DON’T LOG OFF movie poster | ©2025 Dread Central

Rating: Not Rated
Stars: Ashley Argota Torres, Brielle Barbusca, Sterling Beaumont, Luke Benward, Jack Griffo, Khylin Rhambo, Kara Royster, Ariel Winter
Writers: Brandon Baer & Garrett Baer
Directors: Brandon Baer & Garrett Baer
Distributor: Dread Central
Release Date: July 15, 2025 (VOD)

DON’T LOG OFF takes place mostly on Zoom. It is set and was made during COVID (the July 2020 wrap date is given in the end credits). The personal-devices variant on found-footage movies can be great and terrifying (HOST), gripping and suspenseful (SEARCHING), or it can suffer the same pitfalls as fare in any other narrative format.

Writers/directors Brandon Baer & Garrett Baer start by breaking the formula rules with a sequence that is shot conventionally, rather than played out on cellphone or Zoom. We see a young woman kidnapped, and then a news report of her death.

Subsequently, DON’T LOG OFF sticks to screens. Katy (Kara Royster) has arranged an online surprise party for roommate Sam (Brielle Barbusca). Due to COVID, Sam has spent the past week at her parents’ home. Other remote (though they all live in the Los Angeles Valley area) guests are couple Becca (Ashley Argota Torres) and Jacob (Jack Griffo), plus snarky Annie (Ariel Winter), snarkier Adam (Luke Benward) and tech-savvy Brian (Khylin Rhambo). Invitee Robert (Kenny Ridwan) is late.

We spend twenty minutes getting to know the group, not well, but enough to deduce that Annie and Adam are jerks. Then something finally happens. Katy has sent cupcakes via delivery service to Sam. Sam leaves the room to answer the door to get the pastries – and never comes back.

After a concerning amount of time passes, it turns out that Sam lied to both Katy and her parents (she told them she was staying with Katy) about her whereabouts. So, where is Sam really, why did she mislead everyone, and why hasn’t she come back from answering the door?

This briefly seems like it could yield some solid plot twists, but finally Sam’s friends go to investigate what’s happening – one at a time. Never mind asking if these people have ever seen a horror movie, do they lack all common sense?

Even granted that DON’T LOG OFF was made in the early days of COVID, when people were trying to avoid close proximity to each other, the fact that paired Jacob and Becca don’t go with one another blasts right past that excuse. It is established that everyone lives near enough to everyone else that meeting up outside should not be a problem. That no one thinks to bring anything that could be used as a weapon when they suspect foul play is another red flag.

Additionally, both Adam and Annie continue to insist much longer than credibility allows that this is all an elaborate prank. We don’t know any of the other characters well enough to guess at whether they have a basis for this belief – are members of their social group such jokesters they would do this? – but since the opening has primed us for a killer on the loose, we think something more serious has happened.

The cast is all very good, and the camera angles from cellphones moving at speed or held carelessly seem reasonable in this context. There are even some effectively scary moments.

But DON’T LOG OFF has so many questionable elements that, while its production values are commendable on what is clearly a tight budget, viewers may not want to log on unless Zoom horror is truly their jam.

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