Chatroom

Chatroom (2010) is a British psychological thriller you can watch online on iFILM. Directed by Takashi Shimizu — the mind behind the Ju-On horror franchise — it adapts Enda Walsh's stage play into a portrait of online predation that still lands hard.

William sets up a chatroom called Chelsea Teens! and draws in four vulnerable teenagers: withdrawn Jim, sharp-tongued Eva, troubled Emily, and easy-going Mo. He learns their fractures fast and begins working on them one by one — Jim most of all, nudging him toward self-destruction while playing the caring friend. Aaron Taylor-Johnson makes William unsettling precisely because he's charming rather than monstrous. The cast also includes Imogen Poots, Daniel Kaluuya, and an early Richard Madden.

For a film shot in 2010, it has aged into something bleaker than intended — the mechanics it describes are now baked into every social platform. That's what makes it worth revisiting. Stream Chatroom (2010) online on iFILM.