Review of The Den (2013) by Brett B — 26 Jun 2015

Summary: The Den is an underrated horror flick about the dark side of the internet. It's creepy, violent, and tense. 80/100 [B+].

The Den is a 2013 found-footage film directed by Zachary Donohue. There are now a lot of found-footage films, most of them are trashy. The Den is that rare, little and non famous found-footage film that surprisingly works. I saw this film at night with the lights turned on. My sister was using her laptop beside me and she said to me "Why are you jumping so much?" I replied to her "I'm watching a horror film called The Den and is scary as hell". This film is definitely one of the best found-footage films of the year, and one of the scariest ones ever to me. Horror is my favorite genre, but horror films don't scare me at all, I just like the genre. The Den scared me so much, I couldn't sleep that night. This movie was a real frightening experience. This is my kind of film. It was very impressive, quite scary and unforgettable.

Elizabeth Benton (Melanie Papalia) logs onto a video-chat site known as the Den, on a mission to explore the habits of its users. During one of her random video-chats, Elizabeth watches in horror as a teenage girl is gruesomely murdered in front of her webcam. While the police dismiss it as a viral prank, Elizabeth believes what she saw is real and takes it upon herself to find the truth. Well that's basically the plot of the movie. I literally couldn't sleep that night. That's when you realize that you just watched an effective horror film, one of those scary movies that keep you awake at night. This film is scary because all of the situations that these characters experienced could be actually real. The Den is also extremely violent and messes with you. I jumped, I was engaged with the protagonist and I was entertained.

Its execution was impressive, it has flow and I was never bored. It's a very entertaining film. It could be a little bit silly and mediocre for some people and I totally understand that, if you didn't enjoy this film as much as I did, it's fine. The horror genre needs more films like The Den. Also, I think that this movie was inspired on a true story about the mysterious "deep-web". To me, this was a very different and original horror flick. Compared to all these trashy found-footage films such as: Mr. Jones and Alien Abduction, The Den is a remarkable one. The characters were pretty likable and you care about them. The performances were excellent, Melanie Papalia did a great job with her performance. The direction was stunning, vibrant, energetic and so twisted. Zachary Donohue has to make more horror films.

There were a lot of disturbing and unforgettable scenes. I liked the opening scene it was funny and effective, the first act was creepy as hell and has some suspense. The second act is more violent and filled with lots of effective jump-scares. The third act is an explosion, lots of action and violence. It kinda reminded me to movies like Saw and Hostel, it was quite similar. Watch this film in your computer, it will be a full experience. It will blow your brains out. The Den explains some things about a very important issue like the mysterious "deep web". Just one tip for you before seeing the movie, search on Google "Deep Web", read some articles about it, and then... watch this film. Don't watch any of the clips or trailers, just go see it. [B+].