Making its world premiere at GenreBlast Film Festival in September 2023, Livescreamers flips open like a pop-up book where digital warriors battle for survival in a virtual world propelled by demonic forces. Recently released to VOD and Blu-ray via Octopunk Media on September 27, 2024, the otherworldly dimensional within the film was creatively written and imaginatively directed by Michelle Iannantuono. A talented, promising writer and filmmaker, Iannantuono’s Livescreamers even won the Audience Award for Best Screenplay in a Feature and Best Ensemble at the GenreBlast Film Festival. Beyond this, it was the recipient of the George A. Romero Fellowship at the Salem Horror Film Festival.
High praise, Livescreamers acts as a sequel to Iannatuono’s award-winning 2018 film Livescream. An undeniably quality sequel, it will have you grabbing for an invisible gaming console in a futile attempt to help keep these fellow gamers alive.
Diving right in, the opening scene reveals a panoramic view of a charismatic group of seasoned gamer enthusiasts who also happen to double as online celebrities. As the camera circulates the room, there are closeups of each person so that we get a good sense of the façade that they display to the world at large. This facilitates how the audience forges a strong bond with these gamer personalities while they simultaneously listen in on a lively round-robin discussion before the start of the game. Everyone seems to be vibing on the surface. Will this aspect soon change? These are questions that inevitably build interest and a desire to find out what is to come. Fast forward.
A click on the start button opens Pandora’s box to a palpable darkness that engulfs all with an unexplainable chilly wind of dread. Despite this, the game starts innocuously enough, but then things spiral out of control as the game progresses. Anxiety bubbles to the surface and morphs into an almost paralytic panic amongst the players as the realization sets in that death in the virtual world as an avatar is replicated in real life. As the bodies pile up in the room, the question looms – Will anyone survive the game?
The thematical jewels embedded in this crown of thorns are envy, competitiveness, discrimination, egotism, deep-seated resentment, guilt, and shame. There is a chockful of negative emotions and personal baggage that has been exposed like bleached bones for all to see. Will this nakedness of the soul make the others turn away in disgust and leave them to face their demons alone? Or will the spirit of forgiveness intervene so that they can form a formidable force against the malevolence?
Ryan LaPlante stands out by doing an amazing job portraying the character, Mitch, by manifesting a cool-headed exterior but when things start getting hair-raising scary, he begins to unravel like an adhesive tape on a hot day. This is unexpected. Ryan infuses his character with the essence of a tormented soul and conveys it with a skillful arrangement of facial expressions. This is intensified as Mitch reveals ugly secrets stowed away in his tarnished soul as a form of absolution in anticipation of his inevitable demise.
Embellishes her character with a fierce sense of independence and deep-seated resentment toward all her fellow players that are revealed and expose her shame and guilt. She falls victim to her intense belief that is truly alone as she single-handedly faces the jaws of death. Despite the revelations, the remaining gamers collaborate in their fight for survival and begin to bounce ideas off of each other.
The musical scores intensified the sense of uneasiness and triggered a trip-hammer beat in the chest cavity. The scenes moved along at a fast clip keeping eyeballs moving along in tandem. The takeaway is that ‘things are not always what they seem.’ The individual gamers were for one and the actual game played was another. The expectations did not reflect reality and is the cost of being popular worth it?
Gaming may not be everyone’s cup of tea but this was definitely an engaging piece and opens up a portal into the intriguing world of a gamer. Like any well-crafted ‘who dun’ it mystery Livescreamers the characters adroitly maintain their façade until triggers and traumas reveal their true essence. Will anyone emerge as the victor?
Overall, Livescreamers is a Horror film that will entertain anyone with a sense of dread and fear looming. It exemplifies that humanity is ruled by emotion… and that is whether it be in a virtual setting or steeped in reality. Despite attempts to work collaboratively, it is individual for themselves – the survival instinct. Curiosity kills the cat, but in this case, curiosity about something new is the death-knell reward for playing. Quite enjoyable, Cryptic Rock gives Livescreamers 4.5 out of 5 stars.
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