Fear Dot Com

Like a student who has dropped out of class after the first day of Horror Movies 101, director William Malone makes this trend-tardy Internet fad cash-in flick look like a horror movie (poor lighting, graphic misogynistic torture scenes) and sound like a horror movie (lots of screaming and knife-slash sounds), but it's really no more than a tawdry, incompetent, six-years-too-late stinker that couldn't be more lifeless if all the characters were dead from the first scene. Here's the implausibly weak gimmick of a plot: everyone who visits a haunted website--which takes over your computer and assaults you with scenes of bondage and torture--begins hallucinating about a creepy little white-haired girl, then dies within 48 hours, bleeding from several orifices. Disturbing, no? Well, no; this bottom of the barrel scraping embarrassment is far too superficial and inane to truly disturb. Not recommended. [Note: DVD extras include audio commentary by director William Malone and cinematographer Christian Sebaldt, a five-minute “Visions of Fear” making-of featurette, a five-minute deleted scene “The Mushroom Factory” with introduction by Malone, a “fear” photo gallery, cast and crew filmographies, a trailer, and DVD-ROM features. Bottom line: a decent extras package for an indecently bad film.] (R. Blackwelder)