Directed by Zachary Donohue [Other horror films: N/A]
I had some difficulty deciding what I felt about this one. On the one hand, I think much of The Den is a tense, somewhat unsettling movie. I thought the same when I first saw it, and that feeling holds up. The finale, however, is all kinds of awful, and doesn’t do the film any favors.
Certainly I understand the need to explain what’s going on, or the antagonist behind the stalking and crimes – I wouldn’t expect anything less – but the answer they went with was terrible. To be fair, I’m sure some people wouldn’t mind, and this movie still has a decent reception. Hell, it could even be true that the solution they gave is the one that makes the most sense.
Even so, once we get to the final ten minutes or so, my interest (which had been hovering around an eight for most of the movie) dropped to something like a two. I don’t want to get into spoilers, but I can say that I mentally made a comparison to a problem I had with Chromeskull: Laid to Rest 2, and you know that when a movie reminds you of Chromeskull: Laid to Rest 2, you have a woeful problem.
Which is a damn shame, because most of The Den is solid. It’s an interesting idea – I’ll admit I may explain this poorly, but here I go: everything we see is on someone’s computer screen, sort of. The main character (Melanie Papalia) is doing a research grant on an online video chat room (called The Den), and so is recording every conversation (such as they are) she encounters. Stylistically, it’s quite similar to Searching, which came out some years after this one.
It’s a decent idea, and I think they did well with it. There’s no doubt that at times, The Den can be unsettling and certainly tense. As it deals with the pseudo-modern horrors of technology, it can also be relatable to some, especially those of us who rarely leave the comforts of our computers. I was even reminded of The Poughkeepsie Tapes in terms of the creepiness factor, and while I had other issues with that movie, the fact that they can be compared in this fashion bodes well.
Melanie Papalia (Smiley) was solid as the lead. I thought her character made some idiotic choices at times, but that’s nothing new in the genre. More often than not, David Schlachtenhaufen came across as a dick, but he had a few human moments. I did like Adam Shapiro, and wish that he appeared a bit more. Lastly, Saidah Arrika Ekulona probably did fine, but her character annoyed me something awful.
Let’s set the scene, actually – the main character and her boyfriend have some fun, which, unbeknownst to them, gets recorded (because the antonigist here is a master computer hacker), and that video gets sent from her e-mail to a bunch of people. Euklona is the individual who helped the main character get her grant money, and is pissed that she sent a carnal video to all of these people.
So this idiot thinks that a responsible young woman intentionally sent a video of her getting #eatenout to a bunch of old men? The main character tries to explain that she got hacked, but apparently this character is even more of an idiot, because she doesn’t seem to understand that computers can indeed get hacked. That character pissed me off so much, and I’m actually really annoyed she wasn’t killed at some point in the movie.
Regardless, much of this movie is a tense experience, but then we get to the finale. It’s a bad finale. I didn’t care for it, and like I said earlier, though I don’t want to get into spoilers, I was completely unsatisfied. Perhaps it could have been decent, but I just didn’t care for it at all.
Because of that, what is a decently promising movie is getting a below average score. The Den really could have been something if they changed up the antagonistic force, but I can only rate what they make. I wish they landed this one better, because it could have been something special. As it is, The Den is still worth seeing, but it’s not something I’d watch too often, personally speaking.
6.5/10
Jiggy's Horror Corner 