Deadware

It was better than I expected, for a low budget found footage almost style film. The conversation seems natural like two friends chatting on a web cam, and the concept was pretty cool. It definitely looks like the 90s Internet too, and playing a game on the Internet was pretty 90s. So I think the concept works.

It got in some nice creepy scares, got out some cool secrets about the characters. The chat between the characters explains the story, so I felt that worked.

I thought it was a slow start though, and more chatter explaining the story instead might have worked a bit better. But overall not a bad watch.

There's nothing wrong with the acting, between the two actors who take up 98% of the films screen time. Its just mostly very slow and consists of a few mins playing a game then a few mins talking.

It's a cheap cam 2 cam film set in 1999, because they couldn't do much with visual effects to make it more modern, so opted for a few photoshop stills and made it out to be the two of them discovering an online game that they soon find out is haunted.

The scariest part of this film is its supposed to be online in 1999 and the game loads instantaneously over their 56k modems and there's absolutely no buffering on their cams, no drop outs, no frozen cams for a few seconds, no pixelated images and no dial-up sounds... actually the dial-up sound could have aided in bringing up PTSD for those of us who suffered through those days. Lol. But I found it too hard to get past all that to suspend enough belief and just go with it.

Had this been made in 1999, it might be a decent flick to put some fear into someone, but instead it's just another cheap movie with cheap jump scares that should have been cut down to a 30 Min episode or even just an even quicker online short film.

I'd only recommend it to you if you're already interested, otherwise you'll never kick yourself for never seeing it. It's not a pop corn flick, it has zero humor, no memorable scenes or quotes, there's nothing noteworthy about anything here. It's playable as a one off viewing that you can watch all the way through and not be completely bored to death, but it's basically just the average low budget flick that tries to have a clever little twist in the end that's not all that clever at all... tho if you happened to have seen a 2022 film called "Choose or Die" and actually liked it, you might get the same kick out of this one that is slightly simmilar in plot.

It starts slow and has little budget but the actors pull it off and there are some quality scares in here. Really good job all around with the visuals as well. You see so many movies like this that just suck but this one clocks in at 68 mins so just hang in for the first 15 or so and then you're off to the races.

Anyone who grew up in the late 90s early 00s played some game like this. The nostalgia was real in this film. The ending wasn't great but the vibes alone make it worth the short run time.

Plot

In 1999, two friends use a webcam for the first time and stumble across a mysterious browser game that may be haunted.

Cast

Not familiar with anybody involved.

Verdict

There's no shortage of "Cyber" horror films these days in fact we went through quite the spate of them. A large percentage operated the gimmick of playing out entirely through a characters screen with a series of windows open and of course all the involved characters on webcam. The results, mixed however I always liked the concept and it very often managed to be suitably creepy despite the movies quality.

Deadware is on a considerably lower budget than most of the others and to a point it shows, but with something that's not supposed to look polished it's entirely forgivable and looks exactly as it's supposed to.

Telling a story essentially of a haunted browser game in the 90's it oozes nostalgia for those of the right age who dipped their feet into webcams back in the day. Even the point and click browser game brought back memories.

It delivers the creeps, the perfectly constructed pacing and I found myself gripped. The flaw? The finale though passable was more than a little uninspired and really lets the film down.

Regardless within this sub-genre this is up there among the best in my opinion.

Rants

I miss games like this, slow paced, mysterious, unpredictable and yet having a level of basic construction that keeps you on your toes. Modern horror games are more like action titles or alternatively they're predictable flashlight wielding in the dark jump scare filled predictability. Games in many ways have gotten too advanced, back peddle! And while we're on the subject, enough putting multi-player into everything. I almost miss the days before online multiplayer where you played games on the couch together. Yep, I'm officially old.

Breakdown

Perfect pacing Great execution Very nostalgic Weak finale.