Fear Dot Com (2002) Warner Bros.
1 hr. 38 mins.
Starring: Stephen Dorff, Natascha McElhone, Jeffrey Combs, Udo Kier, Stephen Rea
Directed by: William Malone
Rating: * ½ stars (out of 4 stars)
Okay folks, ready for some good old-fashioned twisted and creepy guilty fun? Let’s see now…for those with no discriminating taste whatsoever, director William Malone (“The House on Haunted Hill”) has some exceedingly spoiled goodies for you to enjoy in his horrendously overblown scarefest “Fear Dot Com”. Malone’s aimless gore session is ideal if you’re into the sensationalistic realm of cliched’ horror-theme vehicles that feature the arbitrary nonsense of bondage-clad supermodels, the shock value rawness of over-exaggerated murders and mutilations, the cheap titillation of stark nudity and other kinds of kinky activities, and other high-tech campy elements. So what is “Fear Dot Com’s” plot you ask? Well, it involves the mysterious existence of a sinister Internet website where if one taps into this venue (incidentally, the movie’s titular label), they end up as dead as a doornail within a 48-hour time frame. Although this is a joyously warped notion to behold, Malone cannot sustain this banal bloodbath because the tedious tension gets lost in its cheap ludicrousness.
Basically, “Fear Dot Com” has an intriguing and irreverent premise in that the very idea of an ominous Internet website consuming one’s soul to the point that it’s hazardous to their health has an insidious cheekiness to it that’s hard to resist. Because there are forbidden destinations on the Internet that folks are curious and catty about, this is a clever concept to try and exploit in off-kilter fashion. But Malone wastes his clever idea in a movie that’s bogged down with lousy acting and overzealous nonsensical trappings that otherwise compromise the promising giddy message of this piece of frantic, horror-induced hogwash.
Assigned to gather the clues behind why site surfer victims are popping up all over New York City with a frozen shell-shock look plastered on their dearly departed faces, detective Mike Reilly (Stephen Dorff) teams up with Department of Health inspector Terry Huston (Natascha McElhon) to unravel this morbid mystery. Thanks to a savvy forensic specialist, the determined duo uncover a critical connection between the victims’ tainted computer hard drive and a website called Feardomcom—the cyberspace center where all the death-related chaos seems to be taking place. Both Reilly and Huston decide to bravely investigate this notorious website despite realizing how dangerous it really is. And of course the results are inevitably tragic. The probing pair eventually succumb to some physical and psychological complications (cold sweats, hallucinations, paranoid illusions, etc.) Now this invites the following question: how is this particular site managing to have such a dubious effect on people in terms of killing them off? Secondly, why are these poor souls expiring precisely two days after visiting the freaky locale that is Feardotcom?
This unsolved crucial criminal case involves an elusive suspect with a misguided motive that Reilly believes may be his old nemesis Dr. Alistair Pratt (Irish actor Stephen Rea from “The Crying Game”). Pratt, a smooth-operating serial killer (is there any other preferred kind in cinema?) who harbors a bizarre refreshing feeling about the romanticism of murder and its initial mayhem, is Reilly’s intended target and with good reason. Apparently Pratt is the host of this scabrous interactive cyber-based forum where he slices and dices his controllable female guinea pigs as online subscribers participate in unexplainable hypnotic, chilling mode.
“Fear Dot Com” works neither as a smart top-notch hatch job of a thriller or as an intended raucous romp of kitsch-ridden proportions. If anything, Malone helms what appears to be an impulsively foolish and garrulous gorefest that is as relevant as it is fatuously challenging to the average intelligence of fright fans. Screenwriters Joseph Coyle and Moshe Diamant insist on shoving down the audience’s throat the collection of cockamamie plot devices and insipid lifeless dialogue that pollute this pseudo-suspenseful eyesore. For instance, were the filmmakers trying to go for irony (or cuteness) involving their seemingly astute leads Reilly and Huston ignoring the warning signs and invading a precarious Web program knowing full well what the caustic consequences may be? True, a majority of horror thrillers embrace the illogical antics of their plotline simply to generate the story’s riveting outcome (such as entering a haunted house without turning on the lights or being stubborn enough to stay within that very same spooky place without simply leaving!). Look, it’s one thing to overlook a few minor tidbits here and there because after all, we’re talking about a specialized genre as frivolous as a horror flick. But Malone and his cinematic cohorts assume a lazy stance by offering an excitable yet faceless and unfulfilling disembowelment dud that wallows in obvious stupidity.
Despite its gothic-looking makeup thanks to the spry cinematography to accompany the resplendence of the movie’s revved-up soundtrack, “Fear Dot Com” is a computerized contrivance experiencing a malfunctioning meltdown of the same old trivial tripe that other ghastly goose bump fables have explored before. Unfortunately, the movie never really capitalizes on its unique observations concerning the voyeuristic vibes and the emotional penalty it could create with something as omnipresent and influential such as the Internet. Instead, this senseless spooky spectacle engages in presenting the tactical prattle of featuring phony-accented charmless characters stuck in relentlessly over-the-top moronic material.
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.
Frank rates this film: * ½ stars (out of 4 stars)