THE DEN: 2013: Horror: What's better than wasting your life away in front of a computer chat room? Well, I guess there are worse things to do, but The Den will assuredly make you think twice about connecting to strangers online.
I thought we were going to be BFFs?
I will admit to being skeptical about this movie because the premise has been done a couple of times and I find watching movies that are supposed to be depictions of computer screens distracting, but this movie pulled it off. Additionally, found footage type movies are getting very old, but this one was different. After the first few scenes, you get used to seeing the action through a computer camera. As a matter of fact, this was one of the slicker aspects of the movie.
Watching multiple screens and videos was not distracting.
The movie starts up a little slowly, but then pulls into overdrive with a suspenseful and bloody portrayal of a project gone horribly wrong. Zachary Donahue directed this very well and demonstrated finesse as he goes from character to character through chat dialogues, cell phones, and other multimedia devices. A little bit like Catfish in it's approach, The Den quickly veers in another, very violent direction. At times it also reminded me of Hostel.
There was plenty of violence in The Den
The pacing in the movie was one of the better elements because it deliberately draws you in little by little as it makes the main character's friends disappear one by one. Melanie Papalia is an unknown actress who does a good job in The Den because she communicates her fear without any overacting and is pretty convincing. She also kicks ass in a few scenes so it's great to see a female role not just cowering away in the corner. Actually, that was left for her boyfriend and hacker friend who give little in the way of defense against the lurkers.
Not just a pretty face, the main lead kicked butt too!
The lurkers, as I call them, are a group of web directors and actors who run a very unsavory website. They are sufficiently creepy and very violent. They pop up when you least expect them to and I admit to being a little jumpy during certain scenes. One of the best scenes is when they are hiding in the homes of the unsuspecting victims and pop up when you least expect them to. Also, it's interesting how you don't know exactly how many of them there are. That was a nice touch!
The lurkers were excellent bad guys.
Overall, this movie hits home especially with those who are doing the whole chat room thing. Makes you think about perhaps putting some tap on that camera on the laptop. You never know who is looking, or lurking behind it. 83%
You never know where there might be a camera hidden.
The DEN
No comments:
Post a Comment