Movies
[R.I.P.] Harold Ramis (1944 – 2014)
Some incredibly sad news to report today. Per The Chicago Tribune, writer/director/actor Harold Ramis has died at the age of 69. Often taking a notable creative role in the projects he appeared in, he of course co-wrote as well as starred in Ghostbusters. He was also the writer and director of classics like Caddyshack and Groundhog Day. In addition, he directed the first installment of the National Lampoon’s Vacation series and was the writer of Animal House, Meatballs and Back To School. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg – Ramis was heavily involved in many other wonderful projects.
He had also been making a late career resurgence appearing in films like Knocked Up and Walk Hard. Not only did I immensely enjoy his work as a writer and director, I found his screen presence to be genuinely warm and human and I’m going to miss not seeing more of him.
According to the Tribune his death was a result of “complications of autoimmune inflammatory vasculitis, a rare disease that involves swelling of the blood vessels.” He had apparently been battling the disorder since 2010. Our thoughts go out to his friends and family.
Before updating the video nasty Faces of Death, director Daniel Goldhaber and writer Isa Mazzei explored the dangers of online life in tech-thriller Cam, their feature debut that was acquired by Netflix in 2018 after making waves on the festival circuit.
At the end of last year, the Netflix exclusive quietly departed from the streaming platform, left without another streaming home.
It’s not an isolated story; Mike Flanagan’s Hush also left streaming entirely for a period until it was finally picked up on both physical media and other streaming services.
While the tech-thriller currently isn’t available to watch on Netflix, Tubi, Hulu, or any other platforms, that’s not a problem for Cam thanks to a very cool move by Goldhaber: the director has made his breakout film accessible to watch online for free via his website.
As his site notes: “CAM is unfortunately not currently available to view on any platforms, so you can watch it here if you like :).“
No subscriptions or fees necessary, just hit play.
Cam follows Alice (Madeline Brewer), who works as an online cam girl obsessed with her ranking on the cam site. The higher her ranking goes, the more it draws unwanted attention, and Alice soon finds herself replaced on her own show with a doppelganger.
Written by Mazzei, a former camgirl, it uses the horror thriller premise to examine the life of a sex worker; Alice’s career ambition is directly at odds with the shame it brings to her family, and how she tries to spare them from it by keeping them in the dark. It only compounds her danger when the doppelganger enters the equation in Goldhaber’s engaging thriller.
For a deep dive into the treacherous world of Cam, listen to Horror Queers’ episode on it now.
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