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Movies / On DVD / Fear Dot Com
Fear Dot Com

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Fear Dot Com (2002)

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Reviews Counted:88

Fresh:3

Rotten:85

Average Rating:2.6/10

Consensus: As frustrating as a 404 error, Fear Dot Com is a stylish, incoherent, and often nasty mess with few scares.

Runtime: 1 hr 54 mins

Genre: Horror/Suspense

Synopsis: "Do you like to watch?" A woman's voice beckons from the computer. Images flash across the screen - parted lips, bound wrists, flesh. Her seductive tone summons you closer, inviting you... "Do you like to watch?" A woman's voice beckons from the computer. Images flash across the screen - parted lips, bound wrists, flesh. Her seductive tone summons you closer, inviting you in... "Do you want to see more?" If you click "yes" - and you know you want to - you'll be logged on to the internet site feardot.com, and the game begins. What follows is a miasma of hellish images that leave unsuspecting voyeurs suffering from morbid hallucinations and unspeakable terror. When four bodies are discovered among the industrial decay and urban grime of New York City, brash young detective Mike Reilly (STEPHEN DORFF) teams with ambitious Department of Health researcher Terry Huston (NATASCHA MCELHONE) to uncover the cause behind their violent and inexplicable deaths. The only common factor shared by the victims? Each died exactly 48 hours after logging on to feardot.com. Were they being punished for their inquisitiveness? For succumbing to temptation? For indulging their guilty pleasures? Determined to confront and destroy the evil force behind the deadly site, Mike logs on and the clock starts ticking. Now he's got 48 hours to face his own worst fears and solve the mystery, or suffer the fate of the victims before him. Together with Terry, he delves deep into a forbidden universe of contaminated souls and shocking imagery, each step bringing them closer to the horrifying counter-reality of feardot.com - and a life-and-death confrontation with Alistair Pratt (STEPHEN REA), a sadistic murderer who has eluded Mike and the FBI for years. What they discover is as mystifying as the deaths themselves... and more terrifying than anything they ever dreamed. "Time's almost up..." -- © 2002 Warner Bros. [More]

Starring: Stephen Dorff, Natascha McElhone, Stephen Rea

Starring: Stephen Dorff, Natascha McElhone, Stephen Rea

Director: William Malone

Director: William Malone
Screenwriter: Josephine Coyle
Producer: Moshe Diamant, Limor Diamant, Andrew Stevens, Elie Samaha
Composer: Nicholas Pike
Studio: Warner Bros.

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Reviews for Fear Dot Com

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1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 5 >> >|
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William Malone's fear dot com desperately wants to be a cutting-edge chiller with its 'up-to-the-minute' internet theme, but turns out to be a depressing up-chuck of every great horror movie of the last 20 years.

Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | comment Comment
03/07/07
Mark Kermode
Mark Kermode
Guardian [UK]
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

This internet-based spook-fest is arguably the least imaginative, most pathetic horror of the decade.

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
12/30/06
Alan Morrison
Alan Morrison
Empire Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The clunking exposition, narrative incoherence and abysmal dialogue might find favour with aficionados of bad films, but even they won't forgive the sheer nasty mindedness of this lurid mess.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
01/26/06
Time Out
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

... it manages to be both prurient and very, very naive about the internet.

Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | comment Comment
07/08/03
Peter Bradshaw
Peter Bradshaw
Guardian [UK]
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Over-directed, confused, badly-acted, poorly scripted trash.

Full Review Source: ViewLondon | comment Comment
06/28/03
Matthew Turner
Matthew Turner
ViewLondon

Do you like to watch? whispers the husky temptress on the killer website. That's one offer self-respecting horror fans should politely decline.

Full Review Source: BBC | comment Comment
06/10/03
Jamie Russell
Jamie Russell
BBC
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Not exactly a storyline for the ages, is it? In fact, the plot seems so whisper-thin that you're barely aware of it as you watch the film.

Full Review Source: Shadows on the Wall | comment Comment
04/20/03
Rich Cline
Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall

It's simply really bad.

Full Review Source: Cinema Crazed | comment Comment
04/29/09
Felix Vasquez Jr.
Felix Vasquez Jr.
Cinema Crazed

[An] illogical, repulsive nightmare...

Full Review Source: Sacramento News & Review | comment Comment
08/07/08
Mark Halverson
Mark Halverson
Sacramento News & Review

Watching Feardotcom is often like being splashed with sewage by a Super-Soaker.

Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | comment Comment
02/03/08
Rob Gonsalves
Rob Gonsalves
eFilmCritic.com

It's bad in a sickening, disturbing way, with its gratuitous mixture of sex and violence.

Full Review Source: Associated Press | comment Comment
01/06/07
Christy Lemire
Christy Lemire
Associated Press

Tenta ser uma mistura de Se7en e Ringu, mas revela-se apenas uma piada de mau gosto.

comment Comment
04/17/05
Pablo Villaca
Pablo Villaca
Cinema em Cena

...dark, grungy and generally unpleasant to look at.

Full Review Source: Reel Film Reviews | comment Comment
08/01/03
David Nusair
David Nusair
Reel Film Reviews

Malone does have a gift for generating nightmarish images that will be hard to burn out of your brain. But the movie’s narrative hook is way too muddled to be an effectively chilling guilty pleasure.

Full Review Source: State Journal-Register (Springfield, IL) | comment Comment
06/26/03
Nick Rogers
Nick Rogers
State Journal-Register (Springfield, IL)

This film drags on forever, presenting one contrived situation after another.

Full Review Source: Mike Bracken's Horror Films | comment Comment
03/31/03
Mike Bracken
Mike Bracken
Mike Bracken's Horror Films

"Feardotcom" has the makings of an interesting meditation on the ethereal nature of the internet and the otherworldly energies it could channel, but it simply becomes a routine shocker.

Full Review Source: Citysearch | comment Comment
02/21/03
Bryan Reesman
Bryan Reesman
Citysearch

...So caught up in its own art it rarely succeeds at being truly scary.

Full Review Source: Film Quips Online | comment Comment
02/08/03
John R. McEwen
John R. McEwen
Film Quips Online

When appreciating the heuristic nature of the hackneyed Fear Dot Com, do yourself a favor and be sure to log off immediately in reference to this misguided nightmarish nonsense.

Full Review Source: TheWorldJournal.com | comment Comment
02/03/03
Frank Ochieng
Frank Ochieng
TheWorldJournal.com

Sure, horror movies are supposed to be dark, but come on! Turn on a lamp sometime.

Full Review Source: Apollo Guide | comment Comment
01/18/03
Terri Clark
Terri Clark
Apollo Guide

The director, William Malone, is like his villain: a sick person trying to justify what he's doing by making his audience voyeurs. He's like the character from Fight Club that splices hard-core porn into Disney films.

Full Review Source: KFOR Channel 4 News | comment Comment
01/16/03
Blake Davis
Blake Davis
KFOR Channel 4 News
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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