Deadstream – Fantasia 2022
July 14 to August 3, 2022
A controversial livestreamer sets out to spend a night alone in a haunted house in Deadstream. Shawn Ruddy (Joseph Winter) is the controversial host of the “Wrath of Shawn” live stream, who has just returned online after an incident that cost him his sponsors. To bounce back, Shawn decides to spend a night in the haunted Pratt House. Armed with Go-Pro cameras, Shawn locks himself in the house and prepares to face the horrors within.
Deadstream is a found-footage horror film written and directed by Joseph and Vanessa Winter, with the former also starring as the protagonist Shawn Ruddy. Shawn is the epitome of the worst internet bros and has just returned online after posting a half-hearted apology for a controversial video. It doesn’t take long before strange events happen in the house, and Shawn finds himself joined by possibly stalkerish fan Chrissy (Melanie Stone).
Whether intentional or not, Deadstream seems to take a lot of inspiration from Rob Savage’s films Host and DASHCAM, with the latter also having an unlikeable live streaming protagonist. Of course, Deadstream differs in how the horror ends up being much more akin to The Evil Dead. While the film’s low budget is very apparent in the “rubber mask” creature effects, Deadstream still makes for a pretty solid funhouse of horrors.
