Review: Dashcam

Director: Rob Savage

Screenplay: Gemma Hurley, Rob Savage, and Jed Shepherd

Year: 2022

At the beginning of the pandemic, director Rob Savage surprised the horror film world with “Host”, one of the genre's best films in 2020. One of the qualities that made “Host” stand out was being shot entirely using Zoom, and the creativity shown in creating the special effects. A few years later, Savage gives us another found-footage-style horror film based on the pandemic, but he seems to forget what made his previous film shine.

Annie is a young artist who broadcasts videos from her car, where she drives around the city while composing rap songs. In the midst of a pandemic, she decides to visit a friend in England. What should have been an enjoyable trip soon turns into a nightmare.

Let's start with his biggest problem, which is the main character. The idea of ​​the main character in many horror movies is that we care or feel sorry for what happens to them. In the case of Annie (Annie Hardy), the writers decide to create a far-right cartoon character to whom a high percentage of viewers will not care what happens to her. The character is insufferable, and their reactions are unrealistic, which makes it meaningless for the film to try to simulate a real recording.

One of the best qualities of "Host" was his creativity, which Savage completely forgets about. In “Dashcam”, he leaves behind his desire to innovate and dedicates himself to bringing together elements from different recognized films in the found footage genre without any coherence. The same thing happens with the script, and the whole movie results in a dull and unoriginal set that tries to present a social commentary on the current condition of society but fails completely due to how poorly elaborated everything is.

After the success of “Host”, there was a lot of anticipation about “Dashcam”, but we received one of the year's biggest disappointments. Not only does it highlight their lack of creativity, but they decide to create an unrealistic character that fosters the polarization of a society that does not need more of this and is not even used for something interesting in the plot. What they pretend to be a social commentary on society's current situation is drowned out by a weak and poorly developed idea. “Dashcam” just seems like an attempt to take advantage of the success of “Host” to create a controversial film that fails miserably and isn't worth wasting time on.