The Den (2013)

Genre: Horror

Directed by: Zachary Donahue

Cast: Melanie Papalia, David Schlachtenhaufen, Adam Shapiro

Running time: 81 minutes

Elizabeth receives a grant to conduct a social experiment on a webcam-based social media website called The Den. Her plan is to talk to as many people from around the world as she can. After having a few weird and interesting conversations, she comes upon a user whose webcam seems to be broken. Soon enough, that same webcam cuts to a girl who gets murdered by a mysterious man in her room. As she tries to investigate the matter, with not much help from her entourage, Elizabeth soon becomes the target of a stalker, through that same webcam account.

The Den uses the found footage style of horror with most images of the film being shot through webcams. While I find this style a tad gimmicky and I feel that it gets old fast, at least, with this film, they kept it short. The story is compelling and is effective at keeping us wondering what will happen next. We have all wondered how safe we really are while using the Internet.

I must admit I found it funny to see the stalkers easily disposing of all these people, except for the main character: this small young woman who turns into Ronda Rousey in an octagon all of a sudden, when push comes to shove.

Nonetheless, if you don’t mind horror films of the found footage style, you might want to give this one a shot.

Rating: «««