Of all the awfulnesses rained down on us by coronavirus, down the list in 457th place is the return of the found-footage movie, back on our screens in the guise of the Zoom-call film. Last year’s nifty little chiller Host was a masterclass in how to do it: a subgenre high. Much less satisfying is this gimmicky and derivative pandemic thriller directed by Will Wernick about a drunken virtual party that gets out of hand. There is absolutely no sense of it being shot in real time and a strong whiff of phoniness hangs over the whole thing.

Newsreel footage sets the scene. It’s America, summer 2022. After four waves of coronavirus, 31 million Americans are dead, and a nationwide night-time curfew is in place. Stuck at home in Los Angeles on his birthday making do with an online party is Evan (Dan J Johnson). His girlfriend Jen (Jocelyn Hudon) is with him; she’s pregnant but waiting till after the party to break the news. Their friends, joining online, feel like an assemblage of 90s sitcom stereotypes: a cute gay couple, Evan’s party-hard best mate and Jen’s singleton pal.

At first, as the friends banter, the interplay between the actors feels a bit unnatural, aggressively upbeat. Then they drop ecstasy pills and the mood turns edgier. There’s an accident – or is it a crime? One of the group runs out into the city with the police in pursuit, and miraculously, while being chased by the cops, keeps his phone steady in his outstretched arm to film himself. The rest of the actors have to make do with staring at their computer screens with insincerely shocked and anxious faces; the lack of dramatic tension is all too apparent. And despite being set next year, Safer at Home already feels out of date. It begins and ends with clips of Donald Trump failing to grasp the severity of virus – and its vision of the US spiralling out of control feels very mid-2020.

• Safer at Home is released on 3 May on digital platforms.