Hacked

The movie is an interesting commentary on the internet being a distraction of stupidity.

It leads people to their deaths, but people are addicted to watching others demise that it creates a sort of circle of dysfunction...

Ultimately, I was engrossed as a sort of VHS style found footage genre offering, but it did have a few interesting things to say on the entitled society we live in today, of easy gratification, replacement of impersonal and fear based living behind a screen for the beauty of the natural world.

It's available on demand, which is apropos to the plot point of the story.

The Den takes a lot of modern references such as social media quirks and web cam gimmicks to produce a unique kind of found footage film. It's similar to series of creepy pastas on internet, and even for those who are barely familiar with the technology, the film should be relatable. Unfortunately, the conclusion isn't as strong as the set-up and some of the plots developments are too far fetch.

Elizabeth (Melanie Papalia) is a student who investigates the behavior of web cam users in a website called The Den. It's a random streaming chat site, and just like the actual thing it has a lot of dubious people. Elizabeth begins to see a lot of strange things, including potential snuff video. It escalates very closely into her real life. The premise holds a good advantage since viewers will be familiar with this set-up.

Acting is pretty good for the lead, as Melanie Papalia plays the role of modern young woman who relies on this tech. For most part she seems identifiable, and the film is at its strongest at first act. Cleverly using bits of well-known jokes or internet sensation, it grabs attention very quickly. The horror aspect is handled very well as it's based on viral spooky stories or clips which already proved effective to attract attention.

Problem starts to show at latter half as the threat is looking very omnipotent. It's almost ludicrous how it can get to Elizabeth with near supernatural tech wizardly and seemingly unworldly power. The mainstay of found footage flaws reveal themselves later on as the visual gets muddled and slow, the vexing frame rate drop is real. It also doesn't make sense why there are conveniently placed cameras, especially in first person view.

The Den resembles internet sensation it's based on, interesting at first but stumble with glitches afterward. The material is spread too thinly and the last act falters, considering the film is fairly short it could've wrapped up nicer. If not for anything, The Den has a few good internet viral scares and they are better than most found footage has to offer.

I'll keep this brief but the film was very well executed! Definitely a unique and tasteful take on "found footage" even though this is no where near. The film tells the story from a first person narrative and delivers beautifully! The unfolding of events happens in a timely manner and is the farthest thing from predictable. The set design was phenomenal as well as the acting. I feel like these films have the potential to flop with even the slightest mistakes yet this gem managed to pull through with daring concepts and tie all all ends together nicely. I would recommend this to all horror connoisseur's and am fairly confident you will enjoy the ride. My one and only complaint is the gore. A couple shots were decent but for the most part it was lacking in believability.

Elizabeth "Liz" Benton (Melanie Papalia) convinces her Research Advisor Sally (Saidah Arrika Ekulona) to research every type of strangers in the social media "The Den" to her project. She has conversation also with her boyfriend Damien Clark (David Schlachtenhaufen), her friends Max (Adam Shapiro) and Jenni (Katija Pevec) and her pregnant sister Lynn Benton (Anna Margaret Hollyman) through The Den while collecting data for her work. Liz does not note that her computer is hacked by a stranger without webcam, and hers records Damien and she while having sex. Out of the blue, the stranger shows a gagged woman being murdered to Liz and she shows the video to Sgt. Tisbert (Matt Riedy). Although he says that the video appears to be genuine, he tells her that most of them are fake, and he does not have resources to investigate. Liz asks Max to hack the user, but he says that he is probably using VPN making impossible to track him down. Soon Damien, Jenni and Elizabeth are abducted by hooded men and brought to a derelict building in a junkyard. Who are they and why are they so interested in Liz and her friends?

"The Den" (2013) is a good movie using the terrible found-footage style with a good plot about the dangers of social media and hackers. The story follows the graduate student Elizabeth that proposes to research users of social media to analyze their behaviors online and stumbles upon a gang of filmmakers of snuff films. She is hacked and endangers her sister and friends. The plot has creepy and gruesome moments, and how the police is not prepared to handle cybernetic crimes. The hopeless conclusion is sad and will certainly not please some viewers. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Clausura" ("Enclosure")

Cautionary tale finds a young woman, Elizabeth, receiving a grant to study the habits of webcam chat users. Elizabeth uses a site that allows her to randomly chat with literally anyone on her chat site all over the world.

Things quickly go bad as she and her friends and family are drawn into a nightmare from which they can't escape. I don't want to give anything else away as the reveals are so much fun.

This gruesome found footage horror has almost everything you could ask for in a horror movie. Parts of it almost play as a slasher and it has a lot of scares. I found references to several other popular horror movies and had a great time with this one.

If you are a fan of found footage please give it a try. Most of you won't be disappointed.