Deadstream's 'Brutal' Filming Schedule Meant There Was No Room For Error

"Deadstream" is one of the best horror movies of 2022, one that gives the found footage genre a refreshing facelift — a Screenlife movie that feels purposeful. Directors Joseph and Vanessa Winter crafted a delightfully inventive, hilarious, spooky film that captures the essence of what Sam Raimi accomplished with "Evil Dead" but updated for modern times. As Matt Donato wrote in our review of "Deadstream," this is a "goofball, gross-out, grim-but-gleeful crowd pleaser."

The film follows man-baby buffoon Shawn Ruddy, a disgraced YouTuber trying to make a comeback by livestreaming his overnight stay at a haunted house — before realizing there may be actual ghosts in the house, which he upsets by being an insufferable idiot.

The film has a fantastic and painfully accurate portrayal of social media and the streamer landscape, from the way it mocks the fake apology videos of canceled YouTubers, to the dumb stunt videos and insufferable yet endlessly watchable personalities. Even the actual Twitch-like livestream captures the chaos of the comment section, the hundreds of entries too fast to keep up with, the dumb inside jokes, the emojis, memes, and also the toxicity. 

"Deadstream" and its unique blend of horror and comedy at a low budget feels miraculous, especially considering the film's protagonist. As a leading man, Shawn is one of the most unbearable people you could follow for almost 90 minutes. Making sure we still find Shawn entertaining to watch — even as we hate him — is the magic trick Joseph and Vanessa Winter pull to make this such an entertaining film. Unsurprisingly, it was also far from a relaxed and easy shoot.

Speaking to Film School Rejects, Joseph and Vanessa Winter talked about having to plan every aspect of "Deadstream" in advance because of the nature of the narrative frame of the livestream.

"It was pretty brutal," Vanessa Winter said. 

"There wasn't a lot of space to play around, time restriction-wise. And also, just in the nature of it being a livestream, the movie actually had to be pretty precise where each plot point and each dialogue piece was kind of timed out, so we didn't end up with a really long movie."

For his part, Joseph Winter, who also stars as Shawn Ruddy, explained that "there was a stopwatch aspect where Vanessa knew how many seconds we had for each moment." This meant zero room for improv, despite the film feeling like it was. "The only time we had to make something up on the spot was because it just wasn't working," added Winter.

The fact that "Deadstream" feels so natural without using improvisation is a testament to not only the fantastic script, but to the intricate camera work used to make this found footage movie work. Whether looking to enjoy something spooky or just wanting to watch an internet idiot get what's coming to him, "Deadstream" is worth adding to your to-watch list.