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| STAR RATINGS EXPLAINED |
| Unmissable |
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| Excellent |
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| Good |
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| Poor |
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| Tragic |
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| FILM DETAILS | Certificate
18 | | Cast
Stephen Dorff
Natascha McElhone
Stephen Rea
Udo Kier. | | Directors
William Malone. | | | Screenwriters | | Running Time
101 minutes |
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feardotcom
An internet site kills visitors! Don't worry, you're safe with us…probably
Plot
An internet site kills visitors in a messy Ebola fashion 48 hours after they log on
Review
With SARS (literally) in the air and The Ring one of the year's UK box office mega hits, you'd think the heavens were aligning for feardotcom in 2003. Shame it's such a disaster on every level. Like The Ring, it marries universal supernatural terrors with specific new technology; but here, an infuriatingly pedantic script, impotent direction and curiously uncommitted performances ensure that it'll end up on 2003's Ten Worst list.
Chemistry-challenged Dorff and McElhone are investigating an internet site that kills visitors in a messy Ebola fashion 48 hours after they log on; it all appears to be linked to an 'evil mad genius serial killer' (Rea) with whom Dorff has previously crossed paths.
The film strives for a murky Seven-style mood, but ends up looking like the budget didn't stretch to paying the electricity bills. Not once does it convince us that this is a real world worthy of our fears.
Verdict
Despite riffing on everyone from Argento to Craven, having a decent genre cast and a better than average budget, this internet-based spook-fest is arguably the least imaginative, most pathetic horror of the decade.
Reviewed by Alan Morrison
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Average user rating for feardotcom
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| | oh dear ... More | | | Posted by david hayes at 22:29, 24 May 2012 | Report This Post | |
| | | So-So Horror | | feardotcom has a good idea, hot Stephen Dorff and some tense edge of your seat moments. But the acting and the ending is terrible. It seemed stiff and staged. The final ten minutes are a crime, it just ends like the film either ran out of budget or there was nothing left to say. It's a massive disappointed to one Stephen Dorff fan aka me, he didn't even get his shirt off (damn!) ... More | | | Posted by joanna likes films at 15:57, 17 July 2010 | Report This Post | |
| | | | The fundemental idea for this cyber version of The Ring (as it was named in the tv guide) is good and interesting and could deliver an exciting film. But for that to happen, the film has to be executed good. And that`s what didn`t happen here, quite obviously. The acting is quite bad, the film doesn`t know any intense moments and those moments that more or less are exciting, are way too predictable and loose their intensity because of it.
The last 30-45 minutes are way too far-fetched and actu... More | | | Posted by TheGodfather at 23:16, 22 June 2009 | Report This Post | |
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