Livescream Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

Livescream Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman May 8, 2021

Watching others play video games, more so than actually playing the video game, has become one of the big draws amongst modern “gamers” within the Internet medium. It’s been quite the turn from the days of “couch co-op” in the 80s and 90s to the online multiplayer arenas of the 2000s (which admittedly still thrive today) to just watching someone else rake in the money while racking up a high score. Maybe it’s a lack of affordability within the video game marketplace (though to be sure statistics show prices have been stable for decades, even relative to inflation) or the general public’s lack of skill in so many of today’s quick-twitch shooters that is drawing fans to the “observation” rather than “participation” gaming arena. Maybe it’s just a craving for that sense of personal connection with the creator (who is often a “personality” or even a “celebrity” by contemporary standards) and within the surrounding online community in a world where “social distance” doesn’t just mean six-foot spacing but separation by borders and oceans in the online world. Whatever the reason these gamers are making a living by playing video games and it is in this arena where Livescream tells its story of a comparatively small-time streamer who encounters big time problems when losing a life in his game costs one of his followers theirs in real life.

Scott (Gunner Willis) is a streamer with a passion for Horror games. He’s not the biggest fish in the streaming pond but he has a small, yet dedicated, army of fans. In his latest stream he intends to play a new game, “Livescream,” which curiously knows his real name right at bootup. He chooses to play at the “nightmare” difficulty and is given five lives with which to beat the game. Little does he know that the first message in the first room – “you will die here” – would prove prophetical. Quickly, before he has even figured out the game mechanics, a demon kills him. One of the people in his chat room tells him there’s a strange sound, just like in the game, in his house, and he is suddenly disconnected from the chat. Moments later, an evil clown from the game which killed Scott’s character appears to kill one of his followers on camera. Scott is told that every action has consequences. If he leaves the game, he and all of his followers will die. If he plays, those who remain behind will perish when he loses a life in the game. Should he run out of lives, his own time is up. Suddenly, what was to be a fun night of video gaming for Scott and his followers turns into a deadly serious affair with more at stake than simply holding on to a literally dwindling online audience.

Like a real stream it’s hard to follow the game on one side and read the chat on the other, never mind giving Scott's monologues the full attention they deserve. All three are critical to the movie’s structure and flow, not to mention listening to Scott talk up the experience, first having some dismissive fun with the game and gradually coming to realize that there’s something deadly serious playing out in real life in conjunction to his gameplay and fate therein. Eventually, the stream does whittle down to two users, which makes the movie more manageable and focused, somehow easing the frenzied burden in one way while seeing an amplification of the in-game chaos in the other, so there’s really not any disbalance at work even when some of the dynamics shift.

The movie does a good job of building two of these “chat room” characters who never appear in the film “in the flesh” so to speak. As the larger story develops, these characters are given some semblance of purpose and personality through text input that is displayed in the chat box window. One in particular, Scott’s moderator known as “JumpingWolf,” is given a legitimate backstory, simple though it may be, that will resonate with a lot of online types who might actually operate better in the virtual, rather than the real, world. Scott is the only "real" character in the movie (beyond a few moments of live video stream footage) and essentially flying solo. Gunner Willis is actually quite good. He can’t overcome a script that can never quite convince the audience that he’s not just the victim of a prank – when the game turns “deadly serious” the movie just doesn’t sell it well enough – but even so there’s a believably intense string of emotional content at work and he plays the part both with a sense of experience in the streaming arena and as he’s forced to mentally and emotionally adapt and evolve as the story develops on his screen, as the fate of various strangers rests in his thumbs and gaming skillsets. This is not a bad movie at all. It clocks in at under 70 minutes and develops some legitimate feeling and tension, even if it’s all superficial, and proves to be a good deal better than some bigger budget though similarly structured fare like Unfriended and its sequel.

Livescream Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Livescream streams onto Blu-ray with an MPEG-2 encoded 1080p transfer framed at 1.78:1. The picture is not static, but its format is. Top left is almost always a web cam view of Scott, though for a few moments here and there he appears off camera. The bottom two-thirds of the left-hand side comprise the chat room, which is frequently evolving but slows down in usage over time, and the right two-thirds of the screen consist of the gameplay area, which is sometimes only black space with white blocky 8-bit style text. The picture is satisfactory in all ways. Graphics are sharp, the chat room is clear and legible (with colors separating the chat room mod, JumpingWolf, in blue and the regular users in yellow), Scott's webcam produces a perfectly clear picture, and the gameplay area is always on-point, showing the shoddy graphics across the diverse styles and elements and game areas that populate the film. Colors are fine with good depth to the chat room names, Scott's blue shirt, and the various tones associated with the game itself. There's not much here to critique. Most "shortcomings" are deliberate and/or inherent to the source.

Livescream Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Livescream features an LPCM 2.0 uncompressed soundtrack. It's appropriately lively in musical output but it's not much of a challenge to any sound system. The track's two-channel configuration limits exposure to much of the usual listening area and the focus makes for, perhaps, a more intimate and believably realistic sonic engagement (one would assume that many who stream this sort of content listen through built-in speakers, small external speakers, or headphones). Some of the game sound effects range in quality, often favoring a harsher edge which seems deliberate to recreate crude game sound effects (Scott even discusses a similar point early in the film). His speech is always clear and intelligible as well while imaging to the front-center area. Again, there's not much going on here and the two-channel uncompressed track handles duties admirably enough.

Livescream Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Livescream contains an audio commentary and several other features. No DVD or digital copies are included with purchase. This release does not ship with a slipcover.

• Audio Commentary: Director Michelle Iannantuono and Composer Austin Butts offer a well spoken and highly insightful track that covers real Twitch influences, the film's build, performances, and much more.
• Boundary Break: Behind the Levels of Livescream (720p, 41:55): Michelle Iannantuono fascinatingly discusses the process of building the game levels in Unreal Engine for the film.
• Clown Makeup Effects (1080i, 1:17): Applying the clown mask to an actor.
• Blooper Reel (1080p, 2:11): Humorous moments from the shoot.
• Theatrical Trailer (1080p, 1:02).

Livescream Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This reviewer found Livescream to be a perfectly acceptable, even enjoyable, little bit of on-screen, no-budget moviemaking. It's not quite so polished as some of its peers but it's that sense of vulnerability and, maybe, realism beyond Hollywood polish that make it work. Gunner Willis is a pleasure in the lead and the movie knows not to overextend its capabilities. This Blu-ray includes passable video and audio (which are perfectly acceptable within the film's structure) as well as a few supplements. Enthusiastically recommended!