FeardotCom

Well, October is soon, but FeardotCom is not a film that is on the month's multi-horror docket. Still, William Malone is the kind of director who knows his shit and a good homage never hurts when a character in his film is in passing. Dr. Gogol from Mad Love gets a little love from Malone in his extremely dark neo-noir horror film. The fact that it is Udo Kier passing by it, with a book in hand meant to hint at what is plaguing his psyche while fleeing something quite sinister, adds a nice touch.

Malone, still quite inspired, decides to name Udo's character after novelist Polidori, famed for The Vampyre and often mentioned in horror stories due to his link to the genre. FeardotCom is sited as terrible and ugly, but Malone made sure to include winks to horror fans like him.

 

The film is rather critically reviled (bit of an understatement) and thought of with quite a list of negative comments (choose your substitute in the thesaurus for foul), but just from the very opening, I found FeardotCom quite visually striking. It’s clear that Malone used the budget afforded to him and added a visual flair that did help to diffuse some of the blunt force trauma existing in the dreary plot which has us wallowing in all the unpleasantness. I thought that opening with Kier unable to escape what he was running from. A subway tossing him off and what seems like a ghost approaching him, cop Stephen Dorff is called to investigate his death (the look of fear locked in a fixed state of horror on his Udo’s face), curious as to what the hell was behind Kier’s mysterious fate. Bodies start to appear in NYC much like Kier and so, Dorff has quite a case on his hands.

With Dept of Health investigator Natascha McElhone and partner Jeffrey Combs (stealing scenes as a foul-mouthed wise-cracker, with barbs that often carry acid), Dorff will attempt to solve the cause of the epidemic and find a serial killer he’s been after (played by Stephen Rea). Rea is a creep and Malone has us experience what it is like for him to prey on a victim, through a selection process, recording her movements, and even some flattery.

The plot has some rather odd details. A certain website seems to leave lasting mental “defects” that causes those who view it to become anxious, out-of-control, hallucinatory, and eventually overcome by ear. Blood from their eyes, a look of total fear, and a stroke leave signs behind as to what this site does. When McElhone’s boss is a victim, her personal involvement in solving the reasoning behind the “fear epidemic” gains in relevance.

The subject matter for FeardotCom is certainly black as pitch, and I can only imagine that Rea’s psychopath is more than his share of polarizing as his behavior is so repulsive and psychotic (what a perverse creep and predator, preying on the desire of a certain kind of woman he can torture and harm for a select group of internet audience interested in the diabolical nature of mankind. The bad taste in this movie’s plot and how off-putting its characters often are has left this film with an enduring vocal disgust.