Back in the mid-1990s, the Internet became the hot new thing and this spawned a bunch of “cyber-movies” like The Net. Though shot a few years later, 2002’s .com for Murder follows a similar path.

After a skiing accident leaves her stuck in a wheelchair, Sondra Brummel (Nastassja Kinski) surfs the Internet. She discovers that husband Ben Michaelis (Roger Daltrey) has been on a dating site, so she decides to pose as him and meet one of his “girlfriends”, a woman named Lynn (Kim Valentine).

Before this happens, though, a hacker named Werther (Jeffrey Dean) barges in on the conversation – and eventually murders Lynn. This sends Sondra and her sister Misty (Nicollette Sheridan) down a dark and dangerous path as they deal with Werther’s threat.

When I last viewed the work of director Nico Mastorakis, it came via 1988’s Nightmare at Noon. While not a great movie, it worked better than expected and offered a reasonably entertaining “B” action flick.

Though I didn’t love that offering, it seemed good enough to make me semi-optimistic about Murder. Would Mastorakis manage to create another moderately entertaining little thriller with Murder?

God, no. Murder turns into an embarrassingly bad movie.

Any similarities between Murder and Rear Window seem entirely intentional – in terms of basic story, at least. Both feature a handicapped lead who observes a homicide remotely and then becomes involved with the investigation.

That said, Murder doesn’t slavishly emulate the Hitchcock flick. They share general themes but differ in many ways.

Of course, I don’t expect Murder to live up to the heights achieved by Hitchcock. I did think I’d find something stronger than this mess, though.

Mastorakis appears to believe that he can use jarring visual styles as a method to communicate mood and tension. If he boasted more skill as a filmmaker, I might agree, but in his ham-fisted ways, Murder just becomes a ridiculous melange of annoying cinematic techniques.

Murder opens with a violent scene that feels straight out of a bad 1990s music video, and too much of the rest of the movie also tries too hard to impress us with its filmmaking methods. These just grate and annoy.

Actually, pretty much about everything seems likely to get on the viewer’s nerves. Mastorakis imbues the movie with a ridiculously urgent tone that wears out the viewer pretty quickly.

Persistently “in your face” methods get old in a hurry, and they fail to add the tension Mastorakis desires. Werther offers the silliest possible psychopath and he never seems anything other than like some 14-year-old’s idea of a creepy dude.

With Kinski and Sheridan as our leads, the movie comes with some talent at least. Daltrey and Huey Lewis also add the novelty of rock stars as actors.

None of them make a positive impression. The movie also comes with self-consciously cutesy lines such as the time Sondra says to Ben “what do you think you are, a rock star?”

Ugh.

The Rear Window framework remains sturdy enough that a competent filmmaker could create something decent with it. 2007’s Disturbia offered an update on these themes that turned into a fairly nifty little thriller.

Unfortunately, in the hands of Nico Mastorakis, this Hitchcock reboot just turns into an annoying mess. Virtually nothing about this disaster succeeds.

.com for Murder appears in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Though not a bad image, the presentation seemed mediocre.

Sharpness felt inconsistent. Some shots offered pretty good delineation, but many came across as a bit soft and indistinct.

I didn’t apply this standard to the movie’s occasional stylized shots, as those intentionally went with fuzzy visuals. In addition, we get plenty of glimpses of circa 2002 computer graphics, so those looked iffy due to the source.

Even at its best, the image here rarely felt more than pretty good. As noted, delineation lacked real bite most of the time.

No issues with jagged edges or moiré effects materialized, and I saw no edge haloes. Grain felt heavier than expected for a movie from 2002, though, and occasional small specks manifested, though nothing severe.

Colors went with a heavy blue cast, and they tended to seem heavy. At times the hues looked fairly solid, but they also could appear too strong at times.

Blacks looked deep and dense, while shadows appeared a little murky but not bad. I found enough to like here to give the image a “C+” but it never worked especially well.

As for the movie’s DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack, it offered an active affair – perhaps too active, as it seemed to work overtime to dazzle the viewer. This meant the soundscape went into overdrive when a more gentle touch would work better.

The mix used all five channels in a nearly constant manner, and that sometimes suited the material. However, the soundfield too often came across as overly showy and gimmicky, such as when voices revolved around the viewer to depict an Internet chatroom.

Still, the track got points for ambition, and even though I thought the mix overdid matters, at least it integrated the information in a smooth manner. While I’d prefer a finer touch, the mix seemed engaging at times.

Audio quality worked fine, with speech that remained natural and concise. Music showed nice range and impact.

Effects appeared accurate and tight, with solid low-end response. I knocked down my grade to a “B” because I thought the mix seemed too hyperactive, but it still came with strengths.

A smattering of extras appear, and The Making of .com for Murder spans 38 minutes, one second. Created in 2002, it offers notes from director Nico Mastorakis and actors Huey Lewis and Roger Daltrey.

The show examines story, characters and influences, the use of the Internet, cast and performances, sets and locations, photography, editing and music.

At times, we get decent insights about the production. However, the program clearly exists as promotional fodder, so don’t expect a lot of depth.

Created for this 2023 Blu-ray, The Unknown Story runs 28 minutes, 10 seconds and involves Mastorakis as he discusses an alternate opening scene, shooting the “Internet porn” segments and the film’s IMDB rating.

Most of “Story” simply shows outtakes of nudity shot for the movie, so no complaints here. Mastorakis’s complaints about supposed vote tampering on IMDB might be legit but that part of “Story” feels whiny and like sour grapes.

Next comes an Interview with Actor Roger Daltrey. Shot during the production, it lasts 20 minutes, 27 seconds.

In conversation with Mastorakis, Daltrey discusses what brought him to the film as well as aspects of his character and performance, his musical career and thoughts about other artists.

We hear a lot more about the Who than we do the movie, which feels like a disappointment. Daltrey has talked about the Who over and over across his career, but his perspective on films seems more intriguing, so I wish he’d touched on those experiences more.

We also find an Interview with Actor Huey Lewis. Also from 2002, it goes for nine minutes, 56 seconds.

The piece offers Lewis’s thoughts about what brought him to the movie as well as aspects of his character and performance, his thoughts on the Internet and how he splits his time. This becomes a moderately engaging chat, if not one with a lot of fascinating remarks.

In addition to the film’s trailer, we finish with an Image Gallery. It displays 34 stills from the film and seems banal.

As a reworking of the Rear Window formula, .com for Murder fails in almost all possible ways. Despite its desperate stabs at tension, it simply becomes annoying and stupid. The Blu-ray comes with decent picture, active audio and a smattering of bonus materials. I can’t find anything positive about this stinker.