The Columnist

With a very engaging central performance, the implausibilities of the plot are nicely skated-over as she overreacts to vicious trolling, with an escalating body count and (inevitably) collateral damage on some who clearly didn't "deserve what they got". The core plot is fairly bluntly set against the daughter's school-based campaign for free speech, so this doesn't win too many marks for subtlety - but the daughter and other supporting players are also well-drawn such that I found myself going along quite willingly, even to the not-really-resolved ending. Good fun if you're in the right mood.

Interesting little chiller thriller from the Dutch. Katja Herbers plays Femke Boot, a famous journalist with lots of enemies. One of these at the start seems to be rival Steven Dood (Bram van der Kelen), but he says it's all a game. Femke gets more annoyed by the insults and death threats on social media so she starts going after the trolls with increasingly bloody scenes. The police have no idea who the culprit is but Femke's daughter thinks it is Dood. But although he looks creepy he's a red herring. Herbers is excellent as Boot, a nice person driven to murder by reading to many comments on social media, whether she got away with is unknown at the end of the movie.

I have a hard time believing in Dutch quality, this movie has proven that the Netherlands has potential. What do you do with hate comments? Well miss Boat (Boot) switched her sane mind for it..

Haters are gonna die. They say, don't read the comments, and sadly, that's true. For every one positive comment, there has to be 10 negative ones written by some poor hack living in its parents' basement. I'm usually good at mocking them, but they do feed off that. I wouldn't want to meet them. Femke Boot would. Meet The Columnist. Someone hated for her opinions online. Fortunately for her, unlucky for them, they all live within driving distance. And when the title character confronts her 1st hater in person...she gets a taste of it. I rather liked this affair. It's not perfect and the lead performers (Mom, Boyfriend & Daughter) aren't very convincing, but I was intrigued enough to see where this led. Worth a watch for anyone who gets hateful comments, but has no other outlet to digest them. HINT: either delete the comments, or laugh at that person...or bot. *** Final Thoughts: This was in Dutch, but I would LOVE to see an American, independent remake of this. No studio interference and someone in the lead who can play that Serial Mom dual role perfectly. I suggest Laura Linney. I totally can see her losing it on screen while improving as she's becoming the beast she is.

She did not hold a sex slave in the basement (and many other thing). But she did become a terrible person just like those trash-critic saying on Internet. In the end, this movie is not about some regular and easy issue. It's about how fail we alway are as being a human.

When I saw Katja Herbers (from TV Show Evil) was the lead actress, I was immediately interested. She plays the lead role perfectly, showing very little emotion and is seemingly harmless, until she reaches her breaking point with reckless abandon. The movie underscores how anonymous trolls on social media are negative to today's society and emotion well-being. The plot and pace kept me entertained, but there was nothing groundbreaking in the film. I really liked the deadpan interactions between the main character and the people in her life, and how quickly she can turn from harmless to harrowing making an internet troll think twice before posting! Worth a watch- especially if you've been trolled or harassed online. {5/10}

When looking at the line-up for FrightFest earlier this year, this was one of the main titles I was most annoyed about having missed after the high praise it got from the online audience. Mentioning on a FrightFest message board that I had signed up to the Cine-Exscess event,a fellow poster told me about the Leeds International Film Festival,leading to me finally reading my favourite columnist. View on the film: Going Below the Line and ploughing deep into the Comments section, director Ivo van Aart enters feature films after working on shorts/TV shows, with a deliriously macabre jet-black comedic atmosphere, that gives the revenge attacks a ripe sharpness. Typing up Femke being a big-name columnist, Aart closely works with cinematographer Katja Herbers in printing a pristine appearance for Femke's workplace, laying a canvas out of slick dissolves over Femke's publications and swift dolly shots round the façade of her perfect looking family home. Unable to shake the curiosity of viewing the comments, Aart and Herbers spray oil and blood over the canvas of Femke's life, stylishly popping up comments everywhere she walks,and the glow of computer screens appearing in her close-up eyes. Going for the right to reply, Aart sands down the brutality of the revenge attacks with a gleeful dry wit, via each troll being given a different appearance, (angry slob, want-to-fit-in whinger) who are slain with a thin smile casualness by Femke, who chops a bloody memento from all her former haters. Wisely avoiding the easy option of Femke being a Right-Wing hack who tries to be offend people,Daan Windhorst reunites with Aart from their TV work,for a screenplay which finds veins of excellent dead-pan humour from Femke being a inoffensive Liberal wet, whose writings on subjects such as the joys of a soft boil egg, brings all the trolls out from under their rock. While keeping the pen on the comedic,Windhorst makes a sharp commentary on the horrific psychological problems from online abuse, with terror hitting Femke when a troll claims they know where she lives. Confronting the trolls, Windhorst displays the frivolous manner these keyboard warriors use words, who cry blue murder when Femke cuts their column. Walking into the open-ending with blood dripping down her white dress, Katja Herbers gives a mesmerising turn as Femke, whose torment from the online bullying leaves wear and tear across her face, which Herbers wipes with a comedic avenging enthusiasm to bring new meaning to being a journalistic hack.

Loved this movie 👍 Helps that Katja Herbers is awesome and sounds even sexier speaking Dutch than she does in English but that's not the only reason to watch this movie. We all live in a world of 24/7 Social Media with people hiding behind hateful comments and it is fascinating to see her character reach the end of her tether and then just step past.

My first review has disappeared for some reason. Was my previous review too mean? Is the people here like Femke? Lmao This movie is about a 40 years old lonely female journalist that starts to kill people that disagreed with or were mean to her on internet. The acting is somewhat okay, but everything else is bland and not believable.

Seriously, who hasn't wanted to hunt down some internet trolls. I'm not saying you should actually do it, but I'm sure the fantasy of at least scaring them has crossed all our minds at least once. The Columnist/De Kuthoer is one of those movies where you quickly end up cheering for the killer because these people aren't just trolls that poke some fun; no they are saying they know where she lives and they are threatening her and being extra awful. We quickly see how the addiction to social media does so much harm, but also how Femke seems to now be addicted to killing. The character development in this is wonderful. We see so many sides of Femke, the harm this addiction does to her, her boyfriend and her daughter; who is inspired by her mom and trying to speak out against issues regarding freedom of speech. There's a lot of irony in this with Femke silencing people for their words while also saying she supports free speech. Femke mostly writes a pretty neutral column, but she does end up getting a lot of hate because she is anti-Zwarte Piet/Black Pete. She's also under stress of deadlines from her publisher for a book she's writing. It seems the killing helps her with her writing though, so I guess that's good for her and sucks for the trolls?