CAM (2018) ** ½

It’s been a long time since I watched a webcam show, but if Cam is any indication, webcam girls are a lot different than they were back in my day.  Either that or it’s the guys who pay to watch the girls that are changing.  Maybe they’re looking for something more extreme.  I mean, five minutes into the movie, our heroine Alice (Madeline Brewer) has to resort to doing a “Suicide Show” in order to bump up her ratings into the webcam girl Top 50 charts, and even then, she isn’t successful.  Desperate for more followers, she continues trying to give her viewers what they want to see, even if it breaks her “rules”.  One day, she finds herself locked out of her account with a doppelganger taking over her identity and… gasp(!) webcam show.  She then sets out to reclaim her life (and her webcam show).

Director Daniel Goldhaber does a good job in the early scenes to establish Alice’s world of sitting around all day in front of her computer and putting on shows for her fans.  Brewer is winning and engaging enough that we root for her and want her to eclipse her dream of being a top tier web girl.  Their efforts help to draw the viewer in and together, the set-up is admittedly irresistible.

Unfortunately, the film is less successful once it shifts gears and becomes a paranoia thriller.  Sure, there are some awkward scenes here, like when Alice’s mom (Melora Walters) discovers her daughter’s profession at a birthday party.  However, Goldhaber never quite ups the ante enough to make the tension truly crackle.  The scenes of Alice watching helplessly as her evil double takes over her show are initially intriguing but get repetitive as the movie wears on.  Goldhaber doesn’t quite stick the landing either, which prevents me from giving it an out-and-out recommendation.  

This is one of those cases where the picture might’ve worked better as a short.  The opening sequence in particular is a real grabber.  Too bad it peters out before the end credits roll.  I guess that’s just like a cam girl for you.  They catch your eye, get you interested, and then brush you off just before the climax.