Overlook Film Festival 2026  – Writer/director Danilo Parra’s short film Vlog Cam is an unsettling bit of found footage that also blends other subgenres, including analog horror and cursed media. It’s an intriguing premise that doesn’t always quite work. That said, Parra deserves credit for crafting some unnerving sequences.

The movie stars Kris Prihodova who records nearly every interaction she has in the big city. She rarely puts down the camera, and even while she’s at home, she keeps recording. At first, her recordings are harmless and rather superficial. However, near the film’s halfway point, they increasingly grow bizarre and terrifying. For instance, at the local mall, the camera seems to point itself at someone nearly choking to death. After that scene, the technology melds itself to the lead’s hand, to the point that she can’t stop filming. When she desperately asks others on the street to help her, most ignore her.

There are a lot of themes at play in Parra’s film. The merging of technology with the human body resembles Cronenberg’s Videodrome. The lead, no matter how hard she tries, can’t put the camera down and it eventually takes over, possessing her. There’s also voyeurism at work here, since the protagonist continually films other people and herself, of course. She struggles to turn away from someone nearly choking to death at the mall, and for a moment, at least, she keeps filming instead of helping the person. There’s also the fact that most in the city treat her like an outsider, even when she cries out for help. They either ignore her or yell at her. Yet, I wish the short film had more time to develop some of these concepts, and maybe Parra will eventually get the chance to do so in a feature-length film.

Found footage and haunted media fans will likely enjoy Vlog Cam. There are some interesting ideas at play here, even if a few of them are undeveloped. Parra also has a talent for creating chilling sequences.