I Wanted To Like This Screenlife Horror Movie More Than I Did But It Undermines Its Own Effectiveness

Bloat is a low-budget horror movie with ambitions that are a touch too lofty given its limitations. The feature-length debut of Tokyo-based filmmaker Pablo Absento, it is the latest movie to take on the “screenlife” format popularized by titles such as Host, Unfriended, and its sequel Unfriended: Dark Web. This means the majority of the events depicted in the movie are presented as they appear on the computer screen of the main character, rather than the camera taking on a more traditional third-person point of view.

Despite its genre, Bloat ultimately has more in common with the screenlife thriller trilogy Searching, Run, and Missing. This is because it follows family man Jack’s (Ben McKenzie) desperate search for answers when he suspects his son Kyle (Sawyer Jones) is possessed by something evil after miraculously surviving being drowned in a Japanese lake on a vacation with his wife Hannah (Bojana Novakovic) and eldest son Steve (Malcolm Fuller). His only contact with his family amid his increasingly ominous research comes via video calls during his downtime on the NATO base where he works as an AI operator.

Bloat’s Use Of The Screenlife Format Is A Mixed Bag

It Breaks The Rules Too Many Times

As a longtime fan of found footage horror movies, the screenlife format interests me greatly. It is an intriguing and modern way to add new dimensions to the faux-vérité approach of found footage. However, just like with found footage, screenlife is a format that cannot be used lightly. Verisimilitude is key to this kind of storytelling, as the format is meant to trap you in the limited perspective of a character. If a single thing about a movie’s use of the format challenges suspension of disbelief, the entire feeling it is meant to evoke evaporates instantaneously.

Unfortunately, Bloat makes a variety of decisions that are clearly designed to make it more cinematic, but completely expose its artifice in an irreparably damaging way. This includes the addition of a non-diegetic musical score, the insertion of what seems to be a dream sequence, and a few moments where the perspective shifts to reveal Jack’s face reflected in the screen. While each of these choices makes sense and might not even be noticed by the average viewer, as a found footage and screenlife purist, I found it to be frustrating whenever these elements intruded on the story.

This is especially troubling because Bloat does make good use of the screenlife format otherwise. The pixelization and video degradation that is common to the subgenre is folded into the cosmology of the supernatural threat quite well, as are the ways that Jack is digitally connected to his family (through a shared cloud drive, family accounts, etc.). Additionally, the fact that Jack is limited to just using his computer to contact his family highlights his stress about being separated from them because of his job. I just wish they could have achieved this effect without cheating and ruining the realism.

Bloat Fails To Deliver The Necessary Scares

It’s An Ineffective Horror Movie Despite Its Strengths

As a drama, Bloat works quite well. It is a thriller that emphasizes the emotional and physical separation between Jack and his family, using that to ratchet up the tension even while it works in other potent themes about grief, marriage, and parenting. Unfortunately — though watching Jack struggle with his own helplessness is gripping thanks to the narrative device and Ben McKenzie’s capable performance — the movie falls flat when it comes to doing its duty as a horror film.

Bloat is simply not going to elicit screams from many viewers. Frankly, the most effective horror sequence comes from the scene where Jack watches the 21-year-old viral jump-scare video “Ghost Car.” The movie’s actual narrative plays out incredibly slowly with little payoff. Additionally, Kyle is offscreen for the majority of it, and not in the “audiences will be more scared if the shark is lurking just out of sight” approach that Jaws uses. When Kyle does show his face, the majority of his “eerie” behavior involves him ravenously eating cucumbers, which is weird, but hardly terrifying.

However, there was enough working in Bloat that I wanted to be on its side. The 2025 horror movie has a solid cast, unfussy but legible cinematography, and generally good instincts when it comes to characterizations, if not the horror genre or the screenlife format. It also explores a corner of folklore that is uncommon in English-language horror cinema, which is exciting even if some of the ways it uses that folklore are questionable. There are good bones here, but there’s just not enough meat on them to make it a satisfying horror movie.

Bloat will be in theaters, on demand, and on digital on March 7. The film is 99 minutes long and rated R for language and some violent content.

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Bloat

5/10

Release Date

March 7, 2025

Pros & Cons

• There is a solid emotional heft to the story
• The cast is made up of capable performers

• Many filmmaking choices damage the reality of the screenlife format
• The horror movie is slow-going and not particularly scary