Published: January 31, 2008 11:01 am         

‘Untraceable’ is deplorably gratuitous

“Untraceable” is one of those deplorably gratuitous movies that wants to have it both ways, but gets nothing right.

It’s about a Web site that allows you to watch — live and streaming! — as some poor sap gets killed. The more hits that come in, the faster the victim dies. And the tactic is never quick and easy like a gunshot to the head — it’s protracted and complicated. One person gets it while sitting in a tank of battery acid; another is burned to death with hot lights.

And the whole appalling exercise begins with the killing of a fluffy gray kitty — which, if you’re an animal person, is enough to make you want to get up and walk out right then and there.

In theory, the thriller from director Gregory Hoblit (“Fracture”) is intended as an indictment of society’s moral decay — of our primal and voyeuristic urges, of the fact that the boundaries that once defined what’s considered shocking have long since been obliterated. But it’s actually a shameless celebration of that very phenomenon, not unlike the “Saw” movies and other examples of torture porn (which is not exactly a preferred phrase, but it’s apt).

It’s also no better than last year’s “The Condemned” from WWE Films, about an online reality show in which viewers can pay to watch the contestants kill each other on a remote island. Vince McMahon was a producer on that one, which at least makes some sense; here the script comes from Robert Fyvolent, Mark Brinker and Allison Burnett, from a story by Fyvolent and Brinker.

The presence of Diane Lane as the FBI cybercrimes investigator on the case — who later becomes a potential victim herself, naturally — barely elevates the material. Her innate likability, nuance and grace go utterly to waste. Billy Burke, Colin Hanks and Mary Beth Hurt also are squandered in supporting roles.

Lane’s Jennifer Marsh is a widow who lives with her young daughter and her mother (Hurt) in a cozy home in Portland, Ore. All seems happy and well until Jennifer goes to work at night, trolling for sexual predators and identity thieves online. Hanks plays her loyal, self-deprecating sidekick, Griffin, who’s always looking for love on the Internet with little luck; as he gets older, he continues to show the same regular-guy affability as his dad, Tom, whom he sounds just like.

Then one night, Jennifer stumbles across the highly disturbing killwithme.com, featuring a counter of the number of hits that corresponds to the speed with which the person you’re watching is dying.

One person is killed, than another and another. All of Portland is nervous. But it seems the victims are connected, and it’s up to Jennifer to piece it all together. (Burke plays the local police detective assigned to help her.)

The movie is never scary or suspenseful, just torture itself to sit through, and a sad example of how low horror flicks are willing to go these days.