Untraceable

Introduction

Horror movies have increasingly been employing the latest technology as part of the narrative: Ringu used VHS; One Missed Call used mobiles and now Untraceable uses the Internet. On the website killwithme.com, a man kills a cat in a live broadcast. A few days later the website goes live again, but this time the victim is a man.

Watching this unravel are FBI special agents Jennifer Marsh (Diane Lane) and Griffin Dowd (Colin Hanks), who are part of the Cyber Crimes Division in Portland, Oregon. As the title suggests, the website is untraceable and the FBI becomes desperate to locate and apprehend the killer.

Not satisfied with simply killing people for the whole World to see, he plays on human curiosity by installing a device by which the more hits killwithme.com gets, the more painfully and quickly the victim dies.

Video

A very sharp transfer of a recent release with excellent visual and CG effects. A lot of work has obviously gone into the sets and production design. As with Gregory Hoblit's other films, this has a washed out blue palette, adding to the grim nature of the film.

Audio

An impressive Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, with clear audio and good use of surrounds when required.

There are optional English HoH, Spanish and German subtitles.

Extra Features

Tracking Untraceable - this follows the process of bringing the script to screen and explores its relevance in today's world.

Untraceable: The Personnel Files - interviews with the cast and crew, talking about the characters and their working experiences - needless to say everyone was a joy to work with and no one has a bad word to say about anyone else.

The Blueprint of Murder - interviews with those involved on the visual side of the film, such as the Production Designer Paul Eads, Location Manager Jennifer Dunne, Set Decorator Cindy Carr, FBI advisor Jane Brillhart and Special Effects Supervisor Larz Anderson.

The Anatomy of Murder - behind the scenes of the special effects, with Special Effects Makeup artist Matthew Mungle.

Audio Commentary - Gregory Hoblit, Paul Eads and producer Hawk Koch provide a decent, though slightly dry yak track, which doesn't actually add much to the rest of the supplementary material.

All the extra features, including the commentary, have optional English, Spanish and German subtitles.

Conclusion

The Internet is full of weird and wonderful material that some people would describe as sick, but others think is cool and has that 'woah!' factor. What if there was a site that really showed people being killed - wouldn't you be tempted to look? That's what Untraceable asks.

Untraceable is a thought provoking and thoroughly watchable film, throwing the 'torture porn' label back at the viewer, saying they are as complicit in the popularity of such films as those who visit killwithme.com who become accessories to murder. However this is a completely spurious argument and serves as just another reason to make a 'torture porn' movie!

The three murder scenes in which men are killed by a warfarin drip, heat-lamps and an acid bath are spectacularly gruesome and brilliantly (pardon the pun) executed, though it's odd that the cat's death is not shown!

Gregory Hoblit is one of those directors who makes fine films but is not a household name - you may have heard of Primal Fear or Fracture, but not him. Whilst not Hoblit's best film, this is still so much better than some of the dross that is released and I enjoyed it. If you liked the Saw films and gruesome horror but with a hint of intelligence, you'll enjoy Untraceable.