The Den (2013 film)

The Den
Russian language film poster from initial release
Directed by	Zachary Donohue
Written by	Zachary Donohue Lauren Thompson
Starring	Melanie Papalia Matt Riedy David Schlachtenhaufen
Music by	Evan Goldman
Cinematography	Bernard Hunt
Edited by	Joseph Pettinati
Production company	Cliffbrook Films Onset Films
Distributed by	IFC Midnight
Release dates	December 23, 2013 (2013-12-23) (Russia) March 14, 2014 (2014-03-14) (United States)
Running time	81 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

The Den (initially released in Russia as смерть в сети, Death Online) is a 2013 found footage horror film by Zachary Donohue and his feature film directorial debut.^[1][2] The film was first released in Russia on December 23, 2013,^[3][4] and was given a simultaneous limited theatrical and VOD release on March 14, 2014 through IFC Midnight. It stars Melanie Papalia as a young woman that discovers a murder via webcam.^[5]

Plot

The movie begins with Elizabeth logging into a webcam-based social media site known as "The Den". It is revealed that she is doing this for a project and her goal is to chat with as many strangers as possible. However, things become grim when she starts a chat with someone whose webcam appears to be broken. After having random chats with her, the webcam somehow turns on and a woman is seen being murdered. Throughout this time, Elizabeth's account has also been continuously hacked; however she does not realize this. Her friends try to convince her it is a hoax but she remains unconvinced. She asks a friend of hers to hack the account and find out where it is being operated from, but it ultimately doesn't work since the signal is coming from too many locations to be found. Though Elizabeth had contacted the police about the murder, they do not believe her and she remains helpless. Once her boyfriend mysteriously disappears, she panics and calls the police once again. They check his apartment but find it completely empty. Another one of Elizabeth's friends is then shown getting a message from Elizabeth (though it is obviously not actually Elizabeth, as she is with the police). The message tells her friend to come over and she is then shown to be abducted just like Elizabeth's boyfriend. Elizabeth becomes more and more frantic after receiving a message showing a close up of her sister's home and an unknown figure entering it. She calls her sister and tells her to leave, but is too late and her pregnant sister's life is threatened. The attacker then leaves but later returns posing as a police officer. Elizabeth leaves with an officer and contacts her sister once she reaches her apartment to tell her that she will be back with her soon. As Elizabeth is packing she receives another message showing the head detective getting murdered and then another one of her and the inside of her apartment. She goes to open her closet where a hooded figure is, she stabs him repeatedly and flees from her apartment. To her dismay, she is attacked yet again. She later awakens in an unknown building and is chained to a wall. There is a computer in her room on which she receives a video of her boyfriend. He informs her that there are more of them and is then taken away by one of the killers off screen, and the video feed ends. After overpowering another hooded man in her room she attempts to escape and realizes there are multiple attackers. After finally getting out of the building, she steals a car from one of the attackers but then crashes. Another woman is then seen on the same site Elizabeth was on. She comes across Elizabeth's account where she witnesses Elizabeth being murdered. The scene then cuts to a man putting his credit card number into a site to watch more videos of murders like Elizabeth's but quickly closes the browser when he is interrupted by his young son.

Cast

• Melanie Papalia as Elizabeth "Liz" Benton
• David Schlachtenhaufen as Damien
• Adam Shapiro as Max
• Anna Margaret Hollyman as Lynn Benton
• Matt Riedy as Sgt. Tisbert
• Katija Pevec as Jenni
• Saidah Arrika Ekulona as Sally
• Anthony Jennings as Officer Dawson
• Victoria Hanlin as Brianne
• Anushka Rani as Young Indian Girl

Reception

The Den received mixed to positive reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 82% from 17 critics with an average of 6.8/10. Metacritic gives the film a weighted average of 48/100 based on 6 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews." Fearnet gave The Den a positive review, commenting that it "starts out a little rocky but if you're not completely fed up with 'found footage' filmmaking by now and you're willing to give a non-traditional visual presentation a fair shot, The Den has some pretty compelling things to say about the alleged safety of the internet."^[6] We Got This Covered also praised the movie, stating that it "[executed] on a strong gimmick at a speedy, flowing pace."^[7] In contrast, Shock Till You Drop panned the movie as it felt that it "lacks true scares, awesome kills or even the routine flash of nudity to warrant any sort of viewing. It panders a silly and over exaggerated message of the dangers of the anonymity of the internet and the “nature” of people. It uses a silly plot to carry a ridiculous camera technique and delivers nothing but angst and irritation."^[8] Fangoria criticized the film for many of the same reasons, as it felt that the movie began on a strong note but became "inauthentic and irritating" after the film depicted "Almost everyone, online or not, responds to [the main character's troubles] with immediate hostility or disbelief."^[9]

See also

• Unfriended
• List of films featuring surveillance

References

External links

• The Den at the Internet Movie Database
• The Den at Rotten Tomatoes