Untraceable [DVD]

The plot behind Untraceable involves an FBI agent, Jennifer Marsh, who gets caught in a cat-and-mouse game with a serial killer who conducts his murders LIVE on the internet. Using an `untraceable' website the audience decide how quickly the victim dies....the more people who log on and enter the website, the quicker and more violently the victim dies.

I liked the idea of Untraceable as it wasn't quite as gory as the Saw movies of which I'm not a great fan. Where Untraceable lacks the gore I felt it made up for it in the plot which was both fast-paced and engaging. Don't get me wrong...there is gore...but its not over the top to the point where you look away.

All in all I thought Untraceable was a really good action-thriller which used the modern-technology being abused as its backdrop. If nothing else it'll probably make you question what kind of a society we live in when millions log on to the internet to watch such horror.

I rented this DVD because of the interesting premise. In fairness, it turned out to be as interesting as I had hoped in that it did have what I think is a different if not unique story-line, but for entertainment it totally missed the mark.

It's a serial killer film with an unusual twist: the victims are slowly murdered and witnessed by millions "as it happens" on-line via a streaming live feed. The FBI cyber police are powerless to do anything about it because despite their sophisticated technology it is useless in comparison to that of the sick-minded killer. The reasons were explained and relate to constantly changing IP addresses so as to prevent the FBI from shutting the website down or physically locating the source. I understood this but I wasn't really satisfied that this could happen in practice; apparently the NSA have far more sophisticated technology but were unwilling to apply it for what they referred to as a domestic case.

The film is presented in chapters, of a kind. First we are introduced to Jennifer (Diane Lane, the only well-known actor/actress in it) and see her in action as a cyber-detective for the FBI. Then following a tip-off she finds the website and alongside her colleagues at her office watches as a man, trapped in a basement on the local area of Portland, Oregon, being tortured. Then it's back to the very humdrum home life of widowed Jennifer and her eight-year-old daughter. Then back to work and the next on-line presentation, another man tortured by powerful lamps, the number of lamps switched on increasing as the number of viewers goes up. Withdraw to some more mundane fill-in until the third victim is tortured using ever more inventive methods. Inevitably Jennifer herself becomes a target, you just know this kind of thing always happens in films like this. Diane Lane is a good actress but she does little here other than speak the words. Devoid of any emotion at all.

If this is marketed as a thriller, forget it. There are no thrills, there is no suspense, there is no drama and I couldn't care less what happened to anybody because there was no character build-up of any kind. It's a film that concentrates on two elements: advanced internet technology and sadistic voyeurism. There's nothing else. You watch, you don't care, you might wince sometimes, and then it ends. This film has been said by other reviewers to be worthy of comparison to some very well-known thrillers of the past 20 years, but that's misleading and inaccurate, especially with regard to Silence of the Lambs. While SOTL is a universally acknowledged landmark movie of its generation, Untraceable is utterly forgettable other than, perhaps, for some of the unpleasant visual images that might be left on your mind. As for the script, the acting and the overall design and production, it's nothing better than a little-known American TV drama series - without the drama. It's probably best to describe it as a horror film because it offers little else, but it fails in that respect too as it tries too hard to be a serious drama in between the horror bits. There is not a single moment of humour or satire, it totally takes itself seriously.

Rent it if it still interests you, but don't expect much.

A tired plot about a serial killer is freshened up slightly with a cyberspace-based hook and a middle-aged (female) lead. Sadly, even though it's dressed up in natty threads, it's still easy to see it for what it is; a formulaic thriller that's a direct descendent of Silence of The Lambs and Seven. Things aren't helped by a stupid central moral which suggests the general public have an insatiable attraction to murder (what happens just wouldn't happen). The film's biggest asset is its score, by Christopher Young, which is brilliant and deserves a better movie.