The Den does not get enough credit for its contributions to modern horror, especially considering it was amongst the first films, horror or otherwise, to use the perspective of webcams to tell its story- but I can easily guess at a few reasons why. When it was released, the full-length feature webcam horror sub-genre was not really a thing yet, so The Den was instead labelled as a found footage horror at a time when audiences started to turn against the genre. (I say full-length because I am aware that the V/H/S segment “The Sick Thing to Happen to Emily When She was Younger” pre-dates The Den by a year.) Unlike the 2014 film Unfriended, The Den also never got a big theatrical release, so there was no extra press out there to applaud its innovative format. And unlike 2020 Zoom horror The Host, there was no pandemic going on to have people call it the perfect horror movie for the times. Also, Chatroulette, the website The Den is most critical of, never blew up in popularity the way Twitter, Zoom, Skype, Facebook, YouTube and TikTok had.

Regardless, there are many who had seen the The Den and feel it set a standard for web-cam horror that much more famous entries have failed to reach. If you do not believe me, go to any YouTube link that discusses The Den and read the comments. 

(Personally, I think some of the reason why The Den is superior to other web-cam horrors is that it’s not reliant on a tedious group chat format.)

The Den, directed by Zachary Donahue, is about Elizabeth (Melanie Papalia), a twenty something grad student who is given a grant to research the behaviours of the people who frequent a popular new website called The Den, which is an obvious substitute for Chatroulette. At first, things go as expected, especially if you know anything about Chatroulette. Elizabeth witnesses plenty of awful and bizarre stuff mostly of a sexual nature. But none of this really phases her- until one day she stumbles upon what looks to be a real-life murder of a girl close to her own age. From this point on things quickly spiral downwards for poor Elizabeth.

In the early portions of The Den, Donahue shows his awareness that a film about a person who willingly exposes themselves 24-7 to the content on Chatroulette could be grounds for a horror movie all on its own. The opening sequence with Billy now looks prophetic when we consider the paranormal webcam stories that will soon follow. But there are also pranksters, sexual deviants, scammers and of course people willing to endanger themselves to get a reaction. They represent the worse impulses of Internet society, which is a real-world criticism of these types of sites. (My one time seeing Chatroulette in action involved watching two teens doing everything they could to talk girls into doing different things. So yes, I’d say the film’s portrayal of the website seems fair.) Some might argue that these back-to-back rapid-fire sequences are too short and cut away too fast to leave a lasting impression on a viewer. The quick-cut nature of The Den is the very antithesis to what people refer to as “atmospheric horror”, but I would argue that this assault on our senses creates an atmosphere of its own. It is still creepy, but it is also desensitizing and inviting. It perfectly mirrors the platform it critiques.

The second half of The Den ditches its social commentary on Chatroulette in favour of broader issues concerning Internet anonymity and security. In this film, The Den is also a website that predators use to find victims, and once hacked it does not matter which sites you visit. The film does a good job navigating the lines of decency as it takes us into its fictional representation of the Dark Web. Portions of the film even move into a kind of Hostel–like territory, but it is never so awful that it makes you feel you need a long shower afterwards. The Den is far more interested in being creepy than it is in being scary or gory. So when a girl shows only her picture and starts typing cryptic questions, the film feels far more chilling and impactful than that time Billy wanted to show Elizabeth the monster in his closet.

I should also mention that The Den includes one of the most innovative and disturbing home invasion sequences put in a film. Donahue knows how to get under an audience’s skin.

But The Den is also a story of hubris. From the start, Elizabeth is a flawed character. Even though she can talk a good game to a panel of professors, she is far from the best candidate to be conducting this type of research. Elizabeth is already an Internet addict, and the grant only allows her to get paid for doing something she would have done anyway. She uses the money to avoid spending time in the physical company of her friends, family, and boyfriend, which is a constant annoyance to those around her. She wants to get lost in The Den and seems too entertained by its shenanigans to view it objectively. That she is still a likable character has to do with Papalia’s own charisma as an actress and, perhaps, that bit of ourselves we recognize in her fascination. The lesson here is that when you frequently observe humanity at its worse, sooner or later humanity’s worse is going to start observing you.

The Den is a highly entertaining watch, especially at a run-time of only 76 minutes. The format keeps the pace fast and it covers a lot of ground regarding the dangers of the Internet without coming across as preachy. The Den is an honest horror film and there is a reason it refuses to be forgotten despite its simple VOD origins. Those who have seen The Den remember it and, for many of us, our fondness only grows each time a lesser web-cam film garners more recognition then deserved.

This is the O-w-h-G: the original webcam-horror gangster.