Chatroom by Hideo Nakata

SPOILER ALERT! This post may reveal some important facts about the movie!

"What's this? Chatroom? Sounds like a lame teenage comedy/romance on the Internet.

What do you mean it was directed by Hideo Nakata? The guy who made "The Ring", really?"

When I fell by chance on "Chatroom", I wasn't expecting the director to be a king of horror. Nor was I especially attracted by the poster, which seemed to present a rather boring and cliché horror movie. However as I watched the trailer, I got the feeling something very interesting might come out of this movie. I was surprised after watching the movie and after further research to discover that it got very bad reviews from a lot of websites, and I am here to show my personal vision.

Plot:

"Chat" and "room"... These two words have been intelligently seperated by Nakata to give you the setting. This is how he decided to represent this virtual environment, by simply putting each member in the same room, each room with it's own name, it's own key (password) and it's own themes. 

We are presented five youngsters from the same city who meet in the same chatroom and decide to make it their own place to discuss their problems on a regular basis.

Themes:

This movie deals with the very hard subject of drepression, and more precisely the help some people seek online. However, you will discover that theses chatrooms can be very hostile to the depressed, as some people thrive on degrading and pushing others to their limits.

Review:

And there you have it! A total mindfuck! As you struggle to understand what would push these people to such cruelty, you sink slowly into an uncomfortable sensation of horror and fear, until the power of persuasion this film conveys stikes you... Yes. This can definitely happen in real life, has happened and is probably happening right now on the internet. You are then totally captivated by every development in the downfall of the very impressionable protagonist who slowly spirals into resignation and acceptance of his fate. The sadism and sense of power over life and death portrayed by the other protagonist lets you frozen in terror and his psycopath role is masterfully played by Aaron Johnson.

The ending of the movie is however a bit deceiving and this is my only criticism. But still it is a must see!

Movie Rating: 8/10