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wish I could tell you with some measure of certainty
about the events that take place in "Fear Dot Com", but unfortunately
I can't. The reason is simple: the movie is so dark, so swamped in shadows and
night, that it's next to impossible to make out anything. We aren't talking
about the "so dark it's cool" of "Seven", or the "so
dark it's gothic" of "Dark
City". We're just talking about the type of "so dark" that
makes one think, "Good God, why didn't they invest in lights for this
bloody movie?"
Stephen Dorff ("Blade")
turns in one of his few leading man role as Riley, a Detective in some unnamed
city eternally bathed in night and a rainstorm that has no end. (And apparently
in this no-name city, electricity is so scarce no one bothers to turn it on, not
even in a police station!) Riley is investigating a series of deaths where the
victims bleed from the eyes; Riley's investigation leads him to a website called
fear.com, where all the victims had logged into exactly 48 hours before their
death. Helping Riley out on the case is Terry (Natascha McElhone), a Department
of Health official who was called in when Riley though the victims were dying of
some virus. Somehow, some way, the deaths are linked to a serial killer called
the Doctor, who Riley has been hunting for a while now…
Let's get this out of the way: "Fear Dot Com" is
part "Ring"
(i.e. a device, when viewed, is guaranteed to kill its victims within a certain
amount of time) and part "Kairo"
(i.e. ghosts use the computer to channel their energy). Beyond those
similarities, "Fear Dot Com" is in a class all its own. An
unfathomably dark class where bad choices (like the choice not to use any lights
at all) are commonplace, and coherent narrative takes a backseat to, well, it
just takes a backseat.
The man responsible for giving us a 90 minute movie where
we can't see anything for 80 minutes of it, is director William Malone (the
"House on Haunted
Hill" remake). The decision to cover the film in darkness is obviously
an aesthetic choice, with the reason being that since the movie is so silly to
begin with, if you hide nearly everything in pitch-black darkness the audience
won't notice! (That last part is my attempt at sarcasm, of course. Or is it?)
Malone shows the same flair for shock visuals here that he did in "House on Haunted
Hill" (when the movie is visible, that is). The film has a number of
interesting scenes sliced apart by quick cuts; they will remind most people of
Goth rocker Marilyn Manson's rock videos -- only less coherent.
The screenplay for "Fear Dot Com" is so weak that
it's not worth ripping apart. There are plot holes galore, and so many questions
involving the evil spirit and the website, but because going into the details
would reveal a large part of the movie's "plot", I wouldn't dream of
ruining your chance to personally scoff at this movie. Suffice it to say, the
whole idea of an evil spirit using some kind of psychic power to kill its
victims is almost as silly as a ghost using psychic powers to kill people via
videotape. (Yes, "Ring",
I am talking about you.)
I wish I could tell you if lead Stephen Dorff is having a
good time, but he is so permanently stuck in the shadows that I can't read his
face. I couldn't even tell you if the guy had facial hair or not. Irish lass Natascha McElhone ("Ronin") is slumming here, and why not? They
probably paid her a lot of money to get rid of her accent. Although I'm
still unsure about this little tidbit: even after it's concluded very early on
in the film that the victims weren't dying of a virus, why is McElhone's
character still going around investigating murders with Dorff's cop?
Stephen Rea plays Alistair, who is also the serial killer
known as the Doctor. Rea spends the bulk of the movie in one location torturing
his latest victim. Besides that, he blabs on and on and on about life and death
and the Internet. Or some such nonsense. Needless to say, the guy makes Al Gore
look like a partying machine. Like McElhone, Rea is slumming here, and I hope he
bought something nice with that paycheck of his.
"Fear Dot Com" is notable for two things:
convincing me that director Malone has as much sense when it comes to picking
good scripts as does about how to shoot a film; and two, after 90 minutes
of sitting through "Fear Dot Com", I still couldn't tell you what
Dorff's character wore in the movie, what he looked like, or even if the
filmmakers were shooting the whole thing in one building, or if there were
actually more than one.
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