FEARDOTCOM
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2002 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): *
William Malone, who last brought us the pathetic HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL, a remake
of an already bad movie, tries out a new story in FEARDOTCOM, which is almost as
trashy as his last picture. How he manages to attract reasonably good B-list
actors to his projects remains a mystery. I will, however, go out on a limb
about FEARDOTCOM and disagree with what many others have said about it. It
isn't quite one of the worst movies of the year. It's just merely very bad.
A cautionary tale about the hazards of surfing to the wrong web site -- in this
case one with a "live death cam" -- it is a by-the-numbers horror picture,
featuring cockroaches, blood, thunder, little girl ghosts and old dial phones.
Malone seems to think that all he needs to do in order to create fear is to turn
down the brightness knob on the camera and turn up the grain. The result,
however, is more ugly and indecipherable than it is frightening.
The confusing story involves a web site than causes red eye. Forty-eight hours
after visiting it, the viewers' eyes start bleeding, and they die with something
like Ebola virus symptoms. Stephen Dorff (BLADE) plays Mike Reilly, the
detective investigating the deaths, and Natascha McElhone (RONIN) plays Terry
Houston, a health department inspector who is working with him on the case.
Stephen Rea, from THE CRYING GAME, is Alistair Pratt, the story's villain.
As you wait for the ending credits to put you out of your misery, you can enjoy
the cheesy and unintentionally funny dialog. "So, do you like working with bugs
and viruses?" Detective Reilly asks Inspector Houston. "Someone's got to do
it," she replies with sincerity. Perhaps the best/worst line of the picture
comes as Pratt tortures one of his victims before killing her. "I'd like to
say, 'I can feel your pain,' but I can't," he tells her. I wonder if the
director has any sense of the pain he inflicts on the viewers who either have to
endure his films or waste their money by walking out on them.
FEARDOTCOM runs a long 1:38. It is rated R for "violence including grisly
images of torture, nudity and language" and would be acceptable for older
teenagers.
The film is playing in nationwide release now in the United States. In the
Silicon Valley, it is showing at the AMC theaters, the Century theaters and the
Camera Cinemas.
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X-RT-RatingText: 1/4
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