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.
Fear Dot Com (2002)
Runtime: 1 hr 54 mins
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 in... "Do you want to see more?" If you click "yes" - and you know you want to - you'll be logged on... "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]
Genre: Horror/Suspense
Starring: Stephen Dorff, Natascha McElhone, Stephen Rea
Screenwriter: Josephine Coyle
Producer: Moshe Diamant, Limor Diamant, Andrew Stevens, Elie Samaha
Composer: Nicholas Pike
Reviews
This internet-based spook-fest is arguably the least imaginative, most pathetic horror of the decade.
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.
... it manages to be both prurient and very, very naive about the internet.
Do you like to watch? whispers the husky temptress on the killer website. That's one offer self-respecting horror fans should politely decline.
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.
Watching Feardotcom is often like being splashed with sewage by a Super-Soaker.
It's bad in a sickening, disturbing way, with its gratuitous mixture of sex and violence.
Tenta ser uma mistura de Se7en e Ringu, mas revela-se apenas uma piada de mau gosto.
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.
This film drags on forever, presenting one contrived situation after another.
"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.
...So caught up in its own art it rarely succeeds at being truly scary.
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.
Sure, horror movies are supposed to be dark, but come on! Turn on a lamp sometime.
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.
A corpse in its own right: It's filled with the rotting ideas of far better movies.
Of all the trash I had to watch in 2002, the insipid FearDotCom easily ranks among the worst.
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