Watching Ronan Corrigan’s LifeHack transported me back to South by Southwest 2015, where I saw the premiere of Leo Gabriadze’s Unfriended. I sat there enamored by what would become a landmark kickstart for the screenlife horror movement, hypnotized by its organic application of screen-locked cinematography. Corrigan’s devotion to authenticity feels similarly meticulous, a testament to the reported five years it took to produce his feature debut, LifeHack, which shot in a breakneck 10 days. The next generation of filmmakers emerges, wooing audiences with a screen-locked heist thriller that reminds of The Perfect Score but with graver stakes.

What Is ‘LifeHack’ About?

Corrigan and co-writer Hope Elliott Kemp pen a crypto robbery where the criminals don’t even have to leave their bedrooms. Ringleader Kyle (Georgie Farmer), code monkey Petey (James Scholz), reckless hacker Sid (Roman Hayeck-Green), and counterfeiter Alex (Yasmin Finney) target polarizing billionaire Don Heard (Charlie Creed-Miles) and his reported $28 million in cryptocurrencies. The “Generation Online” group schemes over Discord, launches their attacks via screen mirroring, and tastes economic freedom while skimming small chunks. It’s the poor stealing from the rich, and a rich asshole at that—but that doesn’t make anything less illegal. A couple hundred thousand dollars will still land Kyle and his crew in jail, and that’s before they decide to make a run at a $25 million score in one swoop.

There’s a rebellious quality about LifeHack as Corrigan’s mockery of Elon Musk, Joe Rogan, and Andrew Tate lookalike alpha idiots. Don’s a one-for-one caricature of Elon Musk, and what’s scary is how his erratic and unstable behaviors—filmed well in the past—mirror the DOGE moron’s recent antics. As Don fires a flamethrower for his followers, peacocking for social media, it mirrors Musk’s chainsaw waving like a glitchy, job-hacking Leatherface. Corrigan clearly states how he feels about these false right-wing idols, from a hilariously doofy Rogen impression to an email “Easter egg” clearly seen to Don from his good friend “J Epstein.” It’s youth in revolt from behind the camera, incredibly fearless from a 27-year-old Irish filmmaker.

‘LifeHack’ Is Ambitious for a Screenlife Film

The authenticity of software is aimed more at gamer culture, but everything’s still recognizable. Kyle’s quartet is described as “Script Kiddies”—immature hackers who “use existing and frequently well-known and easy-to-find techniques and programs or scripts to search for and exploit weaknesses in other computers on the Internet”—so there’s a juvenility to what’s seen. Kyle and Peter have a heartfelt conversation while playing the first-person shooter Rust, for example, while the previously mentioned chat tool Discord is where communications occur (versus Zoom or Skype). Depending on moods and events, playlists are selected with titles like “POV: You’re Robbing A Bank.” It’s very Hackers meets Unfriended: Dark Web at times, as the punky friends scour hidden marketplaces to purchase anything from data to cocaine. It’s no surprise to see Timur Bekmambetov listed as a producer, given his status as the shepherd of screenlife’s rise and LifeHack’s ease of digital replication.

LifeHack is more ambitious than your typical screenlife creation since a heist requires more on-the-ground perspectives. Unfriended or Host can stay glued to a laptop screen, where Corrigan has to “problem solve” for a London “team building” getaway (an excuse to party) and a third act that requires a stealth mission into Don’s California business headquarters. Sid can infiltrate Don’s cryptosecurity network to access workstation cameras, surveillance feeds, and even a hidden button camera to give audiences more sightlines than Kyle’s laptop. It feels more expansive than typical screenlife, more aligned with titles like The Den or Open Windows where protagonists are forced to leave their seats. The thrills are alive as the crypto thieves pound through lines of code to bamboozle top-rate IT departments or dupe Don’s nepobaby daughter Lindsey (Jessica Reynolds) into handing over vital personal information. And shout out to Liverpool-based musician Liam Brown—known as Two Blinks, I Love You—who used only a guitar and MacBook to create a zippy score that keeps pace with Kyle’s frantic plots.

‘LifeHack’ Blends Screenlife With a Tense Heist Thriller

Corrigan’s ingenuity, intensive planning, and attention to detail pay off in LifeHack. Performances snap into place despite being contained to their bubbles, while every mouse click and installed program has meaning. It’s lean and committed to the bit but well-developed as a story outside the ultimate jackpot. Little details, like Kyle’s deadbeat father working abroad in Dubai, Alex’s inability to travel because of her mother, and so on. There’s more to LifeHack than rambunctious kids wanting to mess around with the upper class. Corrigan and Kemp address classism through this digital Robin Hood scheme that’s undoubtedly self-serving, yet speaks volumes about wealth distribution worldwide. It’s a story about growing up in front of screens, escaping classist hierarchies, and how endless power corrupts yet consequences don’t feel real online.

LifeHack is a captivating, exhilarating, and full-speed heist thriller that marks one hell of a feature debut. This Corrigan “kid’ has a bright future as a filmmaker, given how he conquers such a technique-driven subgenre with such completeness right out of the gate. Hacker culture meets terminally online mindsets for a new breed of cinema, thrusting audiences further into Hollywood’s next evolution. It’s a splendid screenlife interpretation that shines in its functionality, challenges formal moviemaking structures, but—most importantly—is a wild and crazy ride from start to finish.

Lifehack premiered at the 2025 SXSW Festival.