Deadstream: Shudder’s newest black comedy delivers genuine laughs and scares

For my birthday last month, I treated myself to a Shudder subscription. It made sense really; If you’ve read my prior reviews it’s obvious that my viewing preferences skew toward the frightening, and with Spooky Season getting into full swing, purchasing the premiere horror streaming service was a no brainer.

There were a few things that surprised me about Shudder’s platform. Firstly, I found it hard to navigate. The menus are a little confusing, and though the tabs make sense once you get used to the app’s organization, I often found myself just using the search bar to look for specific titles rather than browsing what Shudder had to offer. Once I did finally dig into the platform’s content, though, I found another surprise: the amount of original films that they offer. Perhaps I’m just a little bit out of the loop, but I’d never heard a whole lot of press on Shudder originals; I assumed that they were few and far between. However, as I delved deeper into the selection available, I found a bevy of choices, one of the most recent being the subject of this review: Deadstream.

Written, directed, and produced by Joseph and Vanessa Winter, this black comedy follows a recently “canceled” Youtuber named Shawn Ruddy. A tactless “stunt-puller” that is clearly modeled after a specific type of content creator (you know the ones), his personality feels real, and he could easily pass as one of his real life counterparts. After accidentally injuring somebody in one of his videos, Shawn is by the Internet Court of Opinion. Several months later, tempers have cooled, and Shawn decides to stage a grand return with his wildest stunt yet: livestreaming a night in the most haunted house he can find. What could go wrong? It turns out, a lot.

Shot in the found-footage style, Deadstream successfully poses itself as a live stream broadcast. Shawn interacts with incoming comments from fans while switching between camera angles set up around the house as well as on his person. Despite the tired trope of “found footage of a missing person,” the comedic elements rescue the movie from feeling like a bland rehash; instead, it almost feels as though it‘s a parody of bigger properties like Paranormal Activity. It definitely doesn’t take itself nearly as seriously, and Deadstream is genuinely funny throughout its hour and a half runtime.

This light atmosphere is punctuated periodically by predictable, but mostly effective, jumpscares. They do tend to be a little heavy-handed with the sudden jumps, however the generous use of well-done practical effects and makeup keep it from feeling too redundant. I found myself excited for the next sudden, gross reveal– and this movie does get gross. The gore has an Evil Dead-lite quality to it, and the minimal use of CGI lends to authenticity of the film.

The story is rapidly paced, but it never feels rushed. The brief camera set-up sequence when Shawn arrives at the house effectively builds initial tension with in-world lore, and once the events begin to unfold, the action only ramps up. For a comedy, it is surprisingly intense in some sequences. Many movies in this genre can drag on at times, however Deadstream avoids this pitfall for the most part.

Other traps cannot be avoided, however. In addition to his many other titles on this film, Joseph Winter also turns in an accurate, if annoying performance as Shawn. While not intended to be likeable, Shawn can be downright painful to listen to at times, this is compounded by the fact that this particular type of content creator is an inherently annoying person; Winter’s caricature of them only amplified those qualities. The story is also nothing groundbreaking, and almost too straightforward. However, these facts do little to stifle the entertainment and silliness factors of this movie. If you’re looking for a less cerebral, fun Halloween watch, Deadstream is worth your time.