10 Silly Villains That Ruin Serious Horror Movies
2. The Ghost And The Mad Doctor - FeardotCom
FeardotCom was an early '00s horror/noir movie about the terrifying world of internet snuff films. However, with a wasted budget of 40 million dollars this movie ended up being a costly disaster that bombed at the box office. Whilst on paper the plot was quite original at the time, the makers then proceeded to shoot themselves in the foot with every decision they made.
Worst of all is the villains of the movie: a mad doctor called Pratt and the ghost of one of his victims. He makes snuff movies and puts them on the internet whilst the ghost kills people who view the website, but she wants to take revenge on him and at the end of the movie when she does, she finally rests in peace. The plot is confusing to try and fathom and the motivations of the antagonists make no sense. It feels like the makers didn’t know how to make compelling villains, so they just came up with silly stereotypes and hoped they work instead.
FeardotCom could have been so much better if more thought was put into the villains, but the clumsy handling of the movie makes it an ordeal to sit through. Luckily Hard Candy, Untraceable and Pulse did a lot to help the genre of ‘internet horror’ through the years, but FeardotCom was a large step in the wrong direction thanks to terrible antagonists.