Film Review: FearDotCom (2002)

Even the most remarkable technological advancements can quickly become a mundane part of everyday life. However, before that happens, these innovations can also serve as the premise for uninspired high-concept Hollywood films. Such is the case with the 2002 horror movie FearDotCom, which tackled growing phenomenon of Internet, and is now widely considered one of the worst horror films of the early 2000s.

The protagonist is Mike Reilly (played by Stephen Dorff), troubled New York City police detective who investigates a series of mysterious and gruesome deaths. Reilly teams up with a public health official, Terry Huston (played by Natasha McElhone), and links deaths to a website that kills its visitors within 48 hours of logging on. Meanwhile, the film's antagonist, a serial killer named Alistair Pratt (played by Stephen Rea), appears to be the mastermind behind the deadly website.

Director William Malone is considered a horror genre specialist and he had previously found success with his 1999 remake of the B-movie classic House on Haunted Hill, which gave him some credibility for tackling this film. Unfortunately, everything that could go wrong with FearDotCom did. The cast is forgettable, with Dorff delivering a one-note performance as the troubled protagonist, while McElhone and Rea fail to convince as the supporting characters. The script is nonsensical, making the film even worse when compared to similar premises, such as the Japanese horror film Ringu. To make matters worse, the potentially intriguing premise is undermined by a laughable supernatural element that feels out of place and underdeveloped. The direction is also a major downfall of FearDotCom. The dark cinematography makes the film visually unappealing, and the pacing is sluggish, making the film feel overlong. Only in the last twenty minutes does the director seem to make an effort to inject some life into the proceedings, but by then, it's too little, too late.

In the end, FearDotCom is a complete failure. The best thing that can be said about it is that it is forgettable, so viewers won't be traumatized by wasting their time on it.

RATING: 2/10 (-)

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