Macabre…ish Horror Review: Deadware

 

 

Deadware, 2021/ 1 hr 8 min

 

 

In 1999, two friends catch up via webcam and they find a game that Jay (Ali Alkhafaji), a gamer, is not excited about or at all interested in, but Rachel (Sarah Froelich) is. She talks him into playing a little while, while doing some shots.

 

This is not an easy game and if not for Jay’s knowledge of religions, they would not have gotten past the first scene. They finally figure it out, click a book on a shelf and a video plays. I short but disturbing clip.

 

The next scene seems like another clip but isn’t and when they figure out how to play through, it gets a good scare out of them. And Rachel swear’s she’s seen someone they know in the game, their friend Amy.

 

Moving on, they’re a little disturbed by the scene, it’s more disturbing and more terrifying. The game at some point starts playing it’s self. And they end up in a morgue and now Jay is over it. Just then, Amy invites them to a video chat but it’s not her, it’s some strange interference.

 

Jay logs off but Rachel stays and continues playing or trying too. It says it’s ‘Waiting for player two..’ So she calls Jay on the phone and guilts him into returning to the game. But he insists, only for about an hour. And the game immediately begins again.

 

At a certain point, they are not seeing the same thing on their screens but they keep going. In a room of skulls, you hover over a skull and up pops a name and how they died. Once again, Amy comes up and says she died by murder, a year ago, so they click her skull and a ouija board comes up. And once again Jay is ready to bail. And again, Rachel begs him to stay.

 

So Rachel asks questions and it does appear they are talking to their friend, Amy. And once again, Amy requests a group chat. When they accept, an empty but cluttered office comes up on the screen. Concerned, they look up Amy’s blog and comb through it. It is concerning, to say the least. They find pics, video and an active live stream.

 

It’s streaming from a graveyard, the same graveyard from the game. Finally, neither Rachel or Jay want to play anymore. They shut the game off but the video chat is still on and Rachel thinks Jay should go to Amy’s house and check on her. He refuses, so Rachel says she’s calling the cops but Jay is adamant, no cops.

 

Rachel wants to know why. Jay is hiding something, quite a lot actually, he lies a lot and tonight he’s been caught in many of them and a few of them are a big problem and concern Amy. But Rachel has secrets of her own.

 

 

This indie horror, written and directed by Isaac Rodriguez, is pretty good. It starts slow but builds well and gets better as the movie goes on. There are only 2 people in this movie and it’s not bad at all. There’s very little blood or gore, but there are definitely jump scares.