Film Review: THE DEN (2013)

Elizabeth Benton (Melanie Papalia) is researching the habits of web cam chat users when she comes across what she believes is an authentic killing of a young women by a masked killer.  When no one believes her she decides that she can’t sit by and do nothing but by becoming involved and not letting it go she comes under the presence of the killer.  This is the plot of the film The Den (2013) a film that users the technology of the web cam chat to tell its story of Internet stalking and murder. 

Elizabeth has been given a grant to remain online and using a website called The Den to conduct her research.  The problem is that when she opens herself to everything online it opens her up to all the evil that is out there.  Soon Elizabeth is being stalked herself and friends of hers start to disappear.  By the time the police actually believe her it may be too late.

Because the film unfolds over several days watching the film via web cam chat room gets really monotonous really fast and some of the things that the masked killer does seem impossible or unbelievable.  Papalia does a capable job of holding the film together since she’s the person you follow from beginning to end.  The film is directed by Zachary Donohue who also co-wrote with Lauren Thompson.  Despite having a slow beginning the film does pick up and actually does a really good job in the third act which is where Papalia gets to really show her stuff.

 The film has an interesting concept in the way of presenting a modern day “snuff” film for the digital age.  It’s not the best film of its kind but it’s a decent one that not a complete waste of time.

Film Review: UNFRIENDED (2015)

Unfriended (2015) is the latest in concept driven horror films as it is told through the use of the instant chat computer format that adds something new to a story that unfolds in relative real time from multiple perspectives.  A group of online chat friends all get messages from a friend that killed herself due to a prank that one of them did to her.  Now their friend wants to know who is responsible for the prank and will continue to kill them one by one until the truth is finally revealed.  As time runs out these friends will truly get to know one another as they are each forced to reveal their own deep and dark secrets or risk being the next victim of an unseen killer. 

Written by Nelson Greaves and directed by Levan Gabriadze the film gets a lot of mileage from a basic horror film concept that has a unique new way of telling the story.  The film is more concerned about revealing character and deadly secrets than it is about showing the newt “jump scare” which is where the film really excels.  This could have been a very mediocre film but Greaves and Gabriadze does a fantastic job with relying on practically FX and suspense to build genuine tension.  This is added by Adam Sidman’s cinematography which even with the limitations of the chat room format does an excellent job in both creating tension and driving the film forward.  

The film hinges on the relative faces of newcomers as the online chat room format necessitates a lot more close-ups and enclosed angles and everyone does a great job and are immensely believable and diversified which is important with a film in which you are stuck with the same characters from beginning to end.  Overall there are many who might lump this film into the same category as the found footage film but this is an interesting experiment that pays off in the same way that the Paranormal Activity films do.