The Columnist (De kuthoer) is well made gore-thriller about a female newspaper columnist which gets a lot of abuse online, and decides she won't take it. She starts confronting the abusers, which also are among those close to her life. The film is well played, especially by the main role, which really is 100% believable. Production value is good, and we all know how it is to surf the net, reading all the nastiness. Should we all prevail, or do something about it? This movie told in a somewhat hitchcockian style is a ripe thriller and a joyful watch - if you like films on the more macabre and dark funny side. The film is far from laugh out loud funny, but you tend to enjoy the cozy nasty bits, due to only the way it is made.

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.

It's very easy to interact with people you don't know on the internet; and it's very easy to be very mean to people you don't know. But might it also not be easy to take revenge on them? This is the central idea of Dutch comedy-thriller 'The Columnist', which keeps a mostly straight face even as its plot turns farcical. The central character is well-constructed, and there is a serious point about the toxic nature of social media. 'The Columnist' never quite reaches the peak of 'Black Mirror', but it's nicely paced and might just make you think twice about the difference between how you behave online and in real life.