliness she was. Another 11 deaths followed in the years after her death, leading Shawn to consider whether the curse was Pratt’s doing or if Pratt was just another victim. It’s the kind of urban legend that seeps into the brain and causes restless sleep, jitters, and endless nightmares.

Deadstream juggles both extremes with such skill it’s hard to imagine one without the other. Even when the circumstances further plummet, and his life hangs precariously in the balance, Shawn never waivers in giving his fans a good show to the bitter end. He is a streamer after all; his entire existence is a performance. What Joseph and Vanessa have created with Deadstream is nothing short of exemplary entertainment. And like Host, it’ll live on as an emblem of the greatness that is found footage.

The film is now streaming on Shudder.

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