7 “Screenlife” Movies That Are Actually Good (and One That Isn’t)
The combination of smartphones and the advent of social media has resulted in us, as a society, spending far too much time glued to our screens, and films have leaned into that.
Over the last decade or so, the concept of ‘Screenlife’ has become one of the newest subgenre trends. A screenlife film is a movie that predominantly takes place within the confines of a screen, for example a computer desktop, a live-stream event, or during a zoom call. Still very much in its infancy, this subgenre is likely to be around for a while, although some films have threatened to derail the format.
The 2025 movie War of the Worlds almost destroyed it. The subgenre has been present within the horror sphere for a while, and War of the Worlds was its big chance to reach the masses but it failed miserably. Starring Ice Cube, War of the Worlds is a modern reimagining of H. G. Wells’ classic 1898 novel. Cube plays a computer analyst whose work becomes disrupted by an alien attack. Armed only with his keyboard, the analyst must do everything he can to prevent the invasion. Holding only a 4% critic score and 20% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, War of the Worlds was an unmitigated screenlife disaster.
But, don’t let War of the Worlds put you off, there are some exceptional screenlife films out there, you just need to know where to find them. Here are the films that prove the screenlife genre is one worth investing in.
Told from the perspective of hacked smartphones, webcams, and game consoles, Ratter is a chilling example of the screenlife genre. Starring Pretty Little Liars’ Ashley Benson, the film follows an unknowing college student, Emma. As Emma goes about her life, her computer, and then later other devices, are hacked. This gives the audience, and her hacker, exclusive access to the most private parts of her life.
What makes Ratter especially terrifying is that there have been cases of people’s webcams being hacked, and watching Ratter will definitely make you reassess how safe your online devices really are.
A sequel to fellow screenlife movie Livescream, Livescreamers just wins out as the better screenlife story. A key factor in this is that Livescreamers expands the on-screen cast from one, to many. The premise is that a group of famous online gamers are hosting a livestream of their latest game quest. The horror video game in question came to the group via mysterious circumstances, and has terrifying properties.
As the team begins playing, they quickly come to understand that if you die in the game, you die for real. It’s a fun hook for any scary movie, but the screenlife component, which features the scrolling comments of those watching the stream, makes it even more compelling. Livescreamers is perfect for gamers, with the in-universe game graphics feeling authentic to horror games on the market.
Directed by Aneesh Chaganty, Searching is one of the best known screenlife movies; it also just so happens to be one of the best. Searching steps away from the horror genre to tell an intense story of one man’s frantic search for his missing teenage daughter. In the wake of her disappearance, he unlocks her personal computer, hoping to find clues as to where she might have gone.
Searching presents an incredible mystery for the audience to unpick alongside the desperate father, the screenlife aspect enabling the viewer to become fully immersed in his headspace. Featuring enough tension to rival a Safdie movie, Searching is screenlife at the top of its game.
Another very famous example of the screenlife format is Rob Savage’s Host. The Zoom-set horror film terrified everyone during the Covid-19 lockdown as it told of a group hangout that goes wrong after they decide to perform a seance.
Although familiar in places to Unfriended, Host tapped into society’s anxieties about the pandemic, fed off of that fear, and made everyone afraid of accepting a Zoom call ever again. Filled with some excellent jump scares, watching Host on your laptop is a must if you want to get the full immersive effect. The film made a name of Savage who went on to direct livestream horror Dashcam. Host also kickstarted a movement of copycats with Untitled Horror Movie and Don’t Log Off being two recent examples.
After the mainstream success of Searching, audiences were desperate for more anxiety-inducing screenlife mysteries, and with Missing, those prayers were answered. The premise of Missing is that a teenage girl’s mother goes on holiday with her new boyfriend, but never returns. Left home alone with dwindling financial resources, and a slow-paced police force slowed down even further still by the bureaucracy of the red tape involved in an international disappearance, the girl decides to play detective on her own.
Missing replicates the formula of Searching, but adds enough fresh flourishes to make it different. There is connective tissue between the two movies and they make an excellent, albeit nerve-shredding, double-bill. What is especially interesting about watching them side-by-side is the investigative approaches of Searching’s tech novice dad versus the tech savvy teen in Missing.
A lot of screenlife films, such as War of the Worlds, take themselves too seriously. Yes, the on-screen framing makes it perfect for pulling the audience in and making them an active participant, but not everyone wants to be stressed to the max when watching a film. If that sounds like you, screenlife horror comedy Deadstream might be more your tempo.
The story sees recently disgraced influencer, Shawn Ruddy, attempt to win back his viewers and sponsors by spending the night in a haunted house. Opting to livestream the whole night, Deadstream plays with scrolling comments in the sidebar, and the occasional buffering glitch that gives the sensation of being sat watching a live feed. Deadstream then takes great glee in putting Shawn through the wringer, which always keeps its tongue firmly in cheek. Think The Evil Dead meets Twitch and you’ll get what Deadstream is going for.
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Stay Online
2024
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