By MICHAEL GINGOLD
It’s the first feature from Gallows Humor Pictures, whose name gives you an idea of the approach here.
RAGEBAIT, previously titled CLICKBAIT, will begin streaming exclusively on Screambox August 4. The horror/comedy anthology was directed by Joe Martinez-Weinberger, David James Clark (the duo also produced), Dean Smith and Taylor Weiss, and written by Martinez-Weinberger, Clark, Jude Price and Grant Chauncey. Tyler Arceneaux, Jack Arden Garrett and Ray Beer star; the synopsis: “On Halloween night, a socially parasitic livestreamer becomes the target of a malevolent entity after a mysterious viewer curses his stream, forcing him to watch a collection of cursed videos from missing content creators. As his stream continues, he reacts to a series of disturbing clips, each tied to creators who have disappeared under unsettling circumstances. The videos grow increasingly dark, blurring the line between entertainment and reality as the situation escalates. As the night unfolds, the consequences of the curse intensify, drawing him deeper into a chain of events he cannot control, and forcing him to confront the true cost of his pursuit of attention.”
“We created RAGEBAIT for two simple reasons: fun and rage,” Martinez-Weinberger tells RUE MORGUE. “We want the movie to be a hangout horror comedy, a catharsis for those who want to chuck their phone out a window every time they’re jammed with phony content creators. Every time you go on-line, you’re smacked with people faking who they are, vying for your attention so they can sell you more nonsense that you don’t need. We wanted to laugh at these people, and blow up a few heads in the process.”
The true inspiration behind making RAGEBAIT, he adds, “was the idea of not waiting for someone to let us make a movie. The idea was born from the WGA/SAG strikes in 2023. David and I were laid off at the company where we met, and we realized we had essentially thrown a year of creative work away by sitting at desks, fielding calls, and ordering lunches. Working at an agency, we saw innumerable, awful pitches flying around the town, making money and careers for the creators attached, and thought, ‘Hey, we can make a bad movie, too!’ Thus, RAGEBAIT was born, financed completely off mailroom/assistant wages from our friends and us. We’re excited for our movie to find an audience, but more thrilled at the possibility of our story inspiring more filmmakers to say, ‘Fuck it, I’m going to make something, too.’”
