Deadcon (3/5) – Movie Review

DEADCON is a new horror movie on Netflix. The plot features social media influencers such as YouTube and Instagram stars. The tagline of the movie is “Death is Trending”. And yes, it is surprisingly entertaining and kitsch. Read our full Deadcon review here and check it out on Netflix!

Deadcon is a new horror movie on Netflix which has a very low IMDb score. The plot does also sound a bit silly, but don’t let either of those things fool you. This movie is actually very entertaining and embraces both camp and kitsch elements. Also, it seems very realistic in terms of portraying the world of social media and its stars.

If you’ve ever been at a Comic Con or any other relevant convention, then you’ll find the setting very familiar.

However, this is a horror movie with the tagline “Death is Trending” so you know it will end in murder. Also, this tagline makes it sound like a more campy movie. So, is it? Well, yes, in many ways it is and that’s what makes it work.

Continue reading our Deadcon movie review below!

The perfect setting

Deadcon focuses on a group of YouTube stars at the ViewCon convention which is all about social media influencers. There are a lot of comments on the entire Social Media fandom. Both through lines from the influencers themselves (such as suggesting kicking out a Snapchat star to make room for the YouTube star) and the stupid comments shown whenever they release a video.

If you’ve ever read comments on any kind of social media update from a celebrity, then you’ll know that most of the comments have nothing to do with what’s being said or show in the update. No matter how serious the actual message might be. It’s pretty crazy – and sad!

So yeah, already by making a point of showing this, I think Deadcon is doing a lot right. Also, the cast does a stellar job at portraying these “over-the-top” YouTubers who tend to be very different when the camera is turned off. Not that they are bad or unlikeable people. They just have a different energy level when they’re not “on”.

Some familiar faces in the cast

You may recognize a few YouTubers throughout this movie, but the lead roles are portrayed by actors with quite a lot of experience. I don’t know how many of them, you’ll recognize, but there are quite a few familiar genre production faces in Deadcon.

One is Lukas Gage who you might know from his role as Tyler on the amazing HBO series Euphoria (2019-). Also, Gage was in the Midnight Kiss episode of Into the Dark horror anthology series. Finally, he was in one of my favorite horror-comedies Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse – read our review of it here >

Dominic Burgess plays the hotel manager, Stanley, in Deadcon and you should recognize him from Ma (2019) or season 3 of Santa Clarita Diet. In this new horror movie on Netflix, Burgess has a very small supporting role but it’s key to the plot!

The two main characters are Ashley and Megan. Ashley is portrayed by Lauren Elizabeth (Bad Night) and Megan is played by Claudia Sulewski. The latter is actually somewhat of a social media influencer and also Claudia Sulewski was in many episodes of the thriller TV series T@gged.

The ending of Deadcon

I think the ending of Deadcon is a big part of why people have disliked this movie. Prior to its release on Netflix, the movie had an IMDb rating of 2.8 which is far from impressive. However, it’s based on just 127 votes so it can change a lot after this Netflix release. And it damn well should!

Overall, Deadcon has an ending that doesn’t answer all the questions you might have. I don’t think you’ll need a “Deadcon ending explained” piece, but I would love to see a sequel that focused on the backstory.

The actual Deadcon movie begins in 1984 and then jumps to the present time. I, for one, definitely wouldn’t mind a prequel that dove into the 1984 part of the plot. Overall, just remember that the plot in this horror movie is a supernatural one with the story taking place in real life while also having a life of its own “online”.

You know, just like it’s the case for social media influencers.

I did actually like the ending of Deadcon but I suspect many will want more answers. At least that’s what we tend to hear from many of you when a story ends without a lot of definite facts that explain everything. The ending of the Netflix horror movie Open House is probably the best example of this. You can read our “ending explained” piece for that particular movie here > 

Watch Deadcon on Netflix now!

The director of Deadcon is Caryn Waechter. She has mostly made short films but did also direct the 2014 thriller The Sisterhood of Night which shows her talent in a different way. I didn’t expect much from Deadcon based on its IMDb score but I was very pleasantly surprised.

Caryn Waechter has a thriller in pre-production that also sounds very interesting. It’s titled Killdeer and we’re certainly looking forward to checking that one out here at Heaven of Horror.

Scotty Landes wrote the script for Deadcon and prior to this movie, he wrote the script for Ma (2019). Yes, the horror-thriller by Tate Taylor which starred Octavia Spencer in the title role. Also, he wrote a few episodes of Sacha Baron Cohen’s Who Is America? which I loved.

Knowing that Scotty Landes was part of these two productions, I honestly had my expectations raised a bit for Deadcon despite the low IMDb rating. Fortunately, it did surprise in some great ways, so I am happy to recommend that you check it out and enjoy it for all its campiness and social media commentary! Also, the creepiness.

For one of the few jump scare moment, a girl lets out a classic horror scream and immediately apologizes. Yeah, that might have reminded me of myself. Also, the girl was pretty badass so don’t be fooled. Those that scream may also charge that which made us scream. Don’t judge us by our gut reactions. And with that said, do check out Deadcon on Netflix now. Enjoy!

 Deadcon is out on Netflix in the US, Canada, UK, South Africa, and Australia from January 16, 2020.

Details

Director: Caryn Waechter
Writer: Scotty Landes
Stars: Emma Barrett, Kherrington Briggs, Mai Brunelle

Plot

The horrors and isolation of being a social media influencer run rampant when a collection of YouTube and Instagram stars soon discover there are things scarier than thousands of teenagers armed with phones asking for selfies.