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RATING:   
The bad guy may seem Untraceable but it's pretty clear where this serial killer thriller gets its inspiration from.
Shades of Seven and Saw pop up all over this derivative film, which has FBI cyberspace sleuth Jennifer Marsh (Diane Lane) and sidekick (Colin Hanks, son of Tom) tracking down a homicidal fiend who enjoys torturing people to death and streamed live on his website.
The gimmick? The more people who visit the site, the more quickly the victims perish. Welcome to the world of fetishistic murder voyeurism.
Director Gregory Hoblit, who expertly kept audiences on the edge with Primal Fear and Fallen, does a passable job with this paint-by-numbers process of deduction, complete with these rote thriller elements: Red herrings, dingy basements and the reliable killer-coming-at-what-the-heroine-loves gambit.
The grimy chilly visual treatment lends a great initial sense of foreboding but the film quickly gives way to cliches and contrivances.
A stronger screenplay could have made for a psychological thriller up there with the best of them — the kind that leaves viewers shaken, not shaking their heads in disappointment. - TODAY/sh
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