Céline Roustan
Craig proposes, his girlfriend says yes – and from there, chaos ensues. Streamed live online, his demise will include mantis-like behavior, fake paramedics and policemen, and even a director. If it sounds nonsensical, that’s because it is! Writer/director duo Sarah Maerten and Lincoln Robisch, also known as CLUSTERFUCK!, take us on a wild ride with MANTIS STREAM! LIKE & SUBSCRIBE. While the film is simply bananas, it also works as a sharp and witty satire about the world we live in – one where the line between online presence and IRL reality has become blurred.
“We wanted to create a descent from a physical world into digital madness in real time”
The duality between our online personas and our real-life selves – and the extent to which the boundary between the two has shrunk – makes the inspiration behind the film both obvious and universal. “Growing up in the 21st century, we have witnessed the increased monetization of joy and suffering alike, as the internet has rapidly subsumed our culture and creativity”, the directors explain. Throughout their short, they push this idea to the extreme, using genre to craft an insane and horrifying narrative where reality gets consumed by virtuality. “We were inspired by the horror of watching more and more people concern themselves with the presentation of their actions online than with the efficacy of those actions,” the filmmakers add.
To push their concept, the directorial duo places a real life tragedy in direct conflict with virtual life. This contrast creates an absurdity that they keep on deepening as the film progresses. For the male protagonist, the narrative quickly becomes a descent into madness – one that seems impossible to stop. The short gets crazier and crazier as that storyline unravels, but what’s truly scary here is that we can’t help but wonder if in 50 years, MANTIS STREAM! will still feel extreme, or will it have turned into a mundane occurrence. This loss of authenticity and the growing importance of performativity is perfectly compounded in the protagonist’s misfortune.
“A live-action long-take that progressively began to include digital zooms and rotoscoped elements before fully transitioning into a 3D animated scan of our filming location populated with rotoscoped live-action characters” – the duo explain their production approach
“We wanted to create a descent from a physical world into digital madness in real time,” the directors reveal when discussing the visual style of the film. MANTIS STREAM! starts with a visual language rooted in reality, with much of the initial absurdity emerging through the performances. As the story moves forward, however, editor Mark Neil infuses chaos in the pacing, while DP Mitch Holson creates a frantic energy with the framing and the way he moves the camera. Sound designer and composer Joseph Carroll enhances this blend of danger, havoc and absurdity with a soundscape that keeps the audience both alert and confused. Little by little, the film becomes crazier in every possible way, culminating in what the directors describe as a complete “collapse into digital pandemonium” – a process the extend into the end credits of the film, which were created by “datamoshing it all to shit”.
MANTIS STREAM! LIKE & SUBSCRIBE had its online debut after it won the Vimeo Staff Pick Award at the 2026 SXSW Film & TV Festival, where it was selected in the Midnight Competition. Although the duo admit that their next projects are all very much in the pre-production stage, CLUSTERFUCK! is currently working on the development of both a miniseries and a feature.