Review: Full Moon’s Death Streamer, their second Pulp Noir release, is about a live streaming vampire who racks up views while killing people
PLOT: When a vampire uses technologically advanced glasses to live stream his kills, he gains a large online following – and catches the attention of a trio of supernatural investigators who set out to stop him.
REVIEW: Earlier this year, Full Moon founder Charles Band announced that his company was launching a new production label called Pulp Noir, with the focus being on “edgier, weirder, darker horror and dark fantasy films.” They also set up a Patreon account where fans can subscribe and show their support for the company while getting a behind-the-scenes look at the making of these films. The first movie in the Pulp Noir line, a female serial killer story called Quadrant, was released in August, with a black & white release following in September – and now that October is upon us, so is the second movie in the Pulp Noir line-up, the vampire story Death Streamer. Quadrant seemed to get a bit more attention than the average Full Moon movie, with some reviews even calling it artistic and mature… but while Band, who produced and directed both movies, has described Death Streamer as one of the best movies he has made “in a lot of years,” this one isn’t likely to receive those sort of accolades. It’s a fun watch, but comes off as being more low-key and less eventful than its predecessor.
The film begins with the vampire Arturo Valenor (Sean Ohlman) donning a pair of “technologically advanced glasses” that allow him to live stream his point of view onto the internet, making his way through a party and picking a young woman from the crowd. With the help of two assistants, he’s able to spike her drink with some of his blood, putting her in a hypnotic state, and takes her to a bedroom, where he kills her and feeds on her blood while thousands of viewers watch online.
The footage of Arturo’s blood feast catches the attention of Alexander Jarvis (Aaron McDaniel), who hosts a webcast called Church of Chills, which digs into stories of monster sightings and hauntings, among other things, alongside his own two assistants, Emma Massalone as Edwina and Kaitlin Moore as Juniper. Their show is called Church of Chills because they broadcast out of an old, abandoned and decommissioned church that also seems to be their home, as they sleep in tents inside the place. A few years ago, Full Moon purchased a house in Cleveland, Ohio to film several of their productions in (they named the place Full Moon Manor), and recently they also purchased this old church that stands in Cleveland. The plan is to use this place as a studio and warehouse, but here it’s presented as what it really is, an old church – and they got their money’s worth on this production, because once Death Streamer cuts to the Church of Chills folks, it rarely leaves the confines of this church. The majority of the movie involves Alexander, Emma, and Kaitlin investigating and discussing the case of the live streaming vampire, and the movie rarely follows any of them outside of the church.
Occasionally, scenes will drop in on the tech-savvy vampire, and when it’s time for him to feed, he does some more live streaming. As we witness the final moments of Arturo’s victims (one of whom is played by porn star Maddy May) through his live streaming glasses, we also see the constantly changing numbers of his subscribers and viewers at the bottom of the screen, and I would advise trying not to focus on those numbers too much, because they go up and down from shot to shot in a way that doesn’t always make sense. The streaming specs aren’t the only impressive thing about this bloodsucker, as he also has a special way of watching and communicating with people at a long distance that I won’t spoil here because it demands to be seen in the movie. It’s one of the most unique vampire tricks ever shown on screen.
If you sit down for a viewing of Death Streamer, you should be prepared to be looking at the interior of the church location for a good portion of the movie’s 72 minute running time. The small number of locations and the extensive dialogue sequences may be an issue for some viewers, but the script by Full Moon regular Roger Barron (also known as Benjamin Carr, also known as Neal Marshall Stevens) does give Band plenty of time to focus on the characters, and he was able to assemble a strong cast to bring them to life. Sean Ohlman is effectively sleazy and threatening in his scenes, and Aaron McDaniel, Emma Massalone, and Kaitlin Moore do great work as our trio of heroes. None of them have many feature credits to their names at this time, but their performances here indicate they could have great careers ahead of them.
So, as a Pulp Noir release, is Death Streamer edgier, weirder, and/or darker than other movies we’ve seen from Full Moon recently? Not extremely. I think it would fit right in with last year’s Full Moon releases Bring Her to Me and AIMEE: The Visitor, which came before the Pulp Noir launch. But while it doesn’t stand out in that way, it is an entertaining and quick-moving vampire-meets-modern-tech story that features good acting and the necessary bloodshed, finds ways to expose the breasts of nearly every actress in the movie, and even builds its villain up to be an apocalyptic threat (allowing for the awesome line, “This motherf*cker isn’t just looking for blood and tits, he’s trying to destroy the whole f*cking world!”). It’s all in good fun and makes for an entertaining way to spend an hour and change. Having a live streaming vampire as the villain was a cool idea, and Band and Barron put him up against some interesting heroes.
Death Streamer is set to receive a Blu-ray, DVD, limited edition VHS, and streaming release (on Amazon Prime, Full Moon Features, and Tubi, among others) on October 11th.
