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Parents' Guide to

Untraceable

By Cynthia Fuchs, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 17+

Violent torture thriller puts blame on the media.

Movie R 2008 96 minutes
Untraceable Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Community Reviews

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age 17+

Based on 2 parent reviews

MichaelsLillith
MichaelsLillith Adult
June 18, 2021
age 16+

My 8 kids

Very gory but I let my oldest daughter watch this, my younger kids are not allowed to watch this until sophomore year and lucky, no sex and nudity, I made sure my kids are asleep first when I watch it

This title has:

Too much violence
Lynn M.
Lynn M. Adult
April 18, 2018
age 18+

Just bad and over the top gratuitous violence

I walked into a room where an older adult was watching this and it was left on while I kept her company. It's just one violent tourture scene after another.

This title has:

Too much violence
See all 2 parent reviews

What's the Story?

In UNTRACEABLE, a serial killer protests the easy availability of violent and exploitative media imagery by -- ironically -- setting up a Web site where people can watch victims suffering; the more visitors the site has, the worse the torture gets. Despite the fact that his work is tediously visible, he remains elusive: It's up to the Portland-based federal cybercrimes unit to locate this villain before he strikes again. At the center of the investigation is confident, righteous, intuitive agent Jennifer Marsh (Diane Lane). Once the killer discovers that she's on his trail, he targets not only her and her family, but also her best friend/work partner, Griffin (Colin Hanks). Sadly, the cop who means to help her, Detective Box (Billy Burke), is astoundingly inept.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (2 ):
Kids say (7 ):

Even if you take the film's moral lesson at face value, the overkill is discouraging, and not very instructive. With Marsh at the center of the action, there's a lot of focus on Lane's performance. She's certainly up to it -- particularly as Marsh's personal relationships are put at risk, and she becomes increasingly vulnerable in conversations with friends and family -- but the film depends on repetitive reaction shots as she and others gaze on grisly scenes, with viewers invited to gaze along with them. The movie essentially implicates its own audience in the commercialization and mass mediation of violence.

In fact, by the time the killer articulates his outrage against easy access to violent images, the rest of us have long since figured out that his strategy is faulty. He's trying to teach users that watching the abuse and murder of people they don't know is wrong and cruel -- but his own means are excessively cruel and don't teach anyone anything. Instead, the viewers he invites to his Web site -- where victims are set up in diabolical contraptions that increase their suffering as more users log on -- are just made culpable in the abuse.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about the arguments for and against policing content on the Internet. How can you keep children safe from certain sites and users without unnecessarily censoring what adults can see? Should someone be in charge of what is and isn't OK to put online? If so, who? For tips on staying safe and smart online, try our guide.

Movie Details

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