Although most of us sometimes struggle with finding the right content, the case is not the same for a large number of internet users. People have access to shoddy material like the dark web or The Hostel films’ Elite Hunting Club in which there is always a cool depravity to witness and rug on another’s misery simultaneously.
So what’s the stretch to believe that people won’t pay for the privilege of witnessing the mayhem and betting even more? Michael Leavy, a producer of the movies Terrifier as well as its sequel, sits behind the director’s chair for the third film in this series called The Stream where he describes the film as a voyeuristic nastiness. Leavy is not the lone carryover from the very popular series but rather, Damien Leone supervises the impressive practical effects and David Howard Thorton who played Art the Clown reprises as the sadistic Player 2.
But this is much more than just a simple getting together of the cast of Terrifier. In the midst of some astonishing kills and a supporting cast of cannon fodder, Stream effortlessly decimates the competition in a single building location.
Stream lasts nearly a full 2 hours and gives the impression that it is long thanks to its very many scenes, but is actually released quite flawlessly. The fight cut sequences of what almost becomes our first kill after the title scene uploaded and steals attention right off the start. The main theme is represented by the N family as some kind of reference to the classic family a touch dysfunctional perhaps, but one nonetheless.
Kevin (Wesley Holloway) is the youngest in the pack and the family recognized nerd; the rather charming head of the family agreeable Elaine (Danielle Harris) offers an ideal family retreat in The Pines, Pennsylvania; troublemaker Taylor (Sydney Malakeh) is dropped by the police at the shelter; the father Roy, played by Charles Edwin Powell, wishes for too undeviating affection amongst his children.
As far as vibes go, there was a strange hunch one felt upon managerial check-in at The Pines. The wait area is overflowing with possible victims waiting an eternity for their fate. Jeffrey Combs, who has portrayed a manager of such a facility on another look in I Still Know What You Did Last summer, albeit in his present incarnation as Mr. Lockwood, plays a more appealing character.
The Pines is flooded by a commotion of peculiar characters, making it easy to find other roles for the numerous character actors. There also are two lecherous Frenchmen, a gropy bartender, two lesbian women and their gay friend, a sloshed bum, a cleaner who got malapropism hell of a lot more than he bargained for, and quite a few others more.
Time takes it’s sweet time developing them all over more than one or two scenes, but many most obviously exist primarily to satisfy the vengeful eye of one more terrific death scene. All richly grotesque, a diverse range of slaughters make their way to viewers owing to the averred four ‘players’ who rock up with a murderous spree to the Pines.
I was most taken with the brutal game of body tic-tac-toe and the vicious confrontation involving a barbed wire necklace; every bizarre murder is so comical in how it differs from the others that there’s almost guaranteed to be one memorable murder for every apathetic fan of the genre. Still, those who like to enjoy gore in a mess perspective may find it too Tziporah for their tastes. This film is not for the squeamish, regardless of how one may regard it.
The four players have different onscreen personalities though they are hidden, and there is a puppeteer who ensures everything that happens in their project is successful. Chase scenes with the addition of strobe lights create more enjoyment. Player 1 (Jason Leavy) appears to enjoy the infliction of torture on others; Player 2 (Thorton) and player 3 (Liana Pirraglia) are less serious but still possess sadistic tendencies; Player 4 (Mark Haynes) is a big strongman character whop it looks like relies mostly on banging his opponents. Who will be fastest to devise the most inventive methods of killing their opponents and thus earn the most money? Will anyone ever escape The Pines when all its inhabitants are sadistic killers and seek only to hunt in the night?
Perhaps it was only planned that, while watching my preview of Stream I came across a problem with the streaming service, and my Wi-Fi connection dropped. In a way, this only made the action better in a nice comedic fashion. With an interesting idea and a unique premise filled with unfeeling masked lunatics Stream has the potential to be an initial part of a franchise. Certainly, an end of the movie promo with two renowned horror movie actors shows that there is plenty of scope for further mayhem.
I would be interested to see how this resonates with viewers and what memorable genre tropes they use to enhance the next in a series of increasingly theatrical slaughters.
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