The Deep Web: Murdershow – 2023 – Torture for money

Murdershow: A dark web site!

Murdershow does not start off with a unique story. It’s about this deep web site, or dark web site, or whichever term you prefer. We’ve seen it before. People are kidnapped and are being killed or tortured online for money. The highest bidder decides what will happen.

Anyway, it starts off pretty well. I like the teaser even though it doesn’t really show any blood or gore. Or maybe that’s why I do like it. I’ve said time and time again that less is usually more and that our imagination more often than not, is more gruesome than anything a generic screenwriter can come up with. Plus it’s a lot easier to shy away from the gory stuff. It means that less money needs to go into the make-up and special effects teams.

I wish they had put more money into the actors though. Although most of them are fine, some of them couldn’t sell an emotion if their life depended on it. And with emotions being at the center of the story – at least in the beginning, when the story revolves around mourning and loss.  I’d say that this is pretty important to get across the screen. Certainly from the main lead actor.

Flashbacks

What I do like though, is the way Murdershow returns with flashbacks to let us see what was going on in the very beginning. You know those scenes where the story previously shied away from showing anything horrific. We get to follow the brother of the latest victim just after the body has been found and the funeral has taken place. There’s an ongoing investigation by the police and the brother is a podcaster specializing in unsolved crimes. He’s heavily critical of the police work in his podcast and now he’s even more skeptical.

He starts seeing things. There is a dense population of clowns, or clownlike figures during the movie. If you have coulrophobia (fear of clowns) you might think twice before watching Murdershow. I, for one, never really understood why so many people are afraid of clowns. But I’ve come to realize that it’s a fact. Just like so many people have arachnophobia (fear of spiders), acrophobia (fear of heights) and claustrophobia (fear of enclosed spaces). I myself am one of those who hates spiders and heights. I never had a problem with small spaces though.

Anyway, as Murdershow goes on its way of telling the story, we get glimpses of flashbacks telling us, the audience, something more about what happened each time. I think this is a stronger way to tell a story than to do it in a conventional way, even if you do use a lot of suggestions. 

There might be more to Mudershow than meets the eye

Early on, I get the feeling that not everything is what we’re supposed to think. I can’t put my finger on it though. It might have been triggered when I realized that it takes place around Halloween. There are pumpkins and other decorations in the shots. It makes me suspect that there’s some kind of prank going on. Plus there are more people than just the main character that doesn’t really convince me. Maybe it’s deliberate? Or maybe it’s just a script that doesn’t understand how the world works.

I don’t expect to see Michael Myers jump out or anything (although there is a Jason Mask and a Freddy glove in there) but there is something mysterious over it. To me, Murdershow doesn’t seem to be just about a gruesome Red Room on the internet where people get killed. 

Well, I think the brother feels both obligated to dig into the mystery and feel scared at the same time. At least when it’s obvious that he’s being followed and is sent disturbing pictures on his phone. Pictures that later mysteriously disappear. Maybe there’s an insanity ingredient in there too. These were some of my speculations at the time.

Well, one thing leads to another and soon there are clues to follow. The possibility of online Red Rooms on the deep dark web is suggested. They call them redrum in this film though and refer to it as a reference from The Shining. Redrum was a mysterious word in the Stanley Kubrick version as we all know. It was seen in a mirror and was established to be the word Murder backward. Whatever they’re called I’m convinced that there are real equivalents like it out there. The greed and the lengths humans can go to make a buck cannot be underestimated.

Cracking the code

Here it’s even more mysterious though, as the owners of the Murdershow seem to be “revenge”-hunting those who find the location of the site. Those who crack the code. It’s an effective way to keep people from digging I would say. But this is a movie and people are either stupid or incredibly brave to keep searching for the answers. There doesn’t seem to be any consideration that this might eventually lead to their deaths. A violent and undoubtedly painful death. Or even violent, painful deaths of loved ones. I don’t think that it would be possible to track people in the same manner as it’s done in the film though. It seems like total sci-fi. But it doesn’t matter. I, for one, am fascinated by how hacking is portrayed in movies. I’ve been fascinated by it ever since I saw the classic film Wargames, I think

But, from the perspective of the film, it’s a good thing. It makes the story into a cat-and-mouse game and adds quite a lot to the tension. If we as an audience can connect with the characters and then see them put in danger it’s a more emotional journey for us. I get very curious as to whether they will find out what’s going on or if they will be the next victims.

Final thoughts

It started out pretty weak as I described in the beginning, but it grew on me and became a pretty decent thriller at the end. I can feel the general terror the characters have to endure. Something I never thought possible at the beginning. There are still flaws and I never really stop thinking that there will be a twist to turn everything upside down. Murdershow keeps escalating until the very end. I thought I had it figured out, and partly I did. I wasn’t really surprised by the ending as a whole. But there may have been parts that were pretty surprising.