Feardotcom * (2002, Stephen Dorff, Natascha McElhone, Stephen Rea, Michael Sarrazin, Nigel Terry, Udo Keir) – Classic Movie Review 3329

Stephen Dorff stars as a cop, Detective Mike Reilly, who makes the mistake of logging on to the fear.com website when he’s on a case probing gory killings with the help of Department of Health investigator Terry Huston (Natascha McElhone). The four bodies  found in New York City had all died 48 hours after logging on to feardotcom.

Flashily made but very nasty indeed, director William Malone’s gruesome, pretty dismal 2002 crime horror thriller is lazily content merely to rework the plot of The Ring more or less.

The yarn, scripted by Josephine Coyle from a story by the producer Moshe Diamant, is much more grisly than it is scary and the acting is mostly very basic, with an over-the-top, quite poor performance by Stephen Rea, unusually misjudging the pitch of his role as the killer.

Michael Sarrazin.

It’s sad to see older stars Michael Sarrazin and Nigel Terry in supporting performances in this too, along with Udo Keir, Amelia Curtis, Jeffrey Combs, Gesine Cukrowski, Anna Thalbach and Siobhan Flynn.

Michael Sarrazin died on April 17 2011, aged 70. Nigel Terry died on April 30 2015, aged 69.

Nigel Terry.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3329

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more reviews: http://derekwinnert.com/

Michael Sarrazin.