Film Review: DEADSTREAM: Media Buffoon Apologia Starts Silly but Ends Creepy [SXSW 2022]

Deadstream Review

Deadstream (2022): Film Review, from the 29th Annual South by Southwest Film Festival, a movie written and directed by Joseph Winter and Vanessa Winter, and starring Joseph Winter, Melanie Stone, Jason K. Wixom, Pat Barnett, Marty Collins, Perla Lacayo, Cylia Austin-Lacayo, and Hayden Gariety.

Shawn Ruddy is a popular media buffoon whose antics got him busted and de-monetized. Now he aims to woo back his fans (and sponsors) with a promise to face down a vengeful specter in a haunted house.

Shawn begins in his trademark style of histrionics and persnickety wisecracks to those streaming the show. These personal, mostly sophomoric exchanges are amusing bits of sideshow while Shawn prepares for ghost-catching. He tosses off trivial anecdotes while offering background on “Mildred,” a poet supposedly haunting the place. Her fiancé had died, and she decided to join him through suicide by hanging.

The media broadcast styles itself as a cringe comedy knock-off, a kind of paranormal Jackass. Even for those intrigued by slapstick of this sort (this reviewer is not one of them), Shawn’s almost girlish petulance might get a little tiring for about the first half of the film. But spots of inspired silliness shoot some sparks here and there, like his mom’s lunch-bag protection kit, and mugging as he gulps down cans of his sponsor’s energy drink. Joseph Winter gives Shawn a quirky bonehead charm with very fine comedic timing.

Then a star-struck fan shows up calling herself Chrissy. Fresh-faced and pretty, she portrays (admirably) a guileless teenybopper, full of bounce, the sort that’s destined for captain of the cheerleading squad. It all seems part of the set-up, even to the point of accusing her of messing with his show and orders her off the premises. That is when events take a darker turn.

Shawn’s brand of cap-gun hokey hyperbole seems to work against him. His claims of terror are suspect — surely it’s a put-on? But maybe not: Chrissy as moldering Mildred has more trounce than bounce. A good performance, certainly, but not the real thing, right? Shawn is only delivering what he promised — a scary good show. And so far his prayers are answered; the fans flock and mock.

And indeed, the effects do indeed get scary good. Very much state of the art, in fact. This sudden contrast against the junky first half is stunning. His fans (or the audience, for that matter) does not expect this from their huckster hero. Consequently they divide into different camps: the believers, the skeptics, and the few who offer advice and information, among them a ten-year-old savant and an old lady who once inhabited the house. Finally, the demonic apparitions appear to be the real thing, with all the gore and jump scares that go with it.

The filmmakers create subterfuge in which horror subverts the comedy by degrees. Winter manages to keep Shawn in character over his whole arc, however; this keeps the framework of the story intact. He reads his lines with a gusto that gives them a feeling of spontaneity. Melanie Stone makes a perfect impression, first as the starstruck Chrissy and later as cunning and relentless Mildred.

Joseph Winter evidently has had an affinity for this kind of screwball humor for quite a while. Shortly after being accepted into the film studies program at Brigham Young University (as were Neil LaBute and Aaron Eckhart) in 2008, he made a short film, Cop vs. Robber. This exercise in broad slapstick, though crude, followed the trope rather well. More importantly it shows how far he has honed his art in the meantime. (It also apparently launched the professional partnership with his spouse, Vanessa.)

The crew overall deserves a big shoutout. In particular, cinematographer Jared Cook works skillfully through the night shoots as well as rotoscoping and supervising post-production. The impressive creature effects are courtesy of Troy Larson heading a three-person team, as does stunt coordinator Corbett McAllister.

This could be a cautionary fable for video-channel streaming meemies on the prowl for clicks and controversies — careful what you ask for, you just might get it.

Rating: 7/10

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