At last, after many months of jealously hearing from friends about how cool Shudder is, it has finally made it to Australian screens. That means all manner of exclusive content on the service is now open for reviews, so I might get around to reviewing Kuso or One Cut Of The Dead at some point. But for now, though, we’ve got something very special to look at. A film that I believe will go down as the film of 2020, both because of how much of a snapshot it is of this point in history, and because it’s just that fucking brilliant as a film all on its own.
Put in the production pressure cooker for twelve weeks from conception to streaming availability, this is the latest found footage horror flick to go the screen-capture route, where the ‘cinematography’ consists entirely of footage ripped from computer screens. And this might be the single best example of this technique so far, breaking open the creative levies that Searching and Unfriended apparently only just chipped away at. From selfie sticks to carrying laptops, from screensaver effects to photo filters, even a moment of using vape smoke for ambience, there’s a healthy catalogue of methods to create a chilling atmosphere with seemingly very little.
And man, what a chiller this is. Starting on a cool technopagan note with using a Zoom conference call to have a séance, director Rob Savage’s approach to horror is seriously impressive. He manages to balance out a lot of slow-burn tension with incredibly taut pacing, making a film just under an hour long that doesn’t waste a second of that time.
That abstaining from waste applies to the characters as well, already showing up the likes of Unfriended with its naturally-charming cast that you wouldn’t mind being in a group chat with, meaning that when the shit hits the fan, the audience gives a damn. While watching it, I kept thinking back to being in group chats on Skype and Google Hangouts and the like with mates, and that’s part of the reason why this approach works so damn well: How recognisable it is. It starts out with some grounded ice-breaking (and damn funny ice-breaking at that), which only makes the true horror material that much scarier.
It’s with that realistic framework that this film, even for how under-the-skin scary it is already, reaches that point of genuine importance that I mentioned earlier. Along with the production values being mandated by the current COVID lockdown conditions, meaning that all the actors had to also serve as camera operators, stunt performers and even special effects artists, the story also taps into a very unnerving timeliness to basically create a film where COVID is the monster. Not literally, and there’s an argument to be made that global plague is scary enough on its own without the supernatural makeover… but let’s break this down.
No matter how scary, or violent, things get for those within the Zoom call, no one even thinks of hanging up. Because in times of great stress, even with the necessity of social distancing, social interaction and being there for each other is more vital than ever. No matter the physical distance, online connection allows us to be there for each other. And what is going on is serious. Oh, people may question just how real this all is from the outside looking in; hell, there may be even a few of us who aren’t taking the situation all that seriously. But in the face of what has proven itself to be a very real threat to our lives, and of those we hold dear, we have to take it seriously. We have to take the right precautions, be as safe as humanly possible, because hindsight isn’t going to save anyone. It’s no good to only accept how dangerous things have gotten after it’s already too late because that puts our loved ones, and ourselves, at risk.
With a lot of films I review on here, I tend to make it a point of examining them within the context of their release period (here in Australia, at least). How the themes of a given film align with the perceived mood of a given year. How well a film works as an artifact of the time that created it and bore witness to it. In that regard, this has an added layer of terrifying because, as a look at social isolation and what everyday life in 2020 feels like, it cuts co close that it carves into bone marrow. It being one of the scariest films I’ve seen all year already makes it worth a recommendation, but it being a film that makes the most sense right now, at this precise point in time, makes it a requirement. It’s worth the subscription fee alone, and no, this review isn’t sponsored by Shudder. I’m just a very satisfied customer.
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