feardotcom

UK/Luxembourg 2002, 101 minutes, Colour.
Stephen Dorff, Natasha Mc Elhone, Stephen Rea, Udo Keir, Jeffrey Coombs, Nigel Terry, Michael Sarrazin.
Directed by William Malone.

A good title for a horror-thriller. And the settings are eerie (all filmed in Luxembourg, offering different views for the US). But, the plot is very difficult to follow, something about people who log on to a fear website finding that they will be killed within 48 hours (something like The Ring and people who watch a video getting a call threatening them with death within a week).

Part of the complication is that there is a dead girl who wants vengeance and she is linked in with a mad (very mad) doctor who has killed her and is a serial killer with autopsy skills. Added to that are the two main characters, a weary young policeman whom the serial killer taunts and a health inspector who is called to the scene of one of the deaths. They team up, discover what happens when you log on. He does, although warning her not to. She does. And she has to find the doctor.

At least, I think that that is more or less what it is about. Stephen Dorff is the policeman, Natasha McElhone? the health inspector and Stephen Rea being madder than mad as the doctor. It looks very effective, has eerie atmosphere but does not make all that much sense.

1. A horror thriller? Virtual reality and the Internet? Blood and gore?

2. The New York settings, filmed in Luxembourg? The police, the health inspector, the finale in the warehouse, inside virtual reality? The musical score?

3. The title, the website, on the keyboards, the effect of logging in to the website, violence and mania, mayhem, leading to death?

4. The girl, within the website, the mad scientist, control? Destroying him by entering into the website?

5. The detective, his previous case unsolved, the death of the girl, the further murders, his investigation, concern, getting the health inspector, the rapport between the two, romance, following through, the discoveries, the confrontation of the killer, the warehouse?

6. The health inspector, the background, involved in the case, the relationship with the Detective?

7. The associate characters, the detective’s assistant, the victims?

8. The finale, the confrontations, the number of deaths – and the pessimistic ending?