Open Cam (2005) User Reviews

Time for American Edgy Films to Come of Age

[gradyharp · 5/10 · 20 November 2006]

'OPEN CAM' could have been so much more than it is. Writer/director Robert Gaston takes a few risks with this latest entry into the gay cinema foray, adding a story that avoids the usual topics that stereotype gay men. He assembled a cast of young actors whose best attributes are physical appearance rather than technical training, and then covers the dialogue with incessant background music that makes the viewer strain for the conversations - and much worse, he hides behind the mores of restraint that prevents US films from achieving what European films do well.

The story revolves around a recently jilted young artist Manny (Andreau Thomas) who when not in front of the easel spends his time on the Internet dating on a sleazy chat line, keeping his physical encounters anonymous to avoid personal disappointment. On the Internet chat line (using 'open camera') some murders are captured and a detective Hamilton (Amir Darvish) takes over the investigation - a detective who also happens to be gay and acts out with just about anyone it seems. When Manny's friends (or ex tricks) begin to fall victim to the serial killer on the Internet, Hamilton moves in with Manny to protect him, and it is in this living situation (a very physical arrangement) that the serial killer is finally caught on camera and in person. How the episodes of loss of friends and re-establishment of trust and love replacing just lust brings the story to a bit of a disappointing end.

The cast (Andreau Thomas, Amir Darvish, Ben Green, J. Matthew Miller, Christian Jones, et al) are a good-looking group of men. There are a lot of sensual scenes, but unlike European films the men who are supposed to be nude for a reason are shot to protect them from full frontal exposure - and that seems so very ludicrous and insulting given the theme of the film. American cinema has a long way to go: even movies of heightened physicality in straight films have little problem showing every detail of the female body yet either blur or out-of-focus shoot or drape male bodies as though there were some secret that MUST remain off camera. Time to grow up - and where better to start than in films such as OPEN CAM. 'Tis pity....Grady Harp

Low Budget Serial Killer Flick

[Lechuguilla · 20 May 2007]

It's a whodunit wherein a serial killer stabs his victims on live web cam. The main character, Manny, is a youthful, budding artist who in his spare time watches a sleazy chat website. On one visit to the website he witnesses one of his friends being stabbed. A big part of the story is the relationship that develops between Manny and the Black cop who investigates. This subplot provides story continuity, as the investigation proceeds.

Given that this film is very low budget, the weak production design and uneven sound quality are not surprising. The director does create some suspense by means of the atmospheric lighting. Acting is below average; but again, this is what one would expect for an independently produced low budget film.

A legitimate complaint is the existence of so many plot holes in the script. How did the killer get easy access to the victim's living area without being observed? Why were neighbors not questioned? What about forensics? Is it realistic to think that after the first murder, the website would not be shut down?

"Open Cam" is marginally worth watching, mostly as a technical study of low budget film-making, to see what works and what doesn't work. Yet, even with all the plot holes, I still found the whodunit puzzle engaging enough to hold my attention.

Soft Core Masquerades As A Slasher/Thriller

[Franco-LA · 2/10 · 11 August 2007]

Low budget gay films often have certain weeks -- usually plot and acting -- which this film certainly suffers from. The problem is that its reach far, far exceeds its grasp. It makes the nice effort at being a serial killer/thriller but this is essentially simply window dressing to disguise a very soft-core pornish excuse for nudity, which is surprising in this day of so much free naked male imagery and the ease at obtain steamed video hard and soft core male on male visuals on the web that any one would bankroll something like this.

The serial killer plot is poorly thought out and filled of some blatant and gaping plot holes, as some other reviewers commented. There are enough crime procedurals on TV to know, for example, that it would never be that easy or quick to get a search warrant, that you would interview the obvious possible witnesses (neighbors, etc.) and that there is no way a body could simply sit in a man's apartment for a month -- this guy has no job and no one else in the building has a sense of smell? Can you just picture the cops from Law & Order moving into someone's apartment -- or that the person being "protected" would just be OK with it? Also, how does the killer get into all these apartments, particularly the john who paid $700. And how many hustlers in DC make $500, much less $700 for what appeared to be an hour long out-call that wasn't even originally going to include anal sex?

Technically, the movie also suffered in a poor sound mix, some occasionally bad lighting, and the unevenness of the performances. While some were adequate to decent/good, others were just plain bad, although that may have been just as much of a reflection of the lack of character development and the poor script.

Finally, in addition to the lack of reality that a detective would simply force his way into the home of a man who would assuredly be considered a key suspect by even Springfiled Police Chief Ralph Wiggum, the relationship between him and the male lead just wasn't plausible in any way, they lacked chemistry, and the sex scene between, in addition to being purely gratuitous (like so much of the other nudity and sexuality in the film), was also poorly reasoned in having the Andreas Thomas character (Manny) all of a sudden want the detective to top him. This was also made even more nonsensical by the ending, having the Manny character end up with his best friend, which is not supported by anything else that has taken place in the film earlier.

I have nothing against sex and nudity in films, however in this movie it just so clearly exists to try to create a soft core porn movie and makes little sense to the story, except that it takes places in a web cam chat room environment. A better plot, such as perhaps a serial killer in a gay gym, would have accomplished this in a more logical manner.

Pretty Awful (Mild Spoilers)

[fuzzyblueslurpee · 1/10 · 17 June 2008]

After reading several comments about how this movie was finally the gay thriller we have been waiting for, I decided to give this film a try. There are several problems I have with this movie but I will only focus on a few to save time.

First off, the acting wasn't the worst i've seen but it was still pretty bad. But I wasn't expecting much from a gay thriller based on the past "gay thrillers" i've seen. The scenes with sex and nudity were terribly contrived and out of place. If the filmmakers were trying to pass this off as a movie that just happened to have sex in it, they failed. In fact, so much of the plot was focused on the main characters sex life that at times I forgot there was a killer at all.

There were also a few scenes which I assume were meant to break stereotypes by illustrating how "Manny" was not only good looking, but was also intelligent and vulnerable, but they all came off as plain obnoxious. Besides, what kind of decent gay man would watch some scummy cop treat his friends like crap and then have sex with him? If there is a person or persons in your social circle who would do something like that, I suggest finding new friends. Gay men can be really superficial but a lot of us do have some ethics.

All in all, my advice is to skip this movie.

gay thriller porn? or a gay porn thriller?

[sunrocksnow · 1/10 · 21 June 2006]

Now we know that being a murder suspect can be yet another opportunity to land a piece of ass. If only "Skinemax" could offer us gay boys something like this.

The difference between Open Cam and a porno is that pornos usually have less blood, better acting, and a few more sex scenes. It offers moments of unintentional-but- hysterical camp, and Amir Darvish was often impressive as Detective Hamilton. But the rest of the cast, including it's lead character, Andreau Thomas, come across as community-theatre-amateurs. In the case of Thomas, a community-theatre-amateur who is oh-so-eager to bare his sculpted, sexy bubble-butt for half of the time he's on the screen. silly, stupid, smut.

Unbelievable.

[paulcreeden · 1/10 · 7 December 2006]

This is the worst gay film I have ever seen. And, as a member of the Stonewall generation, babes, I've seen 'em all. The most disturbing thing about this movie is its soft-core eye candy. The experience of watching this film mimicked one of those horrid chat room conversations with a hottie who turns out to be a vacant narcissist in an Adonis suit. If the acting hadn't been so abominable, this parallel universe to the real gay universe on line might have been amusing. If it had been a farce, it might have been amusing. If it had been populated with bad drag queens, it might have been amusing. It was none of these things. It was just a bad movie, badly written, badly acted, and badly designed. Amir Darvish was the only minor exception to the general lack of redeeming features of this opus. What a waste of pixels.

Really? Someone gave this a good review?

[gnelso17 · 1/10 · 18 October 2006]

I went to go see this a year ago with a friend. All I'm going to say is that I walked out of it...I recognize that you can't go to smaller film festivals without realizing that these are movies made by independent filmmakers (and as such, sometimes less quality than desired.) but really? The movie was nothing more than the wet dream of a gay man trying to make a slasher flick depicting all of the more despicable aspects of homosexuality in society.

On top of that, why is it that 9 out of any 10 "gay" movies stars a cracked out-looking asshole "top" twink as the one that everyone is in love with whereas generally another character has more to offer in the realm of both looks and personality!? The quality of the presentation was terrible to begin with. We watched the intro credits about 4 times (no exaggeration) due to technical issues; what makes it worse is that for the last 3 times we watched it (before I walked out) was in the middle of the movie when things were starting to really build up. I'm not submitting my feelings about the freezing of the movie here or there or it happening x amount of times.

The music in the movie is dominated by that which you would hear at a club. While I could see it being fantastically utilized in a more light hearted movie that focused more on relationships, this was (supposed to be) a THRILLER. Heavy Techno works about as effectively as a sesame street song.

The characters, while I will admit had their moments occasionally of acting like real people, were often stereotypes. Sex in the City? Please. Just because you gather a bunch of skanks in a trendy bar drinking martinis and cosmos does not make you Sex in the City. Most of the time I was grimacing out of embarrassment of anyone having had to act in these roles. Aside from that, often the roles of the main characters were nothing more than archetypes leading into what you knew would happen later. Case and point,an early fling turning into a pressured romance later.

The story I don't feel fair to comment on as I walked out about forty five minutes into it. From what I saw, it looked like it might have had potential, however missed.

Cinematography was definitely that of a beginner, but it worked in certain times better than others.

I don't mind seeing someone else's hard work and supporting it if they're a beginner, but I have an issue with wasting time and 9.00 on going to see a movie that isn't ready to be shown to the public.

It could have been a soft core porno.

Don't waste your money.

One star is just for it being a gay "thriller" though there are few thrills.

[amheba · 6/10 · 22 June 2021]

For me this film has three parts. The first half and the end, which make no sense at all. And the second half minus the end which is pretty decent.

The first half and the end are the definition of a bad B movie. Bad acting, a script unconnected and with no heart, a plot that jumps everywhere and a feel low budget in the film. Apart from that we get the stereotype of gay men being addicted to sex, all spiced up with lots of skin, some of it quite good looking.

The second half of the film minus the end though seems to fit together much better. Suddenly the main character seems more human and overall we can relate a little bit to what's going on and feel for him and the cop who is trying to help him. In this part the script and the plot seem much smoother at telling a story though we still get the occasional character that suddenly shows up for a scene and is treated as an important piece of the plot, only to see him disappear again. But the plot between the two main character does hold your attention during this part.

It's very refreshing to see a film with the main characters being gay which is not about coming out, much more so when it's a thriller, one of my favorite genres. For that attempt I give this film an extra star. Unfortunately I found that this film was lacking of the glue that makes a scenes merge into a movie. Anyways if you're just looking to chill out for a while you can watch the movie and still enjoy it. I kind of like B movies.

Atrocious acting!!

[quexl · 2/10 · 20 November 2006]

I rushed to the cinema yesterday to make this movie (which was shown as part of the "Verzaubert" Gay Film Festival that takes place each year in the major German cities and which normally shows really good stuff. Anyway, I was looking forward to it (though I am female and straight, I find a lot of gay movies well made and interesting; something else from the usual Hollywood crap!!). However, even though I am definitely not an expert on acting, it was quite blatant even to me that this was extremely poor acting, by almost every character involved!! The lines sounded so studied, there was nothing spontaneous or witty about them. I did find the plot somewhat interesting, but it could have been made into a much better movie, in my opinion. I also did not find the actors particularly dishy, which surprised me as they normally have quite the lookers in gay movies !! I also did not see the necessity for the drawn-out and lengthy sex scenes -- what purpose did they serve?? I mean, this was not meant to be a porn movie, as far as I understood.... Anyway, I considered it a waste of time and money!!

This movie puts the c@#k into Hitchcock

[prodonick · 9/10 · 1 June 2006]

I just saw this movie at the Toronto gay film festival, and let me tell you, if you can't appreciate this satisfying, sexy thriller, you must be secretly straight. That's because this movie has loads of male nudity with the camera lovingly lingering on the beautiful bubble-butts (instead of the quick little cuts we usually get in movies or on TV), shots of guys masturbating, and the oh-so-rare joy of seeing erect penises on the big screen. We even get to see the erection of the hunky hero, an actor named Andreau Thomas, who I consider to be one of the hottest guys on the planet.

All that, plus great characters, writing, directing, acting, and music. This is the type of sexy movie I would make if I was a filmmaker, but I don't know if I would be as skilled in pulling off the amazingly suspenseful climax.

Thankfully, director Robert Gaston is very talented in this regard, and he's given us a movie that successfully puts the c@#k into Hitchcock.

erotic gay drama

[reeves2002 · 13 June 2007]

When I saw the trailer it looked interesting enough.I liked this movie but could tell while watching it that it was a very low budget movie with amateur first time actors but it made it more real.Even though not the best movie i've seen,I found it enjoyable and got more laughs out of it then suspense.It's not the most original story and it's been done before but it's one that I could easily relate and identify with.The characters are like many people i've known and encountered.It's a very true to life tale.One thing that surprised me a bit(and seems so typical and over used)is when the main character Manny sold himself as a whore for $700.00 saying he was doing a friend a favor.It was degrading and he obviously had no self respect.One problem I have with a lot of the gay movies is they all center around sex.It doesn't matter what the storyline is,it always comes back to that and is very oversexed at that.I don't care if it's a story about lovers but there seems to be no morals or commitments.Everyone is always screwing around on their partner and no one is ever monogamous.It would be nice to see some focusing more on relationships and story then so much sex.Of course if that's what you expect or want to see then that's OK.And this movie had it's share of it.There was frontal nudity and very authentic looking action scenes. I got a kick out of Hamilton played by Amir Darvish.He was a sleazy cop hitting on every young guy he could after leaving a marriage of possible convenience.He was perfect as a don't give a sh*t kind of guy and did whatever he wanted,but did solve the murders in the end.I at one point thought he was the killer and he easily could have been since his competition kept dying off.I am glad though that Maury and Manny hook up finally.It was a nice touching little scene between them at the end.

Gay Thriller! Well Done!

[pornboy68 · 10/10 · 25 October 2005]

Wonderful! I Loved the soundtrack, great up and coming actors, and a refreshing new genre in the world of Gay-themed movies.

It amazes me how such a great movie can be ruined by the incompetence of the people in charge of presenting it. I saw Opencam at the Lincoln Theatre, DC. Not only did the projectionist fail to play it on widescreen (cutting out a lot of the image and the opening credits), but obviously projected it darker than it was intended, and he was sleeping when his system crashed, leaving the audience staring at a snowy screen! eye ya Yay!

I was impressed, however, by the audience in the theater.. they stayed on to finish out the movie. In the end, the 'sold-out' theater cheered and applauded validating Opencam's creativity and success. Looking forward to more of Robert Gaston's psycho gay thrillers. Thanx.

Moving Gay Cinema Beyond Coming Out and HIV/AIDS

[hoop20 · 9/10 · 25 October 2005]

I truly believe this movie brings gay cinema to a new level. It moves the genre away from the same "coming out/coming of age" and HIV/AIDS story lines that have defined gay movies since their inception and takes viewers into the realm of gay men living their lives just like everyone else (to the extent they can when a serial killer is one the loose!).

We all know coming out is hard and it plays a central role in gay men's lives. And HIV/AIDS has defined a generation of gay men since the 80s. But coming out is a brief moment in the lives of gay men and HIV/AIDS has become everyone's problem not just gay men.

What about falling in love, getting married (that's legal in MA now, ya know!), having children, getting chased around by obsessive serial killers, and growing old? This movie boldly does just that. It makes no excuses about the choices people have made in their lives. It accepts them and moves on with the story at hand - killing people!

New Step in Gay Films

[mrjonesu · 9/10 · 8 May 2006]

I recently saw this film (which I thought ROCKED!!!) and found myself wondering why is it only relegated to film festivals? It would surely do well at a run in your local indie film house. I enjoyed everything about it...it was smart, fast, challenging, well paced and sexy. I thought all of the actors did amazing, especially given for most of them (if not all of them) it was their first film. An amazing feat. I would have liked to see the character's friends more as they added an interesting dynamic to the story line. They each had an interesting personality that could have been more evolved. If we had seen more of them it would have given more of a "Sex and the City" feel to it, which we gays love but don't see enough of in films about OUR lives. The soundtrack was amazing and I really do think you need to give it residency at theaters in select cities. I want my friends to see it, but they are definitely not going across the country to see it at it's next showing. Good job cast!