Lack of good storyline.

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

I knew this film was meant to something scary, the title made it obvious would the story would involve, but I had low expectations, because it was rated low by critics, but I was going to give it a chance, directed by Hideo Nakata (Ring, Dark Water). Basically bored teenagers Jim (Matthew Beard), Eva (Imogen Poots), Emily (Game of Thrones' Hannah Murray) and Mo (Get Out's Daniel Kaluuya) meet William (Kick-Ass's Aaron Taylor-Johnson) online. William's charisma seduces them, but he is not what he seems, he is calculating, manipulative and does not have time for people in the real world. Jim is vulnerable and has no idea how dangerous his new friend William really is, Jim confesses he is on anti-depressants, William now knows he has found a victim, he vows to help Jim come of his drugs, and the rest of the group fall in line in their meetings and in the chatroom William creates online. Eva and Mo realise that William is not offering friendly advice, he is playing a deadly game, but it has already begun, and Jim is set on the path of self- destruction and going to do the unthinkable. Eva, Emily and Mo do their best to save Jim, but William chases them across the internet in a game of cat and mouse, shutting down their systems and cutting them off from his victim. William and Jim come face to face in blur between fantasy and reality on the underground, without online security everything has become real, it is a race against time for Jim to be saved, and to stop William, someone will meet their fate. Also starring Megan Dodds as Grace, Game of Thrones' Michelle Fairley as Rosie, The Mimic's Jacob Anderson as Si, Ophelia Lovibond as Charlotte and Richard Madden as Ripley. Taylor-Johnson is alright as the sulky teenage rebel who hates his parents and everyone, the supporting cast of up-and-coming mostly unknowns do okay but overact often, the plot could have been clever, an intimate chatroom created to lure in the most vulnerable people to punish or kill them, but it is done in a predictably dull way, it only has small moments of really dramatic stuff, a disappointing British thriller. Adequate!

As soon as I finished watching this movie, I made an IMDb account so I could write this review. The movie Chatroom takes place almost entirely online, with the setting being shown in a very unique way on-screen. As the teens log in, we see the internet become personified as a hotel-like place, each door leading to a different room (some locked, some public). The hallways to the rooms are filled with a variety of people, including pedophiles, barely clothed women, men in suits, small children, teens, and every day normal people. The internet is a very diverse place and chatrooms are used by many. Luckily, not all are used in the way it was in this feature.The main character, Will (a seemingly normal, though troubled teen) creates a chatroom and allows only the 4 other characters in to talk to him. Towards the middle of the movie it begins to come to light that Will's intentions for the room are not positive at all. He aims to hurt some of the others, and attempts to convince another to commit suicide. Even though the ending was rather predictable for a movie of this type, I still enjoyed it very much. What made me want to write my ideas on the movie was a review I saw on Netflix about how terrible of a movie this was. I'll be honest, if you're looking for something to keep you on the edge of your seat, this may not be it. However, it's definitely honest. Between 12 and about 17, I frequented chatrooms nearly every night. This movie almost portrays my experience to a t. I was a lonely kid, and I found friends who I thought I could trust and confide in. I came across my fair share of pedophiles and generally bad people. I've seen people bully relentlessly and even tell people to kill themselves until they were forced to leave, hopefully unscathed emotionally. This movie brings to light a harsh reality that youth today are living. With technology so readily available- it is going to be abused. We need to be watching our connections and parental block is definitely your friend if you're a parent. Kids are looking for answers online, and it's not a safe place to be looking at all. Don't get me wrong, I have made lasting relationships through chatrooms. I even lived with a man who I met online, but it isn't worth the risk. I've also been black mailed similarly to how the character tried to black mail the other characters into keeping quiet, the only difference is that I got blackmailed into sending nude pictures while I was underage. These things are happening to teens way more than people realize, because no one is telling you. None of these kids told their parents about what was happening, and none of their parents took action because they didn't think anything was wrong. Chatroom can only be considered a horror if you realize the reality of it.I suppose what I'm really trying to say in this review is, if you watch this movie and read the reviews and read this one, take as much of this movie to heart as you can. It's a reality that you're going to probably have to handle with your kids when you have them, and if you have them now, they may already be involved. They may not be in as bad of a situation, or any situation at all, but stay in the know and keep connected. It's too risky not to. The technology may change, but with every good opportunity, there are just as many bad to counteract it.

Matthew Beard stole the show from Aaron Johnson with pure kick ass acting. The film did a pretty good job of showing how loneliness and pain can bring lots of emotionally crippled people together, and that sometimes that can be good and sometimes not so much. Aaron Johnson, whom I usually enjoy watching, seemed a bit like a one trick pony in this film. I'd have liked to know more about the characters and how they came to be the way they were. It all starts at home, of course, but all the parents seem trivialized, when in fact, they were central to their children's issues. Perhaps this is reality and I'm naive. I did feel very sad for those poor young people and it occurred to me that the internet has opened up an entire world of opportunity for evil people to exploit people looking for a friend. In that regard the film hit its mark by touching upon the dangers of being too busy to notice that children are turning to those who don't have their best interests at heart, and that, thanks to the internet, they can reach a larger audience of creeps than ever before. Hopefully, the reverse is also true...that they can reach a larger audience of heroes than ever before. Maybe someone should make a film about that.

Yes you can pick holes at this film until teatime and everybody assumes it is because the actors, director, and writers were not up to it, but I would like to put forward another theory.As with most British films (exceptions being Messrs Loach & Leigh) an audience has to be established before it will be backed. I'm afraid the days of just making a fine film and hoping people will appreciate it are long gone. In the case of this film they chose a young audience and that is the reason for most of the frustrating shortcomings. They figure, I guess with some reason that the film had to be dynamic, action packed and with not too much dialogue to prevent the little scamps getting bored and twittering their friends to tell everybody what a boring movie they were watching.Unfortunately with a film focusing on people chatting online this was always going to be a struggle. Turning the virtual world into a physical location was a nice idea, but it was overused and over expanded. I also agree with all of the other reviewers claiming the relationships weren't sufficiently developed and that too quickly the lead character had the others eating out of his hand, but as already mentioned this was not due to a lack of talent but a conscious choice to make the movie this way. I am sure the writers and the director were more than capable of doing this and if you look at the deleted scenes on the DVD a lot of good stuff is there doing the job.But alas no, we had to have that unnecessary climax and all those visual corridor scenes which did nothing for the narrative. An interesting comparison is with the film: 'Social Network', which is full of rapid quick fire dialogue and scenes cutting quickly between locations and times zones and you have to concentrate consistently to understand what is going on. Something the film makers of this film don't think young people are capable of. To my knowledge this film was popular with all age groups, but yes your right this film was about Facebook, an entity most young people have a stake in, but couldn't that be also said of chatrooms? In short the producers misunderstood their subject matter and their audience and in doing so have missed an opportunity to make a great film and have instead created another forgettable British flop. Shame.