To call Dashcam a polarizing film is like calling Trump a polarizing president- words just can't sum up how off-the-wall it is and it's obvious Rob Savage intends this reaction from mainstream audiences.
It's that element of subversion I liked the most. After all, what could be more subversive than making a freaking SATIRE about Covid-19? This is what a lot of people miss -- and Hardy's character (yes she is playing a character here or, more precisely, a caricature) is intended to be as glib as possible. It's kind of a push pull problem. If Savage had scripted (most of Hardy's lines were improvised) a compassionate character there would have been no room for the chaos and special effects. Not a bad idea, actually.
Hardy's impossible to censor stream of consciousness psychobabble and extremely hilarious white girl raps and beats are really the only thing that kept me returning to Dashcam, in an effort to puzzle it out. To me it seemed as if she was deliberately lampooning a MAGA diehard, which in itself is pretty amusing, and risky.
Dashcam's weakest link is its story. It's not particularly original or inventive, and the overly frenetic "camera" work (this is really mostly post, right?) just adds to the confusion. The bones of the story are kind of cool, but there's never enough to ground you into taking the leap into all the supernatural nonsense that follows after about the half hour mark. The script just doesn't earn any real scares.
What little creeps there are come from the cast, especially Angela Enahoro, who should have been given some kind of endurance award here.
Rob Savage has a way to go as a filmmaker. It was stunning to me how good the reviews of Host were. It was Okay.... But again nothing you haven't seen before unless you've never seen a computer screen horror film before -- they've been around awhile. To me the ridico 100% RT score on Host is really just a case of pandemic timing, or more cynically, calculation.
So from Host's perfect 100 score, many flocked to Dashcam only to discover a film with the complete opposite ethos -- where Host tried to ingratiate itself, Dashcam strived to irritate you, or maybe just provoke -- which is how I ultimately choose to digest it. Another interesting thing is how much better it plays on your phone, than your home TV. Of course you can't read the comments, but I always found Savage's "the plot is in the comments" gag a bit of a gimmick/excuse for the barely coherent plot.
In an odd way, Dashcam might be a slightly better film than Host, as it's not force feeding you anything. It's also more visually immediate and arresting with regard to Covid madness, triggered by isolation, paranoia, or death.
Maybe that's why I've seen it three times now.
Nah. I think it's just Annie.
It's that element of subversion I liked the most. After all, what could be more subversive than making a freaking SATIRE about Covid-19? This is what a lot of people miss -- and Hardy's character (yes she is playing a character here or, more precisely, a caricature) is intended to be as glib as possible. It's kind of a push pull problem. If Savage had scripted (most of Hardy's lines were improvised) a compassionate character there would have been no room for the chaos and special effects. Not a bad idea, actually.
Hardy's impossible to censor stream of consciousness psychobabble and extremely hilarious white girl raps and beats are really the only thing that kept me returning to Dashcam, in an effort to puzzle it out. To me it seemed as if she was deliberately lampooning a MAGA diehard, which in itself is pretty amusing, and risky.
Dashcam's weakest link is its story. It's not particularly original or inventive, and the overly frenetic "camera" work (this is really mostly post, right?) just adds to the confusion. The bones of the story are kind of cool, but there's never enough to ground you into taking the leap into all the supernatural nonsense that follows after about the half hour mark. The script just doesn't earn any real scares.
What little creeps there are come from the cast, especially Angela Enahoro, who should have been given some kind of endurance award here.
Rob Savage has a way to go as a filmmaker. It was stunning to me how good the reviews of Host were. It was Okay.... But again nothing you haven't seen before unless you've never seen a computer screen horror film before -- they've been around awhile. To me the ridico 100% RT score on Host is really just a case of pandemic timing, or more cynically, calculation.
So from Host's perfect 100 score, many flocked to Dashcam only to discover a film with the complete opposite ethos -- where Host tried to ingratiate itself, Dashcam strived to irritate you, or maybe just provoke -- which is how I ultimately choose to digest it. Another interesting thing is how much better it plays on your phone, than your home TV. Of course you can't read the comments, but I always found Savage's "the plot is in the comments" gag a bit of a gimmick/excuse for the barely coherent plot.
In an odd way, Dashcam might be a slightly better film than Host, as it's not force feeding you anything. It's also more visually immediate and arresting with regard to Covid madness, triggered by isolation, paranoia, or death.
Maybe that's why I've seen it three times now.
Nah. I think it's just Annie.