Director: Zachary Donohue
Writer: Zachary Donohue, Lauren Thompson (Screenplay)
Starring: Melanie Papalia, David Schlachtenhaufen, Adam Shaprio, Anna Margaret Hollyman, Matt Riedy
Plot: While studying the habits of web cam chat users from the apparent safety of her own home, a young woman’s life begins to spiral out of control after witnessing a grisly murder online.
There may be spoilers the rest of the review
Verdict: Found Footage Done Right
Story: Hacked starts as Elizabeth Benton (Papalia) wants to get a student grant to spend her time experimenting on a social media site known as the Den. The idea is for Elizabeth to spend the time interacting with as many people from as any different places in the world.
When Elizabeth accepts the being able to chat to anybody in the world, she starts to experience the strange coming through as well as getting a repeat visit from the randomly generated chat selection with somebody hacking her computer to activate her account while she is sleeping. When Elizabeth witness what looks like a murder of one of the people she is chatting too, she finds herself freaked out and trying to solve the crime.
When Elizabeth’s boyfriend Damien (Schlachtenhaufen) goes missing he becomes the first of her friends and loved ones to be targeted by this serial killers.
Thoughts on Hacked
Characters/Performance – Elizabeth is the ambitious student attempting something different with her social studies course, she is committed to her idea but this does leave her outside her own social circle. She learns the dark side of the internet with her experiment. The rest of the characters are the generic boyfriend, bestie and or course family member. The next most interesting character is in fact the killers, as we want to learn about their motives.
Performance wise we have a great performance from Melanie Papalia who must be good or this film doesn’t work, she must carry everyone with her performance because she is in fact in nearly every scene, be it watching or taking part within. Saying this, I don’t feel anyone was bad they just don’t get the time.
Story – The story here shows how what can look like a harmless experiment is in fact the start of something much darker on the internet, we all know there is a dark corner to the internet and this shows how people can exploit it for their own sick fantasies. This film also poses a warning for using random chatrooms because you could find yourself being a victim down the line.
Horror/Mystery – This film builds on the mystery as it just dives into the horror of what is really going on, slowly building the suspense until the final impact of this film.
Settings – The settings are used very well because Elizabeth is only ever watching from her webcams which shows how helpless and almost clueless she is during the situation everything is unfolding in.
Special Effects – The limited use of special effects are used when needed to make each attack or kill look just as shocking as it can be.
Final Thoughts – This is a horror film that is full of shock right until the final moments of the film.
Overall: Great horror that will give the found footage fans something to cheer for.
Rating
