UNTRACEABLE

Experienced cybercrime police officer Jennifer Marsh comes across the site "Kill with me.com" where a live video of a dying kitten is presented, killed by a trap triggered by the site's counter: the more visits the site receives, the faster the kitten dies. The site is quickly spread by word of mouth, and its webmaster, as the second victim, does not limit himself to another animal but kidnaps a man and subjects him to a new torture, regulated by the same counter principle. Agent Marsh, helped by Detective Box, sets out to find the untraceable killer, who in the meantime has become a web celebrity as well as one of the most dangerous criminals around. Ever since John Kramer, the Jigsaw Killer, started his perverse torture game in that squalid bathroom rented somewhere, something about the way thriller movies are made has changed. Not only has attention been sharpened towards gore details and the spectacularization of pain and psychological suffering, but also the invention of elaborate death traps designed in cramped and unhygienic places and a (almost) latent moralism have taken over in some recent thriller productions, creating a real trend. "In the Web of the Serial Killer," the latest work by the star of American-made psychological thrillers Gregory Hoblit ("Fear" "The Touch"), fits into this trend right at its peak of success, but it does so without copying what already exists and with the intention of targeting the product to a definitely more mature audience. The result is a post-modern serial killer chase thriller, contaminated however with the language of the web and the grandguignolesque excesses dear to the "Saw" saga. In the end, it seems like watching a hybrid between "The Bone Collector," "Feed," and "Saw" in which the first provides the police part, the second the use of the web as the killer's place of action, and the third the fantasy in the deadly traps. Hoblit directs with the usual professionalism of someone who knows how to do his job, even if he fails to infuse the work with that touch of personality that could have made the film stand out from the crowd of similar products. Fortunately, the story scripted by the trio Robert Flyvolent, Mark Brinker, and Allison Burnett is sufficiently dynamic and engaging to keep the viewer's attention well awake, even if the film falls into several banalities that are often found in serial killer thrillers, including a certain predictability in the story's development and a motive for the killer built with putty. Definitely good is the characterization of some characters, above all the protagonist played by the always excellent Diane Lane ("Unfaithful – The Unfaithful Love") who offers us the portrait of a not very original but credible policewoman. As often happens for thriller cops, here too there is a not exactly optimal family situation (widowhood and a young daughter to raise) and it is precisely the insistence on this aspect, relegating blood and guts to the margins, that make "In the Web of the Serial Killer" a product targeted at a different audience compared to that which normally acclaims torture porn. And it is perhaps this ambiguity of intentions that has penalized this film, making it a flop: soul of the psychological thriller built on characters and body of the torture porn built on atrocious traps. The gore moments are more hinted at than exhibited, but the killer who acts in Hoblit's film has a fantasy not too different from that of the Jigsaw Killer, subjecting his victims to infernal machines that dispense anticoagulants, vitriol, and allow them to be slowly burned alive. What represents the strength of "In the Web of the Serial Killer" is the way the killer acts, who in reality is not a killer; indeed, just like the more famous colleague protagonist of "Saw," even the tormentor of this film never personally kills his victims, but makes others do it who connect to his site, thus revealing the parallel between spectator/voyeur/user and real executioner. The curiosity and desire to "see beyond" that drives the user of the site "Kill with me" are the real reasons that lead to the death of the poor souls trapped in the killer's basement; the desire to see and to see more and more is even more lethal than the immoral action of those who stage the spectacle. The explicit criticism of the society of the spectacle, taken to the extreme with the fashion of the last years of reality shows, and the ease with which the internet donates certain spectacles is explicit and more or less shareable, but the way in which this message is expressed has a particular communicative force that makes the last image of "In the Web of the Serial Killer" one of the most effective, cynical, and sarcastic negative interpretations of the net generation. In short, "In the Web of the Serial Killer" is a film that finds in its lack of originality its strong point, uses languages and ideas already expressed by others to then take a personal path. The problem of the film is however the commission of languages: fans of torture porn will find this film too soft and probably boring, while habitual viewers of investigation thrillers might not appreciate the truculences and narrative predictability of the film. A good film, but to whom should it be recommended?