Intensity 🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸
Written/Directed by Travis Bible
Horror/comedy #ChadGetsTheAxe brings together four social media influencers as they live stream their exploration of a notorious ‘murder house’. Does the event bring them all the fame and fortune they crave or is it true that #ChadGetsTheAxe?
The Players
- Spencer Harrison Levin — Chad Ryan, the most popular and most obnoxious influencer in the group.
- Michael Bonini [Bad CGI Gator (2023)] — Spicy Steve, the struggling influencer wishing he had as much of a following as Chad Ryan.
- Taneisha Figueroa — Jennifer, part of a fashion/skin care influencer duo with her boyfriend, Spencer.
- Cameron Vitosh [Cryptids (2023)] — Spencer, the second half of the influencer duo commonly referred to as Spennifer.
#ChadGetsTheAxe breakdown
This movie stands as the debut feature from writer/director Travis Bible. It’s based on his 2019 short film of the same name and expands on the idea by adding additional influencers to the mix.
While there are a few legitimate laughs, the “obnoxious influencer” theme starts to wear thin by mid-film. There’s only so much of that a person can take before they’re actually annoyed. To be fair, though, that does mean the acting was decent from all players.
The story runs along at a good clip and does have some twists and turns to keep the audience hooked. The biggest “twist,” of course, comes at the end of the action. Unfortunately, it’s also easily seen from a mile out by anyone who’s seen any movie ever.
The best thing about #ChadGetsTheAxe is the blending of the streaming platform, texting, and video calling into the fabric of the movie itself. Someone spent a lot of time getting that to work smoothly and it shows. Plus, the running commentary by the throngs of fans watching the live stream is probably the most entertaining part of the film.
So, if you’re in the mood for a fairly standard handheld camera slasher film, you could do worse than #ChadGetsTheAxe. However, if you’re looking specifically for the “internet influencer goes exploring” horror trope, I’d suggest going with Deadstream (2022) instead. It wasn’t Scariest Mike’s favorite, but this reviewer had it on his Best Of list for that year.
Of course, your mileage may vary.
Review by Robert Zilbauer.