Review of The Den (2013) by Al H — 12 Aug 2014

The Den is like a concept for the horror franchise V/H/S, that has grown into fruitation so much so, that someone thought, "Hey! Lets make a feature length!". The result? A captivating, if not entirely original, concept, completely and utterly basterdized due to, found footage. The Den, finds us logging into the life of Elizabeth, a graduate that wishes to explore an internet service called the den, think chat roullette, and record every encounter she has, in order to... well in order for there to be a film really. During her experiment, she stumbles across what appears to be a web stream of a young girl being murdered and in almost like Ring fashion, its not long before the people responsible for that stream come for her and her family. The film has some nice ideas going for it, the idea of how willing we are to give up our privacy online to anyone, how reliant we are on technology in this day and age, for example our camera phones and laptops and how this can be exploited. It also tries to go as far as to say these things are destroying our physical relationships. From a horror point of view, it has all the makings for a gruesome and psychological horror, the idea of being stalked online, abused and ultimatley tortured, before becoming a snuff movie yourself, is yet again, not entirely original, however for a modern audience, its fresh enough to get behind. The characters, for the most part, although no where near the greatest characters ever written are believable and have just enough subtext going for them, leaving the actors something to play with. However this films biggest flaw is that it is a found footage film. Anyone who reads my reviews by now should know that im in no way against them, I feel sometimes they can give us a raw and powerful angle in which to witness a story from. In this however, I could have done not being the eyes of a laptop or phone. This film would have worked far better had I not been confined to shakey cam. Being able to see every perfectly awkward angle. It becomes boring and cliched very quickly. The sacs for masks thing has also gotten old real quickly over time also.

Hey The Strangers was good but jesus, stop it already! The film Cradle of Fear, although hilariously dated and falling into the so shit its good category, actually pulled this whole idea off better over ten years ago. It has its messages, it has its moments and it has its quirks, what it lacks is being able to suck you in as a viewer. For such a short film it sure drags. total missed opportunity.