The Den (2013)

It's not surprising to see yet another found-footage film, seeing as they account for 90% of all horror films made these days, and sadly, it's not a surprise to see one as bad as The Den.

Elizabeth is a social media student who, as part of her thesis, intends to spend a few months chatting with completes strangers on a socials media site called The Den, what could possible go wrong..? After a few days of lazing around her apartment talking to strangers, she eventually come's across a disturbing video of a women being murdered. She immediately goes to the police, who show the kind of incompetency you come to expect from cops in films like this. The cop views tape and says "it sure looks real, but unfortunately it's impossible for us to this guy..."



Soon her friends and family start being picked off by this online nutter, but at no point does she notify the police. After the series of annoying video and unrealistic video conferences she has with strangers, I was glad to finally see some action.

The police in this film are absolutely useless. After Elizabeth calls them again after her boyfriend goes missing, they immediately dismiss her story and even threaten to lock her up for telling stories,  even though there was a laptop left on the floor of the place he was last seen, possibly containing evidence.

The found footage element doesn't fit in with certain scenes. I mean would you still be filming everything if some nutcase was stalking you? Or when you were rushing to your sisters house, worried that someone was gonna kill her? This is why found-footage is over used these days and most of the time doesn't work right.

There's  plenty of blood and gore in the film, and the killer looks genuinely creepy wearing the sackcloth mask. Unfortunately, that doesn't make up for the film's other shortcomings.

Scarecrow anyone?

The Den was a good idea poorly executed. The idea of a social media killer is great, and I would love to see a non-found-footage film based on that.