At over 2 hours long, with performances that are predominantly uninspired, and a script that doesn’t delve beyond setting up a narrative solely to off its variety of stock-standard characters, Michael Leavy‘s slasher Stream leaves a lot to be desired. In the same breath, it’s so gloriously gory and committed to not taking itself seriously that you can’t help but find it all a little disgustingly endearing, with Terrifier creator Damien Leone bringing his bloody, indulged mentality to this film’s practical effects, resulting in a bombastically brutal affair that feels stronger when it’s simply aiming to disgust.
It takes a while for Stream to really hit its stride – around 70 minutes, give or take – and, up to that point, much of what unfolds onscreen proves to be frustratingly disposable. There’s the promise of a gory opening kill – and, in seeming true horror fashion, it features a familiar genre face clearly ready to exit the film within mere minutes – but it doesn’t quite live up to expectations. Thankfully, Leone’s penchant for bone-breaking, disfiguring carnage is saved for the film’s backend where skulls are literally crushed by hand, throats are slit so painstakingly that it could almost be considered a decapitation, and if you’ve ever wanted to see an abdomen be substituted for a Tic-Tac-Toe board, you’re in luck, because Stream has them in spades.
Before we get to such R-rated goodness, we have the set-up, which centres itself around a hotel hideaway known as The Pines. The Keenan family – overseen by Roy (Charles Edwin Powell) – are looking for a little recharge of sorts, and because they used to have quite fond vacation memories, Roy and his wife, Elaine (Danielle Harris, one of the many cult genre performers hoping to make out of this in one piece), are hoping they can get their duo of kids to disconnect from the digital world and live in the now. There’s some irony on hand that in getting away from the screens they place themselves in far greater danger, but Leavy’s script – written in collaboration with Robert Privitera, Jason Leavy and Steven Della Salla – doesn’t explore that too deeply.
In a riff on The Strangers, Hostel and Saw, it isn’t long before The Pines reveals itself to be a hunting ground of sorts for a collective of masked killers – simply known as Players 1, 2, 3 and 4 – to torture the hotel guests, with the night manager (Jeffrey Combs, a horror staple, with Re-Animator, The Frighteners and I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, among others, to his name) serving as a sort-of master of ceremonies. The aforementioned players aren’t painted with many deep strokes, so Stream certainly doesn’t create the next great genre villain in any manner, but there are shades of demented promise, with David Howard Thornton (best known as the silent Art the Clown in the Terrifier series) expressing his brand of horrific glee as he slices up certain characters, and the hulking Mark Haynes putting his strongman physique to good use as the type of over-sized presence that uses his body as a weapon.
A “body count” movie, where characters are merely designed to be slayed in whatever gross fashion Leavy sees fit, Stream feels perfectly content to exist in such a genre pocket, even if it hopes that by spending so much time with the Keenan family that we’ll care about their demise. We do – to a degree – but a lot of the dialogue fails to truly engross us as an audience, and because there’s so much delight applied to the death scenes, it feels a little at odds with itself in trying to create emotional beats amongst the carnage. Stream is the definition of sick style over substance, and the film would’ve been better for it had it sliced its running time and narrative padding in the same manner it brutalizes its cast.
On the mention its cast, the ensemble on hand all do what they can with the material given, but aside from Edwin Powell and Harris as concerned parents, few leave an impression beyond being merely recognisable as genre players; in addition to Combs, the likes of Dee Wallace (the original Hills Have Eyes, Cujo), Felissa Rose (Sleepaway Camp), Dave Sheridan (Scary Movie), Tony Todd (Candyman, Final Destination), and Tim Curry all make brief appearances, with this marking the Rocky Horror icon’s first feature film in over a decade following his stroke in 2012.
There’s a lot of potential left unexplored in Stream, which is perhaps its biggest downfall, as it’s clear that Leavy and co. love the genre so much. They aren’t afraid to let their freak flags fly, and the commitment to practical effects and grossing out the audience only reiterates the creators’ affection for horror and all its grotesqueness. If Stream was a little more, well, streamlined, this could have been a full fledged gory meal. In its current form, it’s a tasty-enough treat that satisfies the palate, but you can’t help but want a few substitute ingredients.
TWO AND A HALF STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Following exclusive screenings in August across select theatres in the United States, Stream is planning an international rollout, as well as intended VOD availability for Halloween 2024. For more information on where to view the film, please see the Stream official social media page here.
