Movie Review by Nigel A. Messenger
Starring: Stephen Dorff, Natascha McElhone, Stephen Rea, Udo Kier, Gesine Cukrowski
Director: William Malone
Horror meets the internet would be the quickest summary for FEARDOTCOM. Or may be horror meets a naughty S&M site on the internet that you shouldn’t be looking at is a more appropriate description. Some weak-minded individuals have been tempted to enter a site by a pretty girl to go and play with her but, to quote the tagline, it’s the last site they’ll ever visit as after their bite of the forbidden fruit they start to be haunted by hallucinations and exactly 48 hours after logging on they die an inexplicable and gruesome death.
Health researcher Terry Huston (Natascha McElhone) and detective Mike Reilly (Stephen Dorff) investigate, but of course the only way to track the killer is to enter the site.
Wait a minute … doesn’t this all sound rather familiar? 48 hours after logging on – think 7 days after watching a video tape; health researcher – think reporter; a dead girl’s body found in water whose spirit couldn’t rest – think… umm… RING?
Look guys, RING has only just been remade in an American version from the original Japanese RING so don’t you think it’s a little to soon to make it again? (Yes I know FEARDOTCOM had a two-month earlier US release date – but you get the point)
Alright this may be a variation on the original RING story and yes to make it a bit different there is a psycho on the loose involved in torturing naked pretty girls, scenes which incidentally are dwelled on a little too much for most people unless you are into that sort of thing, but do you really have to follow the RING’s elements quite so closely?
FEARDOTCOM is not an awful film, but it is sadly lacking in originality and the murky feel to the films cinematography and the dreary looking sets and locations don’t help to liven the movie up.
Natascha McElhone would have been better off staying in space with George Clooney in SOLARIS or should get her agent to find some better scripts.
