Production still from movie Cam. Image courtesy of Netflix.
Cam
What’s the story?: The story of an online camgirl (Madeline Brewer) who finds herself in a bizarre set of circumstances when a presumed doppelganger hijacks her channel.
I’m a big fan of AFI Fests’ midnight movies, even if I have the hardest time staying awake for them – hey, you try staying up to watch five to six movies a day without a break! Last year, I caught the darkly comic Thoroughbreds and the fantastic noir throwback, Gemini, so the bar is set pretty high this year. I’ve heard nothing but absolute praise for Daniel Goldhaber’s Cam, a feature written by an actual camgirl, screenwriter Isa Mazzei.
Camgirls’ lives are already grist for controversy, with a double life par for the course, but what if that was taken literally? Cam looks to blend both the unspoken world of sex online with identity theft in a way that feels real despite the circumstances. Horror features like Unfriended have mined the dark recesses of the internet for horrific purposes, yet Cam is talking about a subject already swathed in mystery, so who knows what truly defines pushing the envelope? This year has been pretty great in the horror world, from Hereditary to Suspiria, so I’m hoping Cam continues to promote 2018 as the year terror goes mainstream.