The Den (2013 film)

Plot

The movie begins with Elizabeth logging into a 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, Elizabeths 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 doesnt 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 Elizabeths 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 Elizabeths boyfriend. Elizabeth becomes more and more frantic after receiving a message showing a close up of her sisters home and an unknown figure entering it. She calls her sister and tells her to leave, but is too late and her sister and her unborn babys 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 then is murdered. 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 Elizabeths 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 Elizabeths and quickly closes the browser he was interrupted by his young son.

Cast

Reception

The Den received mixed reviews from critics. Fearnet gave The Den a positive review, commenting that it "starts out a little rocky but if youre not completely fed up with found footage filmmaking by now and youre 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." We Got This Covered also praised the movie, stating that it "[executed] on a strong gimmick at a speedy, flowing pace." 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." 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 characters troubles] with immediate hostility or disbelief."