fear dot.com

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TITLE="mailto:leeshoquist@aol.com"><U><U>Reviewed by Lee Shoquist</U></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <B>30-Second Bottom Line:</B></div> <div> When a mysterious series of random deaths begin to occur in New York City, a health department researcher and a tough young detective team up to discover who or what is behind them.  After learning that a sadistic Internet web site is responsible for causing voyeurs to experience terrifying hallucinations and violent deaths, they work against the clock to find the perpetrator and stop the murders. <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#FFCC99" FACE="Arial" > </FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>Story Line:</B></div> <div> When several bodies are discovered in a grungy and ominous New York City, the race is on to discover the links between the victims and their related symptoms <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFCC66" FACE="Symbol" >-</FONT> an Ebola-type virus combined with hallucinatory panic before dying a painful death.  Terry Huston (Natascha McElhone), an eager young upstart from the Department of Health, is paired with cocky and brash Detective Mike Reilly (Stephen Dorff) to investigate and discover the perpetrator of the gruesome and unexplainable events. </div> <bR> <div> Their investigation leads to Fear Dot Com, a sadistic web site that entices visitors to participate in violent torture games before exposing them to shocking and graphic images that cause frightening hallucinations and certain death within 48 hours.   </div> <bR> <div> As the investigation deepens, Terry and Mike begin to realize that the only way to penetrate the secrets of Fear Dot Com is to become a part of the sadism itself - logging on and into a game that could catch them a killer or cost them their lives.  </div> <bR> <div> Venturing inside the terrifying realm of Fear Dot Com and its grotesque combination of violence and sexual torture, Mike discovers its mastermind - the FBI-wanted Alistair Pratt, a heinous murderer obsessed with and turned on by inciting extreme violence in his victims, using the web as a portal to murder.  </div> <div>   </div> <div> <B>Tell Me More About It:</B></div> <div> Recently I ran across an article in People Magazine about a sweet young teenaged girl from a rural East Coast town who lived with her aging grandmother.  She was responsible, a good student, held much promise and was popular at school.  After buying a computer and logging onto the `net for the first time, she was hooked.  She behaved as if she were under house arrest, holed up in her bedroom online for hours and days at a time.  Though she was only fourteen, she met man after man for secret sexual trysts, a habit of which even her closest friends were unaware.  To the contrary, she expounded at length to everyone she knew about the dangers of chat rooms, meeting strangers and taking personal protection while "talking" online.  She ended up dead in the backseat of a "boyfriend's" car, asphyxiated at age 14.  Scary.  </div> <bR> <div> The Internet itself has been a conduit for plenty of real-life horror stories (just look at many of the online love affairs paraded on trash TV!).  But sadly, "Fear Dot Com" is, for all its might, fails to conjure up one good scare or provocative idea about the dangers of Internet usage; at least nothing comparable to what we have seen in real life headlines.  It's a laughable attempt to push the "dangers" of the `net into the realm of psychological horror and it is just not able, as hard as it tries, to give us anything more terrifying that some Marilyn Manson-style hallucinatory visuals and some standard-issue designer unpleasantness.    </div> <bR> <div> As the film opened, I sat there momentarily refreshed at the lack of hip teenagers or cynical, self-referential style kicks on the order of Wes Craven's "Scream."   There's a sincere attempt to make a good-looking, straightforward horror film.  I was impressed with the set pieces and cinematography - the film looks expensive and is competently shot and edited.  The camera is fluid.  The film's world, obviously inspired by David Fincher's "Seven," is cold, bleached-out, dark and cavernous.  This is the type of film where even a police station or an apartment is so radically underexposed they suggest nothing from the real world; rather a severe film reality.  I wasn't even able to distinguish that this took place in New York City, save for one reference to "the Village."  </div> <bR> <div> I've never liked Stephen Dorff much - usually I find him humorless and irritating in a minor way, and since his career of late hasn't exactly been A-list, I'm not surprised to see him headlining here.  The real shock is that two distinguished and top-flight actors, Natascha McElhone ("Surviving Picasso," "Mrs. Dalloway") and Stephen Rea ("The Crying Game") apparently thought they were getting into something with teeth, something shocking and "timely" in its cautionary messages about voyeurism and `net addiction.  </div> <bR> <div> They couldn't have been more wrong.  In what feels like a case of too little, too late, a horror film about the Internet is just a tough sell in any package (witness Dee Snider's equally sadistic "Strangeland").  There's a huge suspension of disbelief in that most people laughably argue (with valid reason), "Why not just unplug the damned thing?"   And anyone obsessed with venturing onto a live-cam death site, in my opinion, gets what they deserve, whether its SPAM email blasts or standard-issue hallucinations (which they must be having in the first place to want to watch the junk on Fear Dot Com). </div> <bR> <div> The characters are all one-dimensional, with the cop and the researcher seemingly undefined by any life outside the case.  They have, at one point, what appears to be an obligatory romantic moment, but with zero chemistry between Dorff and McElhone, it just feels uncomfortable.  Rea tries his darndest to go over the top ("Reducing relationships to anonymous electronic impulses is a perversion!"), but the movie beats him to it at every punch.  </div> <bR> <div> Without any provocative ideas about `net terror and no interesting characters or tense moments, we're left with one semi-nice performance from the radiant McElhone who must have walked through the shoot and picked up an okay paycheck.  This is direct-to-video dreck, and it's anyone's guess why it's at the local multiplex.</div> <bR> <div> It all adds up to a pallid horror film that tries desperately to shake you up, turning up its technical elements and editing to a ferocious pitch by the climax and trying so hard to scare you it's almost rude not to give in.  I spent the majority of the time adding up much better films this one is derivative of, from "Seven" to "The Cell," etc.  Those films had ideas that were dark, unsettling, frightening.  The ideas in this film are simply silly and overblown. </div> <bR> <div> 95 minutes</div> <bR> <div> Rated R for scenes of extreme violence, torture, nudity and language.</div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="621" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="617"><div> Lee Shoquist © 2002</div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>