We learn a lot from movies that we didn’t know before.
For instance, with a flux capacitor installed in a DeLorean going 88 mph, one can travel through time.
And we’ve learned that apes inherit the earth after they blow up the planet.
What we know about the threat to human life in film has also developed over the years. There are killer tomatoes, anacondas, clowns, andromeda strains and Joe Pesci.
So why is a killer Web site so unfathomable in Feardotcom?
This crisis troubles detective Mike Reilly (Stephen Dorff) as he tries to connect four deaths. Reilly is teamed up with New York City health worker Terry Huston (Natascha McElhone) to crack this mystery in the film.
The basic elements for a mystery thriller were all there: creepy music, rain, abandoned warehouses and low light.
Add to that a couple routine side-stories such as a mad scientist and a growing admiration between partners, and the story becomes too predictable.
There must be a certain level of plausibility to a movie for it to be considered solid, but Feardotcom fell well short of this level when Moshe Diamant and Josephine Coyle wrote it.
The plot was a lot to swallow and even harder to follow.
The Internet has a soul and is considered an animate object with the ability to kill people by showing them images so frightening, they die from their worst fears.
Then throw in a serial killer Reilly had been searching for years ago who broadcasts his murders at Feardotcom.com, and it all comes together loosely in the end.
Feardotcom addresses the role of the Internet in our lives in a way “The Net” and “The Matrix” have danced around.
There is a lot of tripe out there catering to the bottom of the barrel of Internet users, while blurring the line between reality and fantasy. Our fascination with death - the film explains - fuels some of the sites featured in Feardotcom.
Dorff (Deuces Wild) fit his role as a hard-nosed detective well. He fed off the dreary environment, looking worn out, unshaven and with no reason to smile. He helped create a dynamic between his character and Huston.
The New York police officers are portrayed as super cops finding action around every corner, while the health department, which also has a vested interest in these cases, consists of boring, lifeless employees.
McElhone (The Truman Show) gives her character beauty to supplement a boring personality. Opposites attract as Reilly and Huston immediately show an interest with one another without a rivalry to begin the relationship.
Had the plot developed as well as their relationship, Feardotcom might have been better.
The cinematography was conceptual and made up of unique images found exclusively in dreams and acid trips.
It wasn’t a break from the norm, but more of a deviation that keeps up with the rest of the film industry, using technology as a crutch.
But that’s OK, because this was a film about technology and caters to a select few who can understand the jargon and appreciate the effort going into the direction.
Understanding the plot is crucial to satisfying an audience, but if the film can’t explain the meaning of symbols used, there is no point in using them.
There is a little girl the viewers of the Web site see before they die. The story slowly lets us know why she is there, but leaves us in the dark as to why her white rubber ball is so important.
It’s just one example of a confusing message taking away from the audience’s focus on the plot.
