In Stream, Danielle Harris plays the mother of a 16-year-old girl - that makes me feel very old! Harris is just one of the many horror icons that appear in this gory throwback to when horror didn't feel the need to be 'elevated' - just fun. And it almost succeeds. Almost.
The film takes place in a hotel, where the Keenans - father Roy (Charles Edwin Powell), mother Elaine (Harris), daughter Taylor (Sydney Malakeh) and son Kevin (Wesley Holloway) - have decided to take a family break. Unfortunately, the building has been chosen by an underground organisation as the latest location for an online game of murder, the hotel guests stalked and killed by masked maniacs, with the whole thing streamed live for the enjoyment of gambling sickos.
Director Michael Leavy is clearly aiming for the same level of success enjoyed by his pal Damien Leone (director of the Terrifier movies), even to the point of casting Art the Clown himself, David Howard Thornton, as one of the killers. Leone provides the splattery effects, so gorehounds are well catered for, but what lets the film down are the weak script, which is full of plot holes, the performances, an overlong runtime (at just over two hours), and the generic killers, which reminded me of The Purge and The Strangers, amongst others.
If you're in it for the gore and the cameos (which include Dee Wallace, Felissa Rose, Tony Todd, Bill Moseley and Tim Curry), then you won't be disappointed, but considering the talent involved, I had hoped for the film to be much better overall.
