Per Robert Scucci
| Published
Every now and then I stumble across a low-budget film that has polarizing reviews and I want to see if I’m the kind of person who’s willing to appreciate the project for what it is, or if I’m just going to tear it apart like I can do something better (spoiler: I can’t). When Reddit user u/IamGodHimself2 boldly declared that 2017 Stream was the scariest movie they’d ever seen, I doubted it—especially when I read every comment calling the movie a self-indulgent, low-budget college project with bad camerawork and very little profit.
The naysayers aren’t necessarily wrong in their assessment, but you can’t look at films made for an estimated $3,000 through the same lens you look at bigger-budget horror films, because experimental films like Stream you have obvious limitations that you have to look beyond larger productions and their audiences who take them for granted.
If I had to describe Stream in one sentence, I would say, “It’s a vibe.”
Not much for it
Stream he spends most of his time in Stephanie’s (Brittany Dunk) apartment, and we get most of the exposition we need to know via the radio broadcast. As a long shot follows Stephanie through her home, the radio reports that her boyfriend David recently committed suicide by stabbing himself dozens of times and gouging out his own eyes. According to the broadcast, no foul play is suspected.
After establishing an isolated atmosphere, Stream introduced by Sarah (Gloria Bueno), who comes to visit worried about her best friend. Through some of the film’s only dialogue, it’s clear that grieving has made Stephanie a recluse, causing her to lose her job while cutting off most of her close relationships as she tries 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 stream of a man lying in a coffin before his untimely and gruesome death.
To make matters even more disturbing, Stephanie reveals to Sarah that she has been receiving voicemails from David despite the fact that she turned off his phone a few days ago.
A seemingly endless loop
Shows his namesake, Stream he takes Stephanie and Sarah to David’s office, where the live feed is still on. David’s notes suggest that he can’t stop looking at the stream or the man in the coffin will come after him. Sarah has a seizure and locks herself in the bathroom in a panic after recovering. As 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 that includes David’s body chasing her, and archived footage from the stream leaves her with subtle clues as to its origins.
A disturbing tale of bare bones
Look, I’ll be the first person to tell you that Stream is a total amateur hour-long film – not counting the excruciatingly long 15-minute post-credits sequence, the film is literally an hour long, and writer/director Isaac Rodriguez (best known for No Sleep YouTube channel) obviously didn’t have a lot of resources to bring this film to life. Despite the film’s limitations, the long tracking camera shots that make up the majority of the film will get under your skin as the color palette constantly shifts from normal, to an ominous shimmering red, to a saturated blue that consumes your field of vision like a demon, or demons, run amok in Stephanie’s apartment.
Totality Stream he plays like he’s an unknown entity behind the camera, following Stephanie’s every move while she’s completely oblivious to his presence. It feels more like a series of terrifying vignettes strung together in an attempt to tell a a ghost storyI would call Stream a solid proof of concept from an aspiring horror auteur who has an innate ability to use a “less is more” approach while delivering a form of existential terror that the Paranormal Activity franchise failed to replicate after its first film became a runaway success despite increased production budgets with each subsequent installment in 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 made me go “ugh!” repeatedly.
As of this writing, you can watch Stream free on Tubi, the only service I keep coming back to for its catalog of wild and experimental content I can’t find on any paid streaming service.