One of the saddest, and frankly most annoying, things about the discourse of horror now is the overabundance of people saying, “Well actually 2005’s [fill in the blank] wasn’t as bad as we thought.” There’s been a particular film I’ve seen this conversation on recently, and that was 2006’s Stay Alive. No one is saying Stay Alive was a perfect film, but it was fun, fresh, and something different. Part of Stay Alive’s current discourse has been brought on by people who have seen and enjoyed writer/director/game dev Michelle Iannantuono’s latest film, Livescreamers. To mirror the point on Stay Alive, Livescreamers is fun, fresh, and something different, even if it is heavily bogged down by flat performances and editing that doesn’t work well in its favor. (Kind of like Stay Alive!)
Livescreamers follows Janus Gaming, a group of internet personalities who have formed a gaming collective, sort of like Achievement Hunters or Funhaus (rest in peace). The group decides to invite one of their Discord mods, Lucy (Neoma Sanchez), to a playthrough of a new game called House of Souls. Things quickly escalate when one thing becomes clear: die in the game, die in real life. Can this group of ‘quirky’ gamers use their years of gaming knowledge to survive the house?
Gamers Face Real-Life Stakes in Livescreamers
The most intriguing part of Livescreamers is House of Souls. Some quick research reveals Michelle Iannantuono had actually developed the game House of Souls in Unity. This leads me to believe the actors themselves are playing the game we are watching. The gameplay itself is fairly straightforward, but the Resident Evil-esque mansion and ominous game narrator create an undeniably frightening atmosphere. Each new challenge the group faces finds new ways to ramp up the tension and stakes.
Where Livescreamers falls apart is the acting. That’s not to say I need to believe one thousand percent that the members of Janus Gaming have known each other for decades, but the flat and choppy interactions between them take away from the overall acceptance of the film. There’s no question that Nemo (Michael Smallwood) carries the film. We get one character-specific monologue from him, and it completely stops the film dead in its tracks, but in a positive way. See, there has to be something to sow distrust in the group outside of the game, right? We soon come to find incriminating evidence of one member of Janus Gaming’s sexually devious ways. The character who finds himself in this predicament is incredibly flat and emotionless, which makes this character arc completely stall the film.
Livescreamers Editing and Production
The film is portrayed like a regular YouTube/streaming video game content creator, the top left of the screen has a box with that player’s face on it, while the game plays in the background. We’re led to believe everyone is in the same room as one another, but due to the editing, it very frequently feels as if each person is in a different room (or different state). Now, this could possibly be due to COVID restrictions if filmed during that time, or to budgetary constraints, but it just makes the film occasionally feel inauthentic. It may not be enough to distract someone from the film, though it was for me.
Game-wise, Livescreamers uses the typical horror gaming tropes of quick time events, skill checks, and even references Until Dawn with a hold-the-controller-still game mechanic. It’s clear Michelle Iannantuono is an incredibly passionate gaming fan, and her recent tweet about Fallout 76 makes that pretty clear. I’m not sure if Iannantuono would ever release House of Souls, but if she did I would definitely play it. And if I’m lucky, I, too, would be struck from this mortal plane.
A Fun Horror Movie for Gaming Fans
Livescreamers puts an interesting spin on screenlife horror and does enough to set itself apart from others of its ilk. The issues I had with it ultimately took me from loving the film to just liking it, but this film will connect incredibly well with the right people. You can tell Michelle Iannantuono is truly passionate about this film, and that’s where the true enjoyment comes from. As much as I would love to see another film by her, I almost hope she makes a horror game. It would do well in Steam’s indie horror community. If you’re into horror video games and the screenlife subgenre, then Livescreamers will be a solid film to add to your list.