By Guylaine Cadorette
Story
New York City detective Mike Reilly (
Stephen Dorff) teams up with Department of Health researcher Terry Huston (
Natascha McElhone) to investigate five bizarre deaths. Before long, they discover that all the victims died exactly 48 hours after visiting the Web site feardotcom.com. The site itself looks amateurish, with rapid-fire images of a strange doorway, screaming faces, torture tools and indiscernible, grainy objects. Users log on to watch a twisted doctor perform autopsies on people--while they're still alive, torturing his victims until they beg to be killed. The voyeurs must then interact with a mysterious woman who asks things like, "Do you want to hurt me?" She challenges users to find her within two days--or die. Those who don't find her end up suffering whatever gruesome fate they fear most and--this is the best bit--it's brought on by some sort of evil force generated
through the computer. Of course, curiosity gets the better of them and Mike and Terry log on to the site, only to find themselves embroiled in a supernatural, violent fight for their lives. If this explanation made sense, that's more than we can say for the plot of
feardotcom.
Acting
Dorff is well cast as Mike Reilly, a brash, young city police detective whose curious nature gets him into trouble. But the character is too simplistic and underdeveloped to give
Dorff much to do. Although we get a little more insight into
McElhone's character Terry (we know she has a cat name Benny, for example) there isn't much to like, or dislike, about her.
Dorff and
McElhone's characters strike up a sort of friendship as the film progresses, but there isn't much chemistry between the actors. A couple of the creepier roles in the film are much more entertaining to watch, especially
Stephen Rea and
Michael Sarrazin.
Rea plays Alistair Pratt, the twisted doctor whose torture victims provide feardotcom.com's "entertainment," while
Sarrazin plays Frank Sykes, a drunk and washed-up author. It's a shame these two didn't have more screen time.
Direction
Director
William Malone explains in the production notes for the film that
feardotcom offers both a scientific and spiritual explanation for what happens in the film, and that it is ultimately up to moviegoers to decide which school of thought they subscribe to. But the film's storyline is so convoluted and contradictory that it's difficult to figure out what
question the film is asking, let alone find the answer. Even if nothing about the story--or the philosophical questions it purports to ask--makes sense, the intense look of the film is enough to keep you watching.
Malone bathes the film in murky, blue tones, and sunlight never even trickles in. Offices are dimly lit and apartments are always dank and dilapidated. It rains day and night. The weird flashes of images presented in this setting are graphic and disturbing, making
feardotcom a film for the strong of heart--and stomach.