FearDotCom (2002)

Too much of everything

Really Surprised!

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

The idea behind this film is very interesting, a deep website that makes people go crazy with a sinister background and development to it. This film could have created such a great story line which could have carried on for a sequel but instead it was a complete flop. The main protagonist was quite good and tried his best to act the role whereas all of the other actors were clearly very bad and cheap. Rather than just trying to create a shock factor ending it should have been a story ridden climax or cliffhanger to the story rather than just a stupid ending that doesn't make any sense. If you are considering watching this film don't!

This dark and muddled movie almost gives a bad name to the internet. Underused actor Stephen 'Crying Game' Rea is completely wasted as a master psycho controller of a web site, which if you visit, shortly after, you die. The premise is interesting but is too unbelievable where there's a lot of dark slow moments. 'Power Of One' child actor Dorff puts the C in cool, in a strong and interesting 'tough guy' character performance, where a dim future awaits. He's accompanied by a very well played lead, where you hope, a sexual fling or relationship will develop. The film is ultimately bad and comes across as ludicrous, another malfunction of a film. There's hardly any violence on the whole, again a 'high level violence' warning as in how it's displayed, is a joke. The film comes up short on many things, and this one, on the latest view around, surprise surprise, I didn't like it anymore, as I liked it last time. Sadly it's Rea, who you only see in a number of scenes, who lucks out, in this with a genuine evil performance, with a voice to match. It's a performance that will go unnoticed or be forgotten, cause of the film's stuff ups or dislike for it. Yes, it's a site you don't want to visit, or the movie itself too.

Maybe it's because I'm 62 years old and have seen lots of real horror in my life, but this movie was beyond boring. The usual staccato light shows that are supposed to add 'layer upon layer' of images to create a terrifying effect do nothing more than get me dizzy at which point my attention also wanes. The effect they were trying for? This definitely wasn't it. Fear is a basic human emotion, and it peaks when it involves those things we are most familiar with and that suddenly take a wrong turn. If a movie doesn't call for our imaginative participation, it falls flat, like this one did. If the setting had been some average kid's room instead of a dismal otherworldly big-city mausoleum of a flat, that might have helped. But there's just too much wrong with this movie for anyone to bother with it.

I caught this movie on Lifetime (my favorite channel along with WeTV) and I thought since it was on their (they have such good taste for REAL dramas) network that it must be great. Instead this movie offended me. For one this movie was so scary that I was afraid to get on my computer for days, much less the internet! When I was watching this I had to turn on all my lights! I don't like getting scared! Plus this was too internet themed! I think it is a bad idea exploiting women like this! The only reason I gave it a point five was because Lifetime has great taste. Maybe they saw something in this? I didn't. Anyways don't see this movie! It's too scary, and too internet themed!