If I’m being honest to the reader, I would consider myself a bit of a “movie snob”. Meaning that I generally prefer bigger budgets, gorgeous cinematography and all the bells and whistles that make suspension of disbelief - and immersion into a truly great story - utterly effortless on the part of the viewer.

 

That said, high-dollar films are not the only ones I seek out. After all, that would become pretty tedious.

 

I love a movie that goes out of its way to surprise me. I love low-budget, indie films that knock the “big-budget snob” right out of me. Livescreamers accomplished just that, with a story and characters at the center that are worthy of - and held - my attention. I was surprised by just how much I really enjoyed this flick! 

 

It helps to go in with, at bare minimum, a level of awareness within the world of livestreaming. There are gamers who broadcast their gameplay over the internet, either solo or in teams (cooperatively or competitively). There are millions of people who love to watch these “Let’s Play” sessions, enabling livestreamers to get paid to do what they love: play video games. To put it in layman terms, livestreamers are just like social media influencers, but for the video gaming community.

 

With that bit of set-up, Livescreamers is about a popular group of livestreamers with a large, active following, who have become somewhat jaded in their relationship with their fans, their popularity and each other over their long career online. The premise sets us up to witness them preparing to livestream their play-through of a new “indie horror game” that turns out to be a lot more insidious than it initially seems.

 

The visuals switch back and forth between the real-life players in their gaming / recording studio and their virtual avatars within the game. The Unreal Engine visuals in the horror game provide an immersive experience through their visual representations and once I figured out the voices of the actors/characters and matched them to their avatars in the game (not all of which strike a similarity to the IRL players), I was able to focus on the unfolding story.

 

I’m not a person who plays video games myself, so it’s curious to me that I got sucked into and found myself enjoying a movie about gamers playing a horror game. I guess it was partly the novelty of the livestreaming concept itself - and the voyeurism inherent in that - along with the fun of watching them play a game of that genre and knowing it would all go horribly wrong. [Spoiler: It does.]

 

Without giving away any film-breaking spoilers, I’ll just say that when a character in the game is killed or injured by various creatures and scenarios, their real-life counterparts wind up suffering a similar fate. The real-life horror special effects are not particularly great, but the actors do a respectable job with their reactions to their fellow gamers dying around them. 

 

There are twists and turns, not just in the horror game they’re playing, but also in the dynamics between the livestreamers playing it - and like I said, it’s enough to keep your interest through the group’s trial and errors. Scattered throughout the narrative, there’s a bit of humor to be had, some infighting moments between players, and a dark reveal at the bitter end that provides a payoff worth watching for.
Kudos to filmmaker, Michelle Iannantuono, who directed, wrote and produced Livescreamers and its 2020 prequel, Livescream. After this, there’s a fair chance I’ll probably seek out and watch the original next, just to see how they compare.