THE PLOT THUS FAR
After receiving a grant for her graduate thesis, Elizabeth Benton logs onto a video-chat site known as The Den on a mission to explore the habits of its users. During one of her random video-chats, Elizabeth watches in horror as a teenage girl is gruesomely murdered in front of her webcam. While the police dismiss it as a viral prank, Elizabeth believes what she saw is real and takes it upon herself to find the truth. Soon she finds herself trapped in a twisted game in which she and her loved ones are now targeted for the same grisly fate as the first victim. With nail-biting suspense, THE DEN plunges the viewer into the darkest depths of humanity and technology.
WHAT WE THOUGHT
“The Den” is about a grad student whose thesis is about online habits. While studying users at a popular video chat site, she witnesses the murder of a young girl. Trying to alert the authorities only leads to disbelief, so it’s now up to Elizabeth to piece together what happened. Unfortunately, her friends and family are now being targeted by the killer she saw on the video channel. What is a poor grad student to do? Smack him with Ramen noodles?
There’s something peculiar about this Chat Roulette video murder chat. I’m not going to bore you with the technical aspects that didn’t add up. However, why wouldn’t have been easy for any Police cyber forensics team to trace the source of the video? I don’t live in the country’s biggest city. We’re somewhere in the Top 50 markets. But, we have a Cyber Crimes team that could do just that and end this movie in no time. Sometimes, I have trouble suspending disbelief.
The DVD comes with commentary, featurette and a trailer as the special features. The A/V Quality is on par with most recent horror movies. The Dolby 5.1 track is solid with expert sound staging. Plus, the transfer holds up in dark scenes. In the end, I’d recommend a stream or a rental to the curious.
RELEASE DATE: 07/29/2014