New U.S. Release

FeardotCom

 (U.S.-U.K.-Germany-Luxembourg)

Natascha McElhone and Stephen Dorff star in horror thriller 'Feardorcom,' a Warner Bros. release.

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Pic borrows more than just a page from the recent wave of Asian fright pics: Hideo Nakata's "The Ring" (a DreamWorks remake arrives Oct. 18), Kiyoshi Kurosawa's "Pulse" (a Wes Craven-helmed remake is in development) and Ann Hui's "Visible Secret" (which is not being remade -- yet). "FeardotCom" conceives of a contemporary reality in which the Internet has developed the ability to harness "psychological energy" and to use that energy to invade the lives of its innocent users.

Beginning with the apparent outbreak of an Ebola-like virus among a broad range of Manhattanites, pic then reveals that the victims all shared one connection: 48 hours before their demise, each logged on to a Web site called -- you guessed it -- feardotcom (actually feardotcom.com).

Detective Mike Reilly (a suitably grizzled Stephen Dorff) and Health Department investigator Terry Huston (a confused-looking Natascha McElhone) are on the case, but screenwriter Josephine Coyle (working from a "story" by Moshe Diamant) can't be bothered with the details of whodunit or why. Rather, pic is constructed as a series of scenes in which various cast members log on to the titular Web site (usually right after another cast member frantically warns them NOT to), followed by set pieces in which they meet a particularly unpleasant end.

For good measure, there's also an arrangement of familiar horror/suspense tropes -- from an albino child bouncing a rubber ball to a deranged serial killer (an enjoyably over-the-top Steven Rea) who writes notes to his favorite detective (Dorff) using blood and plaster instead of pen and paper (for viewers who didn't get their fill of such antics from Clint Eastwood's "Blood Work" earlier this summer).

"FeardotCom" never quite realizes its potential to evoke the real horror of the Internet, the way in which it has, for many, come to serve as a substitute for intimacy and personal interaction. To be that movie, "FeardotCom" would require a massive overhaul and a considerably more frolicking spirit -- something close to Malone's own "House on Haunted Hill."

Yet, Malone has given the film a distinctive atmosphere and occasional flashes of his perverse sense of humor. Working with cinematographer Christian Sebaldt and production designer Jerome Latour, Malone has crafted an entire film that seems set in one of "Seven's" dreary apartments, with a New York City (pic was actually lensed in Montreal and Luxembourg) that has rarely looked so dank and pale and grimy and gray. (It's also arguably the least brightly lit movie since the last Peter Hyams pic.)

And Malone turns loving attention to the wonderful Jeffrey Combs (as a cop who can barely utter a word for all the doughnuts and cigarettes crammed in his mouth) and Michael Sarrazin (as an ersatz computer scientist who's always drunk by 8 p.m.) in roles that might easily have been throwaways. Unfortunately, "FeardotCom" needs more of those moments and less needlessly explicit bondage/torture sequences and dime-a-dozen shock imagery -- enough to make most viewers clamber for the "refresh" button on their Web browsers.

Camera (Technicolor color, widescreen), Christian Sebaldt; editor, Alan Strachan; music, Nicholas Pike; production designer, Jerome Latour; art directors, Makus Wollersheim, Frank Godt; set decorators, Mona Kino, Michaela Quast; sound (Dolby Digital/DTS/SDDS), Carlo Thoss; supervising sound editor, Martin Evans; sound designer, Nick Adams; visual effects, MediaCube Studios, Cinesite, Hypnosis; visual effects supervisors, Tim McGovern, Alessandro Tibiletti; additional visual effects, QIX; special effects supervisor, Harry Wiessenhaan; special makeup effects, Kurtzman, Nicotero & Berger EFX Group; second unit director, Thomas Piepenbring. Reviewed at Warner Bros. Studios, Burbank, Aug. 27, 2002. MPAA Rating: R. Running time: 101 MIN.