Livescream

I honestly did not know what to expect with this film. I watched this based on my brother's recommendation. As an independent filmmaker with a deep admiration of the horror genre, and a guilty pleasure for the found footage sub genre, I feel this works extremely well. My 7-year-old son watches a lot of live streamers, and he is specifically watching a lot of streaming based on a video game called "Doors". This is very well crafted and gives off a lot of vibes from found footage such as SPREE and Unfriended. LIVESCREAM has a very unique charm to it, and the character playing Scott is a believable protagonist. This is a short watch, at an hour and 10 minutes, and it utilizes every minute of screen time to keep you interested, without overwhelming you with the comments of the fans watching the protagonist play this game. It's familiar territory, but just feels very well crafted. A lot of people are not a fan of the found footage sub genre, and if you aren't a fan, I would not recommend this. This. However, if you are into the sub genre of the found footage horror, give this a watch and you might not be disappointed!

I will definitely be checking out the sequel, Livescreamers.

I had the opportunity to screen Michelle Iannantuono's feature film debut LIVESCREAM at the Crimson Screen Film Festival and was blown away. It's an interesting concept for a film, taking the "found footage" concept into a new dimension of "real time events" unfolding as a livestream of videogame play. Gunnar Willis shines as the gamer who is forced to play a haunted game that kills off players and viewers. For this role, he learned 75 pages of dialogue and delivered the entirety as a monologue which was done in 3 takes. The most unique aspect of the experience is that as a viewer you are constantly scanning back and forth between the gameplay window, the videochat window, and the text window. It's pretty groundbreaking that there are VERY emotional moments in the film that are the result of simple text being typed into a chat window. Audience members at the screening were tearing up over one particular scene where a photograph puts a face to one of the faceless texters. It's WEIRD how much power a simple photograph of a person holds in the context of the film. I'm not a gamer and I was moved by LIVESCREAM. I suspect hardcore gamers that "get" all the references that were lost on me will enjoy this movie on an entirely different level.

I don't know if it's because I'm not a gamer or if it just wasn't good. The guy's acting wasn't horrible but I didn't like it. Too much texting 2, I had to stop it many times just to catch up and to make sure I didn't miss anything. Fell asleep a couple times and awoke to him yelling. I don't know if all games are like this but the graphics were something off my first Nintendo, in the early 90's. Like I said, it could be me not appreciating it because im not a gamer or it was just really lame. Whatever you do, wait for it to be free.

The vulnerable moments killed it for me, but I liked the concept. I actually watch Youtube gamers, so this could've easily been a 7 for me if the acting and dialogue was more believable. I was in it the whole time though because the general look of it mirrors actual gamers pretty well. I liked the chat box being a big part of the dialogue, but that was one aspect that needed to be more believable. I also wasn't a huge fan of how they portrayed the viewers being killed off. However, the first one was almost decent. So, if actually watching someone play a game bores you, you won't like this movie either.

I actually really enjoyed this movie. It has that indie/micro budget charm. Also love the fact they had to make the game to go along with it. The ending was brutal. I would recommend if you're looking for a fun watch. They managed to do a lot of characterization in a short amount of time, even for those that weren't on screen. Personally, the negative reviews feel like people that don't appreciate micro budget/b movie horror.

There's not any gore so if you're squeamish you don't need to worry. There's not a ton of jumpscares, the ones that are there are mostly in the context of the game Scott is playing.