FeardotCom (2002)

I tried. I honestly tried to watch this movie, but I could not. After three failed attempts, I must say that this is one entry where only 2/3 of the film was watched - but in my defense, I had seen it already. I remember watching this movie with my friends Drew and Sarah one dark and spooky night, and everyone hated it except for me. I would talk about it when we were together, and everyone would gruff saying that "I was crazy", and now, looking back at a film I watched nearly five years ago - maybe I was. The acting was horrible, the story was extremely stale, and growing up in the world where future internet related horror films have come and gone, "FeardotCom" feels pale in comparison. Dorff, horrible as the detective with a darkened past, attempts to get his head around this murderer using the internet to kill his victims, or is he? The plot is useless in discovering how Stephen Rea captures his victims and kills them as people sign into the site to watch. The watching is what kills them, or is it? Question continue to pile up as we go on the hunt for someone or something (aka a girl in a white dress) that continues to kill more and more. Oddly, every one of the killings take place around Dorff and his timid partner, a terrible actress named Natascha McElhone who laughed her way through every scene. It is horrible and difficult to watch.

The scares aren't even worth the printed screen. There are moments that could be great - in fact this was a decent premise, but it was execution that failed. Director William Malone just couldn't combine both the fears of the Internet and this serial killer that evades Dorff. It should have been one or the other - an actual Ghost in the Machine instead of Rea's heartfelt performance. So kill me, I liked what Rae did with this bit part. He wasn't given much, but he created a spooky character. His voice was frightening, his demeanor was strong, he was the crux of this film, too bad everyone else around him just plain sucked. I hate using that word when reviewing films, but it had to be said. Despite not finishing, NOTHING worked. Nothing built value in this film. Let me give an example. There is a part early in the film where a guy does clutching a book about the "soul of the internet", but nobody cares. Later the idea is picked back up, a guy is found in a bar who wrote it, but once he speaks his peace, they forget about it all over again. I normally do not follow the mold with films, I like to see the redeeming value of what artists do, but sometimes the sloppiness just fails. "FeardotCom" is a perfect example of this. Lurking down near the worst films on IMDb's Bottom 100, there is no doubt in my mind it will stay there for a while.

From bad acting to a story that will literally put you to sleep and not find a substantial conclusion, "FeardotCom" within the world of technology, has aged poorly. Advances in the Internet, real fears that lurk out there - in 2002, this could have been a more pioneering film instead of meandering to false hope. This could have been a predictor to what we see today, but instead is just feels fake from the beginning to end. Our actors fail - this film fails. Getting a yellow highlight with a black mark, it will never be seen within the house again. The real Internet is spooky, "FeardotCom" comes nowhere close.