Mix deadly games in the world wide web and you get Untraceable, a movie of lessons, torture and timers.
Directed by Gregory Hoblit and starring Diane Lane, Untraceable starts with a grisly test kill on a cute little kitten (Grrr), one in which the killer promises viewers to end the animals torture once his site gets a certain number of hits.
FBI Agent Jennifer Marsh (Diane Lane- Unfaithful, Jumper), is a police investigator in Portland, Oregon, who specializes in internet-related crimes. When a website called “killwithme.com” stumbles within her files she doesn’t think it’s of much major league work. That is, until people begin to disappear and reappear up on the website later that eveg, with their deaths being streamed live over the internet. The more hits the killer receives during a live execution the faster a victim dies. It works in his favor with the voyeuristic nature and curiosity from users on the internet, creating a vast killing ground.
Unfortunately for the police the killer is a gifted computer tech and his website is impossible to gain access too, with the IP constantly changing and the domains varying regularly. Soon everyone around Jennifer becomes immersed in the case, and she finds herself the target of the elusive killer.
Most of the victims are either unlikable or anonymous enough to garner no sympathy but Hoblit still showcases some rather sick and innovative ways of brutally killing someone. He doesn’t resort to upping the gore element unnecessarily as the deaths are used with effect.
Lane and her agent actor friends Colin Hanks who plays Griffin Dowd, and Billy Burke as Detective Eric Box all give decent performances. Untraceable is a thriller that possesses an interesting premise with sustainable suspense and some good moments of thrills. Its downfall being its typical thriller movie cliches and the villain just not living up to the suspense in the end, but it’s definitely worth a watch.
WICKED RATING: 6/10
Title: Untraceable
Director(s): Gregory Hoblit
Writer(s): Robert Fyvolent, Mark Brinker
Stars: Diane Lane, Colin Hanks, Joseph Cross
Year: 2008
Studio/ Production Co: Screen Gems, Lakeshore Entertainment, Cohen / Pearl Productions
Budget: $35,000,000 (estimated)
Language: English
Length: 101mins
Sub-Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
