Untraceable
Directed by Gregory Hoblit
- thriller
- crime
- mystery
- drama
- horror
The story
Special Agent Jennifer Marsh works in an elite division of the FBI dedicated to fighting cybercrime. She thinks she has seen it all, until a particularly sadistic criminal arises on the Internet. This tech-savvy killer posts live feeds of his crimes on his website; the more hits the site gets, the faster the victim dies. Marsh and her team must find the elusive killer before time runs out.
What it’s like
Cold, blue-grey monitor glow and fluorescent office light dominate, with the FBI cybercrime unit rendered as sterile, over-lit rooms that feel procedural and airless. Gregory Hoblit's camera stays tight and restless on screens, with frequent cuts to webpages, hit counters and live feeds that flicker in the frame, and the suburban houses and rainy Portland-style streets look damp and drab. The score is a low, pulsing electronic throb that builds into jolting stingers, with long stretches of tense quiet between. Its vibe is clinical dread and mounting urgency, and it suits a late-night watch when you want to be pulled along by a ticking clock. The pace is brisk and escalating, and the central arc follows an FBI investigator who grows increasingly unnerved as the case closes in on her own life. Intensity is high: it contains sadistic torture and death shown on live-stream footage, suicide, kidnapping and a psychopathic killer, with graphic violence that lands hard though much of the most extreme harm is implied through screens. It is not gentle. It is for viewers who enjoy tense police procedurals and cyber-thrillers and can handle disturbing, relentless menace.
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