Stream

The Keenan family checks into a hotel for a family vacation, unaware that they and the other guests are players in a deadly game.

The story is a mostly mashup of 3 horror flicks from the early 2000s: Vacancy, Halloween: Resurrection, and The Strangers, mixed with a little DeathRace 2000, and it has uncomfortable gore on par with Eli Roth films and the Saw sequels. I've got no problem with movies being derivative or gory if they're good, and I'm all for indies, but the overwhelming acclaim on this one is truly baffling.

The story isn't great, and the dialogue for the Kennan family is consistently poorly written (which makes their acting seem terrible). We never get a satisfying explanation for why the game is happening. Tim Reid is way too good for this movie. Jeffrey Combs. Danielle Harris, and Tony Todd give the kinds of performances fans would expect, and most all of the other genre names are wasted in minor roles. If you're looking for Tim Curry and Bill Moseley, it's a long wait since they don't show up 'til the middle of the end credits. And even Dee Wallace couldn't sell bad dialogue.

It's well-shot. The gore is realistic. But it's ridiculously overlong, tedious, inscrutable, and hardly the perfect 10 of a movie that countless (likely fake) reviewers have proclaimed it to be. A 4 is being generous, and it's mostly for the impressive FX and a few decent performances.

The killers have a great look- modern carbon fiber masks with LED lights that give it a unique video game feel. The style this was shot as also aids itself to that look. The cast is mega from all walks of horror life. Standout performances by Jeffery Combs and Danielle Harris as well as some really well acted supporting roles from Tim Reid, Dee Wallace and Terrifier's David Howard Thornton , Wesley Holloway and Michael Leavy (also the director). I enjoyed the surprise cameos of Tim Curry, Bill Moseley and Tony Todd. The biggest compliment however goes to newcomer Charles Edwin Powell as our hero/protagonist. Not often do you see a final dad. Some characters make questionable decisions for sure but its clear it was an intentional tribute to slashers of the golden era of horror (IE 80s). A tighter beginning- getting us into the game faster and more explanation into how it works would've called for a higher score but didn't take away from the experience when all was said and done. It's evident the filmmakers are saving those details for an eventual sequel and I am here for it.

As a die hard Terrifier and Fuzz on the Lens fan I think I set me expectations way too high. As I look at the numerous 10/10 scores on IMDB it's evident to me that many other fans like myself who have become near family with these filmmakers through social media are doing the kind thing by building this film up to help it. I get it. I am an indie filmmaker myself and understand that building bonds with your niche audience is imperative for any sustained success. But as an audience member I was not very entertained. Aside from Paul Wiley's score, David Howard Thornton's very reminiscent of Art the Clown performance, and Jeffrey Combs who carries much of this film, it felt like a chore to get through. This felt like a first draft of a script that needed more outside eyes on it. The dialogue was flat and characters one dimensional. The "game" I don't think even began til around 45 minutes into the film (or at least it felt that way) The entire runtime before that dragged and dragged. I can count two times that I began to nod off. You also get no real exposition as to why this game is being played, who the players are, or its audience. It would've benefited from some intercutting shots between the game and certain audience members watching and rooting for their favorite players to remind you that this is actually a "stream". What it does do is benefit from the great makeup fx work we've come to love and expect from Damien Leone. There are a few really nice kill scenes that give you big time Terrifier vibes. It just doesn't have enough.

I went into Stream without knowing anything about it. Having seen it, I feel like it's a mixed bag, with its strengths being awesome and its weaknesses dragging it down.

Stream falls into a horror subgenre with which I don't have much experience. But it seems like this movie was made for one purpose: carnage candy. It will surely delight fans of exploitation films. My jaw dropped several times at these shocking scenes.

Everything else to do with the horror elements are done well. The masks look great and there are some good jump scares and suspenseful moments. And the music is beastly.

As for the negatives, the best kills happen in the first half. My jaw rarely dropped in the second half. And anything not to do with the horror elements is poor. I try to give a little leeway for such a low budget independent film, especially when it comes to the acting talent available to them. But every conversation is overly long and awkward.

It's like they should cut here, but they continue for an additional 10 or 15 seconds. And this happens 70-80 times, multiple times within the same scene. I was bored and distracted, waiting for something fun to happen.

If that was cleaned up, and a few unnecessary scenes were deleted, Stream could have been a breezy 90-100 minutes. Instead, it's 130 minutes without warranting that runtime.

I had a solid time with this movie, and any fans of this subgenre should check it out. Support independent films.

(1 viewing, opening Wednesday 8/21/2024)

I was very impressed with the gore in the film, and there are some fun scenes, but everything that doesn't involve the killers is boring as hell. All of these characters are flatly written and acted with only the seasoned actors standing out.

The gore is the real star of the show and it is not disappoiting. There is a scene where two of the killers play tik tak toe on one of their victims. There is also a very impressive decapitation with one of the most realistic fake heads I have ever seen.

In the end, I am not mad I went to see it. I wish the film had been better but the gore does help you get through all of the other stuff.