Cyberstalker (1996) watch online HD

A life in film is a life of stories. Each film is its own world of course, But we weave and maintain higher level stories as well. Stories about genres, and cognitive structures. Stories about ideas and visions. We carry our own story as well, and so unavoidably make and carry stories about people in the trade.

Actors are tempting of course, because they are who we think we see and their choices matter. Filmmakers and writers capture me more, because they own the long form. Certain people matter and I invite them into my life accordingly. The cost is that I invite myself into their lives. One such is Guinevere Turner, a relatively minor figure who one day just wanted to make a movie with her lover.

She is now an actress, writer, director, producer. She's no genius, but I like her attitude and welcome a conversations with her.

Here is Annie Biggs. She looks like Guinevere. She seems to have just decided with her friends to make a movie. With them, she wrote, acted and produced the thing. It is far less attractive than "Go Fish." The production is subpar and the effects and computers make it instantly obsolete. But it is remarkably ambitious.

I am seeing this shortly after "Inception," so I will describe it as layers.

We have a guy who is a drug addict. It is ambiguous whether the drug is heroin, some future superdrug.

He runs a comicbook store and draws a comic about a master being hosted in "the" computer. Many fans buy this and enjoy it.

One is New Man (Newman) who is his abused girlfriend. A mousy recluse who spends all her time in a chatroom apparently dedicated to the world of the comic.

Part of the time, she is in that world, collecting souls, which the rest of us see as simple murder.

That's three of Nolan's layers, but the bottom one may be circular because the intelligent superbeing may really exist. The end is ambiguous. Two cops are our on-screen surrogates, exploring this. They mirror the fantasy couple and live in a simple movieworld cop genre with automatic lines, gestures and even the tough as nails boss.

Through this, Annie (a redhead), carries herself well enough to be on my list of someone possibly worth following. This crew made another film, seemingly as ambitious. I have not been able to find it.

Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

Ill-considered plotting, as is the case here, is de rigueur for any film released beneath the banner of Troma Entertainment, the catalog of which for its greatest part consists of movies displaying various forms of excess, designed for the acceptance of a manifest audience of half-wits. Among Troma's less atrocious products is this affair, shot in Dallas, that concerns a serial killer, referred to as a "Cyberstalker" (the film's title for its original release, renamed THE DIGITAL PROPHET for video distribution), who fails to leave clues or a crime pattern other than that of crossing the arms of victims atop their chests, until eventually a team of police detectives determines, much later than most viewers will expect, that each of the slain regularly accessed an internet web site that has caught the fancy of a large number of cultish devotees. This site, Cyecom, specializes in outrageous fantasy and is linked with a fetishistic underground graphic comic book, "Cyberthoughts", brainchild of Andy Coberman (Jeffrey Combs) who, in spite of being a heroin addict, apparently manages to minimize the effects of the baleful narcotic enough to own and operate a retail comic book shop, while also writing the periodical Cyberthoughts that the detectives determine may somehow be connective with the exasperating frequency of the homicides. Into the picture appears "Newman" (Annie Biggs as Annie Haslett), a waifish acolyte of Cyecom and reader of Cyberthoughts who contacts Detective Meg Jordan (Schnele Wilson) and expresses dread of the unknown killer whose vicious acts have been given front page newspaper exposure. Newman reveals to the investigator that she had acquaintanceship with all of the victims by means of the Cyecom web site and, as a result, fears for her safety. The killer's prey were dispatched by gun, knife, strangulation, and electrocution, an olio of methods not discussed by the detectives, although viewers are treated to a surfeit of red herrings that are essentially irritants to those who will clearly see that not all of the murdered are actually related in any way with Cyecom and will begin to wonder if any specific purpose to all of this may be in the offing as the film plods along. Computer graphics become more striking as the scenario advances, and their use enhances the narrative more than does a weak screenplay hampered by the mentioned strained application of false leads that, in conjunction with capricious pacing, inhibits needed problem development that properly should be focused upon a possible rationale for the killings rather than technologic devices. Members of the cast, along with the director, are also producers here, and although there is little merit for a viewer to extract from their efforts in this film, they are hopefully free from the questionable value of association with Thoma, and their subsequent work should be considered, as it is ever a pleasure to follow progress, in a daunting business, of independent filmmakers who demonstrate a sincerely creative bent. By overlooking the embarrassingly poor playing of Combs, one finds worthy performances in this item, with Biggs/Haslett earning acting honours for her crafted turn, despite substandard dialogue.

Some serial killer broad is out killing people to get something from a computer. Cyberstalker (aka Digital Prophet) blows. I like the idea of computer possession telling this broad to kill ala Evilspeak but the execution results in sluggish pacing, minimal sci fi elements, dildo acting, dumb ass story and so on. And no this is not a "so bad it's good" film whatever that means. It deep throats Ron Jeremy.

An extremely powerful film. In fact, I would have given it ten points instead of nine if the dialogue had been less muffled. True, the sound recording does improve as the movie progresses, or maybe I just got used to its odd cadence, but I almost turned the movie off during the first ten minutes or so. Fortunately, I kept watching, despite the fact that executive producer Lloyd Kaufman's introductory footage on the Troma double feature DVD is even more strained, forced and self- congratulatory than usual, but fortunately, it is also rather short. No doubt Mr. Kaufman will make up for this somewhat clipped, one-take "introduction" when he extends his "humor" on the intro to Cybernator, the other feature on this Troma DVD. Before leaving "The Digital Prophet", however, I would to commend all the main actors: Jeffrey Combs as the book artist; Blake Bahner as Detective Victor Salinas, and most particularly Schnele Wilson as Detective Meg Jordan, plus executive producer Annie Biggs as Newman.