Livescream

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.

Of course I had never heard about this 2018 horror movie titled "Livescream" prior to stumbling upon it and sitting down to watch it. And I virtually didn't know what I was in for here, aside from it being a movie with some streaming-based storyline. And I have to say that it wasn't exactly a concept that had me worked up.

The movie was definitely not off to a good start. Why? Well, I have to say that making a movie about a guy livestreaming himself playing a game just doesn't qualify as entertainment to me. And I was on the verge of turning off the movie before it even got off to a running start. So writer and director Michelle Iannantuono didn't stand much of a chance with this movie.

I was not familiar with the cast ensemble, if one can actually call it that. It was simply just a single guy sitting at a computer and didn't do much of any acting. So yeah, laugh it up fuzzball.

I have to say that I find the streaming concept idiotic, and people sitting down to watch other people play games is even more idiotic. But hey, I suppose that kind of mindless entertainment is what the youth of today enjoy. Personally, I have to say that my life is just simply too short to sit down and watching other people play computer games and talking.

I made it a staggering 10 minutes into the dumpster fire that is "Livescream" and then I simply tossed the towel in the ring. This was a pathetic waste of time. It is nothing but a guy sitting and playing some horror game with lousy graphics and talking to himself and a make-believe audience.

My rating of writer and director Michelle Iannantuono's 2018 movie lands on a one out of ten stars. This is definitely one of the worst movies I've stumbled upon in a long, long time. Don't waste your time, money or effort on this heap of rubbish. And how this movie landed a 5.6 rating, while I was writing this review, simply is beyond my comprehension, but I suppose people that usually hang around watching livestreams took a break off of the livestreams to watch this dung heap.

This movie is more comical and has almost zero horror elements to it. It is laughably unrealistic, cringy, with atrocious dialogue and writing, and is a complete waste of time unless you are looking for a corny movie to make fun of throughout the night.

This movie is more comical and has almost zero horror elements to it. It is laughably unrealistic, cringy, with atrocious dialogue and writing, and is a complete waste of time unless you are looking for a corny movie to make fun of throughout the night. This movie is more comical and has almost zero horror elements to it. It is laughably unrealistic, cringy, with atrocious dialogue and writing, and is a complete waste of time unless you are looking for a corny movie to make fun of throughout the night.

Lots of over-the-top bad reviews here but my message is just stick with it and it turns into something quite good.

At first I almost gave up because the main character's reactions to what was happening around him didn't seem realistic (not his acting, which was very believable despite yelling a bit too much, this was mainly a writing issue)... and I couldn't see how the games shown would sustain my interest. However then it improved in pace and tension, and I got really into it. The text aspect was very well integrated too.

If you like films of a computer-screen genre (Searching, Unfriended, etc.) then give this a go. It's an intriguing concept, with lots of references for the gamers among you, some fine acting and a lovely punchline.

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.