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By Robert Scucci
| Published
Every once in a while, 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 ready to appreciate the project for what it is, or if I go to tear it apart as if I could do something better (spoiler: I can’t). When Reddit user u/IamGodHimself2 boldly announced that 2017’s The Stream was the scariest movie they’d ever seen, I had my doubts – especially when I read every comment calling the movie a self-indulgent, low-budget college project with poor camerawork and very little pay.
The informants aren’t necessarily wrong in their assessment, but you can’t look at movies made for an estimated $3,000 through the same lens that you watch a bigger budget horror flick through, because movies experimental as The Stream you have obvious limitations that you have to look past that larger productions, and their viewers, take for granted.
If I had to describe The Stream in one phrase, I would say, “It’s a mood.”
Not Much For Him
The Stream spends most of its running time in Stephanie’s (Brittany Dunk) apartment, and through a radio broadcast we get most of the explanations we need to know. As a long tracking shot follows Stephanie through her home, the radio indicates that her boyfriend David has recently committed suicide by stabbing himself dozens of times and blowing out his own eyes. According to the broadcast, there is no doubt of foul play.
Having established his isolated atmosphere, The Stream introduces Sarah (Gloria Bueno), who pays a visit out of concern for her best friend. Through some of the only dialogue in the film, it is made clear that Stephanie’s grief has made her shy, causing her to lose her job while severing most of her close relationships as she tries to make sense of the death of her lover. During this brief exchange, Stephanie tells Sarah that David began to act like a completely different person after becoming obsessed with a live stream of a man lying in a coffin before his untimely and angry death.
To make matters more troubling, Stephanie reveals to Sarah that she has been receiving voicemails from David despite the fact that she disconnected her phone days ago.
A Seemingly Infinite Loop
Showing his name, The Stream leads Stephanie and Sarah to David’s office, where the live feed is still playing. David’s notes suggest that he cannot stop watching 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 knocks on the bathroom door, her doorbell rings, and she finds Sarah at the front door as if nothing had happened.
Stephanie finds herself trapped in a terrifying time loop where David’s body trails behind her, and bits of archived footage from the stream that leave her subtle hints as to her origins.
The Story of Unwise Bones
Listen, I’ll be the first person to tell you that The Stream is an amateur full-hour film – not counting the incredibly long 15-minute post-credits sequence, the film is literally an hour long, and writer/director Isaac Rodriguez (best known for his “No Sleep” YouTube channel) clearly didn’t have many resources to bring this film to life. Despite the film’s limitations, the long tracking camera shots that make up most of the film will get under your skin as the color palette continually shifts from normal, to red that’ n ominous glow, to blue saturation that uses your field of vision as a demon, or demons, run amok in Stephanie’s apartment.
All of it The Stream plays out as if there is an unknown entity behind the camera, following Stephanie’s every move while she is completely unaware of his presence. Feels more like a series of scary vignettes stitched together in an attempt to say a a ghost storyi would call The Stream a solid proof of concept from an up-and-coming horror auteur who has the innate ability to use the “less is more” approach in delivering a type of existential horror that the Paranormal Activity franchise failed to emulate after its first film become a fugitive. a success despite the increase in production budgets with each subsequent installment in the series.
I’m not saying that The Stream is the best horror movie I’ve ever seen, but I have to give credit where it’s due because there are some really scary sequences, and jump scares that made me go “ughh!” on more than one occasion.
As of this writing, you can watch The Stream for free on Tubi, the one service I keep coming back to for its catalog of seamless and experimental content that I can’t find on any paid streaming service.
