Roy (Charles Edwin Powell) and his family check into a hotel in the middle of nowhere. Little do they know the place is being used as the site of a sadistic game where four masked killers roam the hallways butchering the guests. Meanwhile, the front desk clerk (Jeffrey Combs) livestreams the whole thing using hidden cameras as people place bets online on who will live or die. It’s then up to Roy to protect his family from the killers at all costs.
Stream is basically 31, but at a hotel. Even though the film has an overly familiar premise, it could’ve worked if the filmmakers injected it with a sense of style or at least, a little suspense. Sadly, the flick is sorely lacking in both departments.
It’s also painfully overlong as it clocks it at over two hours. Often times, it feels like an assembly cut as some scenes run on way longer than they really should. The set-up is particularly laborious, and the frustrating post-credits scene leaves us with more questions about the so-called game than it answers. (At least it features some cool cameos though.)
The cast is stacked with just about every horror star who’s been to a horror convention in the past five years. (Everyone from Danielle Harris to Bill Moseley to Felissa Rose show up.) In fact, since the film is set at a hotel it’s almost as if the hotel was having a horror con and director Michael Leavy went table to table making celebrities an offer to be in the movie. The only star who makes much of an impression is Combs. His scenery chewing holds the flick together, but it doesn’t exactly bring it to life. David Howard Thornton basically does his Art the Clown shtick again, just with a different mask. Newcomer Isla Cervelli does make an impression with her great hot tub scene though.
The gore is decent too. We get an arcade joystick to the eye, a nose is cut off, and strangulation via barb wire. The best moment is when two of the killers play Tic Tac Toe on a victim’s chest. Ultimately, Stream needed more scenes of this caliber to make it worth a look.
I thought this was pretty decent if a bit overlong.
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