Deadware

Plot

In 1999, two friends use a webcam for the first time and stumble across a mysterious browser game that may be haunted.

Cast

Not familiar with anybody involved.

Verdict

There's no shortage of "Cyber" horror films these days in fact we went through quite the spate of them. A large percentage operated the gimmick of playing out entirely through a characters screen with a series of windows open and of course all the involved characters on webcam. The results, mixed however I always liked the concept and it very often managed to be suitably creepy despite the movies quality.

Deadware is on a considerably lower budget than most of the others and to a point it shows, but with something that's not supposed to look polished it's entirely forgivable and looks exactly as it's supposed to.

Telling a story essentially of a haunted browser game in the 90's it oozes nostalgia for those of the right age who dipped their feet into webcams back in the day. Even the point and click browser game brought back memories.

It delivers the creeps, the perfectly constructed pacing and I found myself gripped. The flaw? The finale though passable was more than a little uninspired and really lets the film down.

Regardless within this sub-genre this is up there among the best in my opinion.

Rants

I miss games like this, slow paced, mysterious, unpredictable and yet having a level of basic construction that keeps you on your toes. Modern horror games are more like action titles or alternatively they're predictable flashlight wielding in the dark jump scare filled predictability. Games in many ways have gotten too advanced, back peddle! And while we're on the subject, enough putting multi-player into everything. I almost miss the days before online multiplayer where you played games on the couch together. Yep, I'm officially old.

Breakdown

Perfect pacing Great execution Very nostalgic Weak finale.

I liked the concept especially the idea of it being from a 90s AIM IBM computer period piece. However as intriguing as the concept was it still couldn't make up for the terrible acting and lack of authenticity in the dialogue. "I don't wanna play, I'm logging off" then 1 phone call later of asking without persistent persuasion player 2 is back in camera convinced to play again and all it took was a "I need closure please"? No way. Then when player 2 comes back all of a sudden he wants to be there. No more mention of work. Also I would like to mention that actors nowadays who don't look old enough to have experienced the AIM era themselves couldn't possibly capture the authenticity of the time. In one scene he says something like "it's not voice activated... that would be impossible" almost like he wanted to say "it's 1995 we don't have voice activation yet but we will have it in 2025". It wasn't necessary to put so much emphasis on "it can't be voice activated". Felt like he was trying to convince us that it was 1995. The scenery, software, and hardware already told us what time period it was. No need for convincing. Could've been a 5 or 6 but acting dropped it to a 3 or 4. I gave it 4 because the game did look like something we played at that time.

Great googly moogly, this was terrible. Not a single aspect of this film - not the acting, not the script, not the scares, not the period authenticity - were pulled off successfully.

The performances were a flatline. I haven't seen either of them in anything else, so they may be brilliant in other roles, just not in this film.

Not that they were given much to work with. You can't make an hour long horror movie based off 90s internet click-bait screamers and spoooooky meme images. Half the film consisted of this same exchange.

Character 1: This game is spooky.

Character 2: Yes, but let's keep going.

Character 1: No, I don't want to keep going.

Character 2: Yes, but let's keep going.

Character 1: Okay. *Cue screamer*

Character 1 & 2: OH NO!

It starts slow and has little budget but the actors pull it off and there are some quality scares in here. Really good job all around with the visuals as well. You see so many movies like this that just suck but this one clocks in at 68 mins so just hang in for the first 15 or so and then you're off to the races.

It was better than I expected, for a low budget found footage almost style film. The conversation seems natural like two friends chatting on a web cam, and the concept was pretty cool. It definitely looks like the 90s Internet too, and playing a game on the Internet was pretty 90s. So I think the concept works.

It got in some nice creepy scares, got out some cool secrets about the characters. The chat between the characters explains the story, so I felt that worked.

I thought it was a slow start though, and more chatter explaining the story instead might have worked a bit better. But overall not a bad watch.