#chadgetstheaxe

This review was first published for #chadgetstheaxe presentation at Glasgow FrightFest in 2023.
The title is a clever play on words which become obvious as the film progresses. Based on his 2019 short film director Travis Bible (cowritten with Kemerton Hargrove) they had a steal on the likes of Dashboard, Deadstream and others, though it’s not running on their vapours having a harder look at the motives of the protagonists.

Spicy Steve (Michael Bonini) is one of a long line of influencers that decided that hauntings are the way to sell merchandise and gain followers. It also sets him up as a target for pranksters who duly ruin one of his adventures.

Undaunted he joins up with Chad (Spencer Harrison Levin), Spencer (Cameron Vitosh) and Jennifer (Taneisha Fugueroa) the latter operating under ‘spennifer’ and unlike the other two have no real interest in the supernatural, more into make-up. It’s all very cynical as the LA based influencers fly down to Tennessee, with Steve meeting them at the airport. Mobiles in hand already live and streaming to their followers whom we see commenting at the side if the screen.

The place they are staying is Devil’s Manor home of a cult and the location of a number of vicious murders sometime ago. Here they find a pentagram, which Chad being the lout of the group pisses on, which ghosts or not is going to annoy people. This, other actions by Chad plus a hanging body serve to scare the group who begin to bicker and split up. Of course, while this is going on the supernatural forces are gathering.

While there’s much here that seasoned viewers will recognise with the haunted house, demon and livestream scenario, Bible and Hargrove have introduced a more satirical and cynical edge. That stems mainly from the likes of ‘spennifer’ whose interest is not in the subject at hand per se just their follower count and merchandise sales. That’s pretty much where Chad comes in though he’s a thoroughly obnoxious creation that overwhelms the others and much of the film.

As the number of followers begin to increase so the film gets denser and, in a sense, gloomier. No one comes out of this well with the violence increasing against the influencers nor their audience who feed their egos, driving them to go further and further to a point of no return.

Technically there’s not much to complain about as it sticks to the follower running commentary with some interesting use of screen and mobile devices. There’s not much in the way of tension and when the kills and attacks come, they are suitably bloody.