Delayed Reaction: The Den

The Pitch: The story of a snuff film, told via webcam.

How I Came Into It: I stumbled on a list of recent horror movies that are supposed to be pretty good. The Den was both on the list and on Netflix. I was in the mood to be scared. I like the found footage style. It was an easy sell for me.

Why I Saw It: I know a lot of people have grown tired of found footage movies. It's not surprising anymore and it's rarely done well. For some reason, I still really enjoy the style though. 'Easy' can also be 'effective' and that really applies to found footage. As long as an attempt is made to explain how all these camera shots are possible, I'm ok with it.

In The Den's case, the main woman (Melanie Papalia, whose filmography  I will be looking up) is studying video chats sites for a research grant or something. Whatever. It's established. That's all that matters. From there, it's about this guy or these guys following and tormenting her and those around her. The story builds at a good pace. It's cut pretty well to make sense of everything in a believable way. The end does a great job of explaining why it's all been put together in a neat little 80 minutes package.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: If you don't like found footage, don't bother, especially if your issue is that you keep asking "why would they have a camera on now?". There's a number of places where characters are brinnging an open laptop with them to explore dark rooms that could drive the non-fans insane. Obviously, the plausibility argument can be made for most of the things happening to her. Part of me would rather see the 15 minute version of this is an anthology movie.

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend