Livestream (2025) Review
The Horror Collective, the genre label of Entertainment Squad, is releasing LIVESTREAM on digital and on-demand platforms starting March 25. Written and directed by Victor Soares, the film takes audiences on a ‘pulse-pounding’ journey as a group of livestreamers set out on a publicity campaign when things turn into a fight for their lives.
There have been a number of recent genre films that have centred on social influencers and of those I can rate #CHADGETSTHEAXE, MEAN SPIRITED, and my favourite of the lot DEADSTREAM as being top drawer entertainment. These films remained thoroughly entertaining regardless of how deliberately annoying the central character(s) are.
Director Victor Soares LIVESTREAM is the latest such movie to centre on irritating social influencers. Soares intended to make a film where the audience feels like they are watching a real livestream, including having the viewer ‘reading the comments, that most of the time are not too kind and reflect how society behaves online with zero empathy towards one another.’ This aspect is totally nailed; however it comes at a price as the horror aspects are minimal and marginalised by the makers intention to hammer home its agenda of presenting us with how people are nowadays.
Whereas the influencers in DEADSTREAM and the other two films I mentioned above, are also arseholes, there was never a point that their obnoxiousness made the film unwatchable. With LIVESTREAM characters such as the comedian Pedro (Victor Soares), singer Cindy (Tiffany Dennis) and prankster Thomas (James Michael Cowan) are so annoying that they render the film a chore to sit through. If this were a real livestream I would have tuned out and found something else to watch. I was on the cusp of doing the same thing with this film.
Right from the start our odious collective of characters berate and belittle a police officer and then proceed to berate and belittle each other. I get that they are meant to unlikeable but there should still must be something about the characters that would compel us to keep watching rather than switch off. In fact, I completely forgot that I was meant to be watching a horror flick that ‘flips the script on traditional haunted house stories’ and instead spent most of the time wincing at the prospect of yet another shrill barrage of noise courtesy of a cast that are called upon to do nothing else but talk/shout/scream at the loudest possible volume.