Sunday, February 20, 2011

Feardotcom

2002
Directed by:  William Malone
Written by:  Moshe Diamant (story), Josephine Coyle
Starring:  Stephen Dorff, Natascha McElhone and Stephen Rea
From IMDB:
"Four bodies are found in NYC. The coincidence? They all died 48 hours after logging on to a site named feardotcom.com. Tough detective Mike Reilly collaborates with Department of Health associate Terry Huston to research these mysterious deaths. The only way to find out though what really happened is to enter the site itself..."
I thought I'd seen this film before but it's clear I haven't.
Sorry to see Udo Keir only got about 37 seconds of screen time.  He's no Anthony Hopkins or anything but he's always fun to watch.
The DP is obviously a fan of Seven.  The wet streets - the decay and darkness everywhere. The  Shaw guide gave this one star but I've got a feeling I'm going to be giving it higher than that just for the look.  It's a safe bet they didn't have Seven's budget or the days to get that look.  I think they've done a pretty job of it.
Wow - just read they had a 42 million dollar budget for this.  I'm now less impressed.  For 42 mill, you should be able to get any kind of look you want.
Yay - Jeffrey Combs!
So there is some supernatural element to this that so far is pretty obscure.
The images on the fear.com website are so fleeting and obfuscated it's impossible to imagine being all that horrified by them or even drawn in.  I guess I have to caulk it up to the aforementioned supernatural element that is so far unexplained.
Mmm?  So the soul of some dead girl is on the internet - specifically this Fear website and she's killing everyone who gets off on the doctors work?  I guess I'll keep watching and see how it all plays out.
Okay - so detective Reilly is writhing like someone possessed in the hospital - and the next scene he's in the apartment doing fine.  Did I miss something?  Patience young Skywalker.
So this dead girl wants revenge - yet she seems to be going after the only guy who really wants to get it for her.
How many times can you turn your back on the psychopath before you get what you deserve for being stupid? Apparently 2-3 times.
I think William Malone is a good director but this just missed a little too wide.  Still I think I liked it a little more than most.
I'm going to give this one 2.5 Bloody Eyes out of 5.  With the kind of cash they had they should have done much better.

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