The Den (2013 film)

The Den

Russian language film poster from initial release
Directed by Zachary Donohue
Written by Zachary Donohue
Lauren Thompson
Starring Melanie Papalia
Matt Riedy
David Schlachtenhaufen
Music by Evan Goldman
Cinematography Bernard Hunt
Edited by Joseph Pettinati
Production
company
Cliffbrook Films
Onset Films
Distributed by IFC Midnight
Release dates
  • December 23, 2013 (2013-12-23) (Russia)
  • March 14, 2014 (2014-03-14) (United States)
Running time
 81 minutes
Country United States
Language English

The Den (initially released in Russia as смерть в сети, Death Online) is a 2013 found footage horror film by Zachary Donohue and his feature film directorial debut.[1][2] The film was first released in Russia on December 23, 2013,[3][4] and was given a simultaneous limited theatrical and VOD release on March 14, 2014 through IFC Midnight. It stars Melanie Papalia as a young woman that discovers a murder via webcam.[5]

Plot

The movie begins with Elizabeth logging into a webcam-based social media site known as "The Den". It is revealed that she is doing this for a project and her goal is to chat with as many strangers as possible. However, things become grim when she starts a chat with someone whose webcam appears to be broken. After having random chats with her, the webcam somehow turns on and a woman is seen being murdered. Throughout this time, Elizabeth's account has also been continuously hacked; however she does not realize this. Her friends try to convince her it is a hoax but she remains unconvinced. She asks a friend of hers to hack the account and find out where it is being operated from, but it ultimately doesn't work since the signal is coming from too many locations to be found. Though Elizabeth had contacted the police about the murder, they do not believe her and she remains helpless. Once her boyfriend mysteriously disappears, she panics and calls the police once again. They check his apartment but find it completely empty. Another one of Elizabeth's friends is then shown getting a message from Elizabeth (though it is obviously not actually Elizabeth, as she is with the police). The message tells her friend to come over and she is then shown to be abducted just like Elizabeth's boyfriend. Elizabeth becomes more and more frantic after receiving a message showing a close up of her sister's home and an unknown figure entering it. She calls her sister and tells her to leave, but is too late and her pregnant sister's life is threatened. The attacker then leaves but later returns posing as a police officer. Elizabeth leaves with an officer and contacts her sister once she reaches her apartment to tell her that she will be back with her soon. As Elizabeth is packing she receives another message showing the head detective getting murdered and then another one of her and the inside of her apartment. She goes to open her closet where a hooded figure is, she stabs him repeatedly and flees from her apartment. To her dismay, she is attacked yet again. She later awakens in an unknown building and is chained to a wall. There is a computer in her room on which she receives a video of her boyfriend. He informs her that there are more of them and is then taken away by one of the killers off screen, and the video feed ends. After overpowering another hooded man in her room she attempts to escape and realizes there are multiple attackers. After finally getting out of the building, she steals a car from one of the attackers but then crashes. Another woman is then seen on the same site Elizabeth was on. She comes across Elizabeth's account where she witnesses Elizabeth being murdered. The scene then cuts to a man putting his credit card number into a site to watch more videos of murders like Elizabeth's but quickly closes the browser when he is interrupted by his young son.

Cast

Reception

The Den received mixed to positive reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 82% from 17 critics with an average of 6.8/10. Metacritic gives the film a weighted average of 48/100 based on 6 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews." Fearnet gave The Den a positive review, commenting that it "starts out a little rocky but if you're not completely fed up with 'found footage' filmmaking by now and you're willing to give a non-traditional visual presentation a fair shot, The Den has some pretty compelling things to say about the alleged safety of the internet."[6] We Got This Covered also praised the movie, stating that it "[executed] on a strong gimmick at a speedy, flowing pace."[7] In contrast, Shock Till You Drop panned the movie as it felt that it "lacks true scares, awesome kills or even the routine flash of nudity to warrant any sort of viewing. It panders a silly and over exaggerated message of the dangers of the anonymity of the internet and the “nature” of people. It uses a silly plot to carry a ridiculous camera technique and delivers nothing but angst and irritation."[8] Fangoria criticized the film for many of the same reasons, as it felt that the movie began on a strong note but became "inauthentic and irritating" after the film depicted "Almost everyone, online or not, responds to [the main character's troubles] with immediate hostility or disbelief."[9]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Woods, Kevin. "IFC Midnight acquires Zachary Donohue's The Den". JoBlo. Retrieved 18 February 2014.
  2. ↑ Gingold, Michael. "Enter "THE DEN" via webcam chiller's new trailer". Fangoria. Retrieved 18 February 2014.
  3. ↑ "смерть в сети". Megacritic (in Russian). Retrieved 21 February 2014.
  4. ↑ "Правда жизни". 5TVR (in Russian). Retrieved 21 February 2014.
  5. ↑ "IFC Midnight Acquires Rights to Zachary Donohue's High-tech Horror 'The Den'". IndieWire. Retrieved 18 February 2014.
  6. ↑ Weinberg, Scott. "FEARNET Movie Review: 'The Den'". Fearnet. Retrieved 18 February 2014.
  7. ↑ "The Den Review". We Got This Covered. Retrieved 28 February 2014.
  8. ↑ Larsen, Ryan. "Review: There's No Reason to Check into The Den". STYD. Retrieved 21 February 2014.
  9. ↑ Zimmerman, Samuel. ""THE DEN" (Movie Review)". Fangoria. Retrieved 21 February 2014.

External links

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