Panic Fest 2024: ‘Livescreamers’ Movie Review: A Let’s Play Turns Into a Deadly Game of Survival
Photo from Panic Fest
From Jeff Nelson
Writer/director Michelle Iannantuono made her feature debut with Livescream, a game-based horror film set within a live-stream environment similar to Twitch. She returns with a sequel called Livescreamers, which continues to play with the familiar concept of “If you die in the game, you die for real,” but this time within the framework of a Let’s Play, or a video documenting the playthrough of a game. Iannantuono’s sophomore feature throws a lively spin on the likes of Escape Room and Unfriended.
Janus Gaming is an organization of popular content creators who play video games for their viewers. Founder Mitch (Ryan LaPlante) plans a horror night for the team when he gets early access to a mysterious multiplayer game called House of Souls. Longtime fan, Lucy (Neoma Sanchez), joins fellow Janus Gaming members Nemo (Michael Smallwood), Gwen (Sarah Callahan Black), Dice (Maddox Julien Slide), Zelda (Anna Lin), Jon (Christopher Trindade), Davey (Evan Michael Pearce), and Taylor (Coby C. Oram) for a special episode. However, the haunted game begins to kill them one by one, forcing them to continue playing if they hope to make it out alive.
Livescreamers widens the scope of its predecessor, opening it up to a multiplayer game with more advanced graphics. Livescream drew inspiration from low-budget indie games, including Slenderman, while the sequel puts its players through a more cinematic experience similar to Until Dawn. However, the game’s sinister intentions, deceiving rules, and attitude remain identical in both cases. The content creators must decide whether they will work together or turn on one another in their self-interest.
House of Souls knows more about the Janus Gaming members than they realize, unleashing boiling tensions and dark secrets. Iannantuono possesses a firm, precise understanding of ongoing struggles within content creator culture and the greater gaming industry at large. We’ve seen these content creator archetypes online in various shades over the years, speaking to the reality of the industry. The cast captures the two-faced nature of streamer personalities, even though the emotional component of Livescream is lost in this sequel. It’s replaced with interpersonal drama backed with social commentary and touches of comedy.
There isn’t anything very scary about this horror sequel, but House of Souls captures an eerie vibe that escalates an otherwise single-location film. It captures the spirit of a Let’s Play, leaning into amusing game mechanics to introduce bloodshed missing from the first film, although the budget hinders the real-life deaths. The puzzles instill nerve-shredding tension, especially as the challenges become increasingly personal. The predictable plot twist doesn’t entirely stick the landing, but the journey in getting there is a fun one.
Livescreamers continues its predecessor’s game-based horror without retreading the same ground in this spirited and feisty sequel. Iannantuono has fun toying with familiar gaming trends, contorting them to fit within the world of a fictional game. Meanwhile, she wields a clear and valid viewpoint in her commentary on the modern gaming community, even if some of these points don’t get the chance to fully breathe amid an overload of drama between the content creators that overstuffs such a short runtime. Game-based horror gets a bad rap, but it deserves better within the evolving world of video games and its ancillary industries. Livescreamers is thrilling and confident in its intentions.
Rating: 3/5
Livescreamers played at Panic Fest 2024 on April 5th, 2024.
