I’ll give the filmmakers behind Deadcon this: there is something truly horrifying about a convention full of YouTube stars. Of course, that’s not the source of the movie’s horror. It instead adds demonic spirits that terrorize the guests, which, to me, is a hat on top of a hat. The vlogging millennials are plenty scary on their own.
The film, which recently made its world premiere at Chicago’s Cinepocalypse Festival, is set at a fictional convention for YouTube stars and social media “influencers,” who are then haunted by the spirit of a software developer and little boy who is more than likely the physical manifestation of a computer program. Lauren Elizabeth and Claudia Sulewski play Ashley and Megan, the two primary protagonists, social media stars being terrorized by something supernatural. As the film progresses, the strange goings-on increase in both frequency and intensity until the characters realize there’s something at the convention much scarier than their hundreds of pre-teen fans.
Deadcon deserves credit for being early on the whole YouTuber convention idea, which I know actually exists but which I haven’t seen dramatized on film until now. Like Blumhouse’s Unfriended, it speaks the language of young people in a way not many other horror movies do. Unfortunately, it doesn’t use that language to say very much. Director Caryn Waechter and screenwriter Scotty Landes draw very little connection between social media culture and the supernatural, so the convention is basically just a setting where the hauntings take place and not thematically tied to the horror elements. Sure, a case might be made about technology “haunting” us dating back to the early days of computers – this new generation of social media influencers is just the latest incarnation – but the movie rarely bears that out.
The scares themselves are mostly toothless, taking the Paranormal Activity approach of minimalism but without the intensity or the payoff. Rather than really getting the scope of the whole convention, the budget allows for scenes of one or two characters hanging out in hotel rooms, so there’s a good deal of waiting around for something – anything – to happen. I don’t mind a slow burn approach to horror, but there ought to be more than just the burn. Sooner or later, something needs to catch fire. Deadcon never catches fire.
The novelty of its setting earns Deadcon points for relevancy, but it never quite comes together as a horror movie. It’s put together well, but squanders the opportunity to provide any commentary on its subject matter. Social media sure is popular, the film says, and there are thousands of young people happy to gather together just for the chance to glimpse some twentysomethings whose lives consist of posting their every insipid thought to YouTube. Now that’s scary.
