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According to Robert Scucci
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Every once in a while I come across a low-budget film that gets polarizing reviews and I want to see if I’m the type of person who’s willing to appreciate the project for what it is, or if I’m just going to rip it apart like I could do something better (spoiler: I can’t). When Reddit user u/IamGodHimself2 boldly declared that 2017 Stream It was the scariest movie they’d ever seen, I had my doubts – especially when I read every single comment calling the movie a smug, low-budget college project with crappy camerawork and very little pay.
The naysayers aren’t necessarily wrong in their assessment, but you can’t look at films made for an estimated $3,000 the same way you look at bigger budget films, because experimental films like Stream have obvious limitations, you have to look past what larger productions and their audiences take for granted.
If I had to describe Stream in one sentence I would say, “It’s the atmosphere.”
Nothing much to it
Stream he spends most of his time at Stephanie’s (Brittany Dunk) apartment, and we get most of the exposition we need to know via the radio broadcast. A long tracking shot follows Stephanie around her house and the radio reports that her boyfriend David recently committed suicide by stabbing himself multiple times and gouging out his eyes. According to the broadcast, foul play is not suspected.
After creating its isolated atmosphere, Stream will feature Sarah (Gloria Bueno), who pays a visit out of concern for her best friend. Through some of the film’s only dialogue, it’s clear that Stephanie’s grieving has made her a recluse, causing her to lose her job while severing most of her close relationships as she struggles to come to terms with her boyfriend’s death. During this brief exchange, Stephanie tells Sarah that David started acting like a completely different person after he became obsessed with a live feed of a man lying in a coffin before his untimely and gruesome death.
To make things even more disturbing, Stephanie reveals to Sarah that she’s been getting voicemails from David, even though she disconnected his phone a few days ago.
A seemingly endless loop
It shows its namesake, Stream he leads Stephanie and Sarah to David’s office, where the live feed is still running. David’s notes suggest that he can’t stop watching the stream or the man in the coffin will come after him. Sarah has a seizure and, after recovering, locks herself in the bathroom in a panic. When Stephanie bangs on the bathroom door, her doorbell rings and she finds Sarah at the front door as if nothing happened.
Stephanie finds herself trapped in a terrifying time loop involving David’s corpse stalking her and archived stream footage that leaves her with subtle clues about his origins.
An edgy, bare-bones story
Listen, I’ll be the first to tell you Stream is a totally hour-long amateur film—apart from the painfully long 15-minute post-credits sequence, the film is literally an hour long, and writer/director Isaac Rodriguez (best known for his “No Sleep” YouTube channel) clearly didn’t have a lot of resources to bring this film to life. Despite the film’s limitations, the long camera shots that make up the bulk of the film get under your skin as the color palette constantly shifts from normal, to an ominously glowing red, to a blue saturation that consumes your field of vision like a demon. or demons, go crazy in Stephanie’s apartment.
Completeness Stream it plays as if there is an unknown entity behind the camera watching Stephanie’s every move while she is completely unaware of its presence. Feels more like a series of scary vignettes strung together in an attempt to say a a ghost storyi would call Stream a solid proof of concept from an up-and-coming horror auteur who has an innate ability to take a less-is-more approach while delivering a form of existential terror that the Paranormal Activity franchise failed to replicate after its first film was a runaway success despite increased production budgets with each subsequent one part of the series.
I’m not saying that Stream is the best horror movie I’ve ever seen, but I have to give it credit because there are some really scary sequences and jump scares that actually made me go “ughh!” on more than one occasion.
At the time of writing, you can watch Stream free on Tubi, the only service I keep coming back to because of its catalog of wild and experimental content I can’t find on any paid streaming service.
