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| Film vitals |
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· Year: 2002
· Director: William Malone
· Writers: Josephine Coyle, Moshe Diamant
· Cast: Steven Dorff, Natascha McElhorne
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Amazon.com
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| Synopsis |
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A cop and his partner track down whatever is killing visitors to feardotcom.com forty-eight hours after they log onto the site.
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RATING
Out of 100 |
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21
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| COLD ANALYSIS |
| 2.5 -ATMOSPHERE |
| 2.25 -GORE |
| 0.0 -HUMOR |
| 0.75 -SCARES |
| 1.25 -TENSION |
I'm no big fan of the Thir13en Ghosts remake, and the way FeardotCom seriously glossed over a serious topic reminded me unpleasantly of that film. Except for one thing: Thir13en Ghosts was watchable, and FeardotCom is not. Its story, which involves visitors to a website dying forty-eight hours after they first log on to the site, is interesting but woefully underexplored and full of holes. I realize the filmmakers weren't trying to make a cop movie, but there are too many gaps in police procedure to ignore, most notably the lack of any serious attempt to shut down the killer's website. It's mentioned only in passing--because to pay too much attention to it might make the plot dissolve. Secondly, although I can't go into how the website kills its visitors without spoiling things, I can say that the "why" of it all makes no sense. And thirdly, in several instances, the film establishes that this feardotcom.com is getting thousands of visitors. I guess not every visitor is being killed, or we'd have an epidemic on our hands. This isn't even discussed--it's just one of several important points that are ignored or pushed into the background.
What's left are grim visuals with no plot supporting them. Steven Dorff and Natascha McElhorne try their best to make sense of their characters, but they're forced to behave in ways that are improper for the story or are just plain insensible. Dorff's cop is straight out of the troubled tough-guy bin, with no real backstory that might grant him weight. One wishes McElhorne\ had more opportunity, but she keeps getting her legs cut out from underneath her by the plot's contrivances. And apparently, FeardotCom wants us to think there's some sort of connection between the characters, but it's a ludicrous idea, backed by nothing in the script. Director William Malone did pop horror with panache in his House on Haunted Hill, but here, he's giving us nothing but a Se7en-style retread with not enough story.
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