10 Scariest Internet Horror Films

Also known as Hacked in the UK, writer-director Zachery Donahue’s feature debut, The Den, is a viciously frightening and downright disturbing example of the rising screenlife genre. The plot follows postgrad student Elizabeth (Melanie Papalia), who proposes to study and record the behaviour of as many strangers as possible on a Chatroulette style website for her research project.

From pranks to genitals, she initially sees the sort of content expected from such a site. But events take a turn when she witnesses what she believes to be a murder via webcam. Though everyone around her (including the police) are sceptical, assuring her that it was likely a cruel prank, Elizabeth soon learns that the threat is very real when she’s terrorised by an unknown perpetrator.

Presented entirely through various screens (laptops, phones, cameras), The Den is voyeuristic in nature to an invasive degree. The sense of prevailing threat continuously eats away at Elizabeth until it explodes in a grotesque climax.

The bluntness of the violence in this underseen horror is disturbing enough, but it’s an ending that shifts Elizabeth’s ordeal into a different perspective that will leave audiences with a lasting, haunting impression.