Untraceable

Rating:

* *

Verdict:

Tense hypocritical, gruesome, predictable thriller.

This rather ghoulish internet thriller is a cross between

Silence of the Lambs

and

Saw.

Diane Lane stars as FBI agent Jennifer Marsh, a solo mum working in the FBI's Portland Internet Crime Division.

She works nights tracking and shutting down criminals on the internet so she can spend her days with her 8-year-old daughter.

One evening Marsh is alerted to a website called Killwithme where she finds a kitten being tortured to death. The website can't be traced, and while Marsh's boss isn't concerned, her instinct is that the cat-killer has bigger plans in mind. And it's not long before the site is back online, this time with a human.

The fiendish thing about this internet killer is how he rigs his victims' torture levels to his site's increasing visitor numbers. In the killer's mind, the internet and those who log on to his site are the murder weapon. Intriguing idea perhaps, but the film fails because it's appeal is based on the very voyeurism it's supposedly warning us against.

Otherwise, this is a relatively standard thriller with director Gregory Hoblit (

Fracture, Primal Fear

) doing a good job of keeping tension high in the visually dark and sullen film, and Lane is steely and solid.

This film isn't for the faint-hearted, the torture methods used in this film are disturbing and Hoblit hasn't held back from making them as gruesome as he can.

Francesca Rudkin

Cast:

Diane Lane, Colin Hanks, Billy Burke

Director:

Gregory Hoblit

Running time:

102 mins

Rating:

R18 (sadistic violence)

Screening:

SkyCity, Hoyts, Berkeley Cinema