The Den

I don't know. The chat format was already just an escape route from all that found footage maze, where everyone made some kind of notch with their own "original" conception. The Den offers the aforementioned chat form through a page in the style of Chatroulette, with which it created a few options to make an impact. However, we have already seen something similar here with Megan Is Missing and it's hard for me to say which film was better or worse. It's true that this one perhaps had a slightly chillier and busier atmosphere. Despite the constant addressing of the webcam with wonder, the story doesn't lose much in comprehensibility and there's still plenty going on. This will definitely improve things for everyone. (2014-04-21)

My feelings towards the found-footage / mockumentary sub-genre could be summarised as “fatigue”. But you can still find excellent exceptions among filmmakers who are able to take on this exhausted format in a relatively creative way, and rookie director Zachary Donohue is one of those exceptions with The Den. Thematically, it deals with the dangers of the internet (in a similar way as, for instance, Megan is Missing). I don’t know if it is really technically possible for an internet attacker to do everything he does to the protagonist, I lack the technical expertise. Nevertheless, what he does to her is nothing nice and the creators successfully manage capture the despair caused by those anonymous attacks. They also stick to the concept of capturing the events through a web camera for at least half of the movie, and it’s amazing how smoothly they are able to tell a comprehensible story with such limitations. Hats off to that. By the end, the notebook’s web camera is replaced by something else… and the ending overall goes to a place that I wasn’t really expecting at the beginning. Thumbs up to that. 7/10, rounding up because it was nice. (2014-04-12)

Internet culture of violence! A very classy and unique found footage flick that will get under your skin! The protagonist is very likable, the pace is dynamic, the atmosphere is so adrenaline-packed that it will make your blood pressure jump up and down while watching; there is also decent gore and great cinematography. 80% So far the best horror movie of the year. (2014-04-06)