fear dot com Starring Stephen Dorff, Natascha McElhone Directed by William Malone Rated R for violence including grisly images of torture, nudity, and language *1/2 out of 4 Stars, Movie Grade: D+

Theatrical Release: August 30, 2002

Running time: 98 minutes

by Kevin Lang

Directed by William Malone, who had previously directed 1999's "House on Haunted Hill" remake and several "Tales From the Crypt" episodes, "FearDotCom" was supposed to be the next step in movie horror, taking it to the Internet. And since everything and everyone is online these days, why not make a movie about a serial killer performing his killings live via the web?

Ultimately "FearDotCom" failed to scare us, and it was only near the end that we were given enough of the story to completely understand the plot. Apparently one of the killer's victims, a young girl, had been infecting people's minds when they looked at the killer's website in order to try and use them to find her body and piece together the clues to stop the killer. Stephen Dorff ("Blade," 1998) played Mike Reilly, a detective who was soon investigating the murders linked to the website. He was aided by Terry Houston (Natascha McElhone, "The Truman Show," 1998) who worked for the Health Department. Eventually, to make a better attempt to solve the murders, they both ended up logging onto FearDotCom.

The film's biggest mistake was its extreme overuse of flashing gruesome images before our eyes, and expecting us to be shocked in horror. This seemed to be a running theme through the entire movie, and although the images were disgusting, such as a sickly looking girl vomiting blood, they quickly became overdone, and they used up time that could have been spent working to crawl under our skin instead of throwing it at us. These were the same types of shock factor images seen in Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson videos. However, they worked more effectively in those cases. The images there come in moderation and are not forced upon us (and we also have the option of changing the channel).

There was very little to do with the Internet and the website in the film. It was merely an outlet for the murderer to display his killings, and even that use was limited. From what little was shown of it, the website looked fake, and even though I'm sure a similar design could be done using Flash (as it was for the film's official site), it seemed a little too smooth and fast, but then again, the site was also able to talk to and possess its users. I'll stop there.

The film failed to play enough on the online aspect, and the Internet, which should have been a central character, was left hidden in the background and was almost nonexistent. Why not play up on our own online addictions (chat rooms, instant messenger, email, file sharing)? Why not have the killer invite users to his page? A number of other questions arose in my mind as I watched. How did the people who surfed FearDotCom find the web page address, and were they all just that sick that they enjoyed watching people being murdered? Why wasn't this all over the news? It couldn't be kept secret. It was on the Internet.

Near the end of the film there were several scenes in which the screen flashed so annoyingly that I was surprised there wasn't a warning beforehand for epilepsy sufferers. I even found myself having to briefly close my eyes, or maybe that was because I no longer cared to look at another waste of once untainted film.

I guess by now you might be wondering if I tried to log onto FearDotCom, or you might be thinking of trying to log on yourself. I should warn you first though; it might be a complete waste of your time (actually the site has a familiar feel after seeing the movie, and it was well designed). The address is www.feardotcom.com.

"fear dot com" Review written August 29, 2002, CTF.