Dir. William Malone
This is about a police detective, Mike Reilly (Stephen Dorff,) and a disease control tech from the city, Terry Houston (Natasha McElhone,) who are trying to figure out why certain people are dying. The people have no known connection to each other. It turns out that they all have died from their worst fear. One of the ways the authorities figure this out is because all the corpses have a rictus stamped onto their faces at death, and all the eyes are strange. They eventually figure out that the one thing all the victims have in common is a website (Feardotcom.com) they visited exactly 48 hours to the minute before their deaths. Sounds good, right? Shoulda been good, coulda been good, woulda been good. The movie wants to be good, but phwwst nothing.
The biggest problem is the character development. Actually, the biggest problem is the lack of character development. The characters are two-dimensional. They have no opportunity to make you care about them, and they arent able to pull you into the story. You can practically feel Stephen Dorff straining, trying so hard to run wild with his patented dark edge. It must have been as frustrating for the cast to make as it was for me to watch. On the other hand, I had to pay money on my end.
The other major problem with the movie is the editing. Editing is only noticeable when its done badly. FearDotCom leaves out several explanations that you need. Normally I like it when movies dont feel the need to spell things out for me, but in this case some things are done that, without being given some background, just come off as stupid. There are a couple of scenes that have no impact on the plot, they are stuck in there randomly and go on for too long. What a mess.
There is a sub-plot in the movie which isnt boring. No, it falls into the category of disquieting and disgusting. I actually would prefer those scenes to be boring. It has to do with the graphic torture of a woman. Included in these scenes are flash-backs of the Doctor (Stephen Rea) in previous sessions with other women. It was a stomach turning direction to go. To make it worse, when I saw this movie there were about seven children under 10 in the audience. Some were sitting with their parents. Can anyone say Mandatory parenting classes? How about I know what an R rating means? Yuck. I think the movie goes several yards too far for my comfort, and I have rarely been glad I dont remember my dreams as I was the night following watching this movie.
I rate it: Avoid
Stephen Dorff as Mike Reilly
Natasha McElhone as Terry Houston
Stephen Rea as Alistair Pratt, AKA the Doctor
Gesine Cukrawski as Jeannie