At some point in the next week, I am hoping to publish a bigger piece in The Vault exploring technology narratives in horror. Our lives are only becoming more intertwined with technology and for technophobes, technology offers a vast source of potential horror. Last week I posted a review of Unfriended, a film with similar themes and the same computer screen and webcam twist on found footage on horror as my film review subject today – The Den. Unfortunately, The Den received a very limited theatrical run before finding its way to Netflix.

Synopsis

Liz Benton, a Sociology graduate student, has just received approval study online chatrooms. Specifically, Liz plans on chatting with users on a webcam-chat site, The Den, which is similar to Chatroulette. After several harmless encounters with the strangest the Internet has to offer, Liz finds Pyagrl*16, an anonymous account with a broken webcam. When Pyagrl*16’s webcam finally turns on, Liz sees a young woman have her throat cut. Despite the police dismissing it as a hoax, Liz’s life, and the lives of her friends and family, are increasingly threatened by anonymous online attackers

It’s the Internet, You Should Have Expected Something Like This

Much of The Den’s effectiveness is in trading on contemporary fears around the Internet. Over the last decade, digital and social media technology has expanded rapidly. While young adults and children have grown up with Snapchat and Instagram, there are a lot of people who are unfamiliar with and, quite frankly, afraid of the technology. Recent scandals involving Facebook and data-sharing with third-party companies have exposed some fairly insidious surveillance techniques as well as the fragility of our privacy.

The Den wastes little time exploiting these fears by establishing how much of Liz’s life is accessible online

The Den wastes little time exploiting these fears by establishing how much of Liz’s life is accessible online. Director Zachary Donahue’s use of webcams and screen-captures of Liz’s computer  allows the viewer to see her entire virtual existence from emails to music playlists. Before witnessing Pyagrl*16’s death, Liz’s early encounters in ‘The Den’ highlight both the anonymity and the inauthenticity of the Internet. Each encounter doubles down on the idea of just how little of what we see online is what it appears. It’s in this inauthentic virtual reality that The Den’s ‘dangerous others’ lurk waiting the unsuspecting.

Disturbing Content and Interesting Themes Elevate The Den

Released a couple of years before Unfriended, The Den features a much harder-edged take on the same premise. This is a much more violent film and while the visual impact of this violence is limited to some extent by the format, The Den still makes use of its R-rating. There a couple of good jump scares at various points, but The Den largely relies on the shock value of its subject matter. In particular, The Den is a much more cynical and disturbing take on the the dangers of the Internet. Several scenes in the film’s latter half are unsettling and the ending is likely to leave some viewers feeling uneasy long after the final credits roll.

What makes The Den stand out from other FFH films are the interesting ideas it raises. On one hand, The Den exploits fears around Internet anonymity and online predators. But the movie also asks poignant questions about the voyeuristic nature of social media. There are a number of scenes in The Den that put you in the place of characters, thus serving to implicate you in the violence. At the end of the film, you realize that the film was a streamed event, edited from webcam, phone footage, etc., and that you have been watching an anonymous middle-aged man watch Liz’s narrative. Donahue has made the audience this middle-aged man implicating you in his reveling in watching the violence.

…The Den asks poignant questions about the voyeuristic nature of our social media culture.

The Den Requires a Huge Suspension of Disbelief

Perhaps the biggest problem with The Den is the implausibility of its story. Simply put, The Den extends the Hollywood myth that the Internet can do anything. Older viewers may recall that the World Wide Web once even made Sandra Bullock ‘unattractive in The Net.

As The Den’s story progresses, it goes from slightly unbelievable to wildly over-the-top. What starts as an dark examination of online privacy and surveillance shifts quickly into a body count exercise. Liz isn’t just tormented by a lone, angry, basement-dwelling computer geek. She is targeted by an expansive network of online trolls running an organized Internet snuff emporium. They can turn her computer on remotely even when it’s shut down. No information is safe. In The Den,  if it’s online, it can be used to target family and friends. The Den’s antagonists become an almost omnipresent entity, not unlike the supernatural forces protecting Damien in The Omen. This approach worked in Unfriended, which had a supernatural twist to its online premise, but this story stretches credibility.

 

The Den Makes Its Concept Work No Matter How Silly It Gets

For viewers who buy into the premise, The Den offers a dark descent into the scariest corners of the Internet. Does the movie exaggerate these dangers? Absolutely. You will have to turn your brain off as the story hits its final act. Yet The Den makes extremely good use of its computer screen format. The approach creates a surprisingly riveting horror experience that stands up to multiple viewings.

THE PROFESSOR’S FINAL GRADE: B