r. Polidori (Udo Kier), clutching his book on the secret source of the Internet, finds himself in an abandoned subway station. Bleeding from the eyes, apparently in a panic about something, he spies a sinister little girl with a white ball. He jumps down onto the tracks to rescue her, but she vanishes. That's when a subway train smacks right into him and bounces him off the wall.
Investigating NYPD detective Mike Reilly (Dorff) is looking into the death when he encounters Department of Health researcher Terry Huston (McElhone), who has also arrived on the scene. The deaths resemble three others that were characterized by bleeding from the eyes, which Huston fears may be a sign of a new contagion.
Reilly, meanwhile, is haunted by his failure to capture "the Doctor" (Rea), a vicious serial killer who tortured and murdered his victims for the titillation of Web surfers. Reilly's partner, Sykes (Jeffrey Combs), tells him to forget about it, that the FBI is now handling the case.
The good news about the deaths is that they don't involve a virus. But while looking for connections among the four deaths, Huston and Reilly discover that the victims all had recently logged onto a mysterious Web site, "feardotcom." The deaths occurred exactly 48 hours after they logged on.
When a police computer tech also dies 48 hours after visiting the site, Reilly risks visiting the site himself. A series of horrific images bombards him, knocking him off his feet. As Reilly is taken to a hospital, Huston determines to look into the site's mystery herself. She finds her mind altered in disturbing ways, and realizes that the clock is now ticking for her as well.
ERROR: Story, character, scares not found
Feardotcom, from the director of 1999's House on Haunted Hill remake, is one of those films that is so bad, it's not even campy fun. It's just plain awful.
How bad? Where to start? The movie is shot so darkly that half the time the audience can't even tell what's going on. Malone and company, for reasons having more to do with financial incentives than creative decisions, chose to shoot the movie mainly in Luxembourg and France, though the story is set in New York. Malone argues that the choice of location adds to the film's sense of things not being quite right. He's correct, but not in the way he means: None of the interiors or exteriors even remotely resembles New York—or America, for that matter.
Then there are the actors. Again, for no apparent creative reason, many of the major characters are Irish, German or some other nationality, all attempting to speak with American accents. Some are more successful at it than others. Some simply speak with accents or in foreign languages with no explanation. Did I mention that the story's supposed to be set in New York?
Then there's the script, which would make Ed Wood proud. The story meanders from event to event with virtually no logic. Characters appear for a scene, then disappear completely. Story points—such as Dr. Polidori's mysterious book—are raised, then dropped. There are several key scenes in an abandoned steel plant, which nevertheless has power and small fires burning all over the place, and which is inexplicably flooded. Did I mention the story's set in Manhattan?
Dorff and McElhone's characters meet, exchange a few words, and are suddenly tied emotionally, with no foundation. Dorff views the Web site and is incapacitated, but McElhone does the same and is able to pursue a physically challenging investigation. Dorff is near death one minute, then up and around the next. And the Web site's ultimate explanation makes no sense at all.
