Unfriended (2015) Review!!

Synopsis – A group of online chat room friends find themselves haunted by a mysterious, supernatural force using the account of their dead friend.

My Take – The initial title for this film was “Cybernatural” which was appropriate, but I understand the change in title, which does sound like a more familiar term, and the characters desperately try to unfriend a mystery somebody in this film, so the title fits just fine. Let me just say that I have never done Skyping with more than probably a couple of people, so six is a crowd to me. I’m also a huge fan of Blumhouse‘s films, I think what makes those movies great is their desire to keep pushing the envelope, and coming up with creative ways to scare the living daylight out of you instead of the usual predictable moves that you could see coming a mile away. In the case of this film, director Levan Gabriadze and screenwriter Nelson Greaves wonder what if they could tell an entire film by the view of a computer screen. The method is still found footage, but it incorporates every aspect that has pretty much taken over the attention span of our society, because we live in day and age where we don’t meet our friends straight up in person at a mall anymore, and our eyes are always fixed on our phones, and we can multitask chatting with someone and texting another at the same time. Filmed through Skype/ FaceTime webcams and all taking place in real time this offers a new twist on the “found footage concept”.

It can be over the top but there is still a element of realism to it. It starts of naturally as it would as if it was a regular conversation for the characters and progresses in a alarming way. I could not see this film having been as effective if hadn’t taken place in real time, its pretty much told through the point of view of the main characters computer. It would have been hard to create that same tension if there had been time lapses in the film. The story follows the death of Laura Barns (Heather Sossaman) who committed suicide by shooting herself in the park on the 12th of April 2013. A year later, on the night of the anniversary of her death, a sinister force starts hunting down those responsible: Blair (Shelley Hennig) & her friends (Moses Storm, Renee Olstead, Will Peltz, Jacob Wysocki, Courtney Halverson) via Skype, Facebook etc & picking them off 1 by 1 in vicious gruesome ways! For those of us fans of horror films, who’ve watched this genre ever since we could remember, there’s some formula that this film follows through, like having the demon, or whatever villain, picking its victims off one by one, but the movie also has tons of surprises around every corner. The characters would try their best to outwit this mystery person and there will be times when they think they could, but the supernatural ultimately prevails. Much like Paranormal Activity the horror is what you don’t see, there is on screen elements of “frapping” (Facebook) and other online account hacking. But there is always a presence of something the characters don’t see happening around them. It makes the tension more believable most of the time but the some of the deaths are so over the top it can distract as much as horrify. There is one death that was kind of a given as to how it happens moments before it does happen in retrospect but it does make for those moments that can startle people for how out of nowhere it seems to happen. Much like the found footage genre it does leave a lot of big questions unanswered and left to interpretation. You never really find out who or what was stalking (or “trolling” them), the motivation is a no brainer and you do eventually realize that these teenagers all are terrible people. They have all lied to each other and got secrets that they don’t want the others to know including how they have betrayed them. This is where the comparison to scream really comes from. Webcams/ Skype/ instant messaging replace telephones as the medium for the stalking but tension is still there. As I’ve said, I’ve wanted more variety in the horror genre besides constant found footage features.

Though this is similar, the film managed to keep me on the edge of my seat. Not because of the scares I was about to face, but for the secret that each teen had to confess to. The film clearly built up their characters and their history behind the cyber bullying death in a smart way that it’s never spoon-fed. The revelation behind our characters is out of order and even with the computer screen facing the audience, we have to pay close attention to know what’s going on. As the film progresses, the more we begin go feel for the characters, and the more we want, learning more and more of the characters story. In conclusion, the acting completely succeeded, giving us tension, thrills, conflicted feelings, etc; overall feels! Finally, the filming of the film. Once again, it succeeded. Think about this, there’s only so much you can do on a horror film that takes place on computer screen. The idea sounds unique, and it truly is, like the rest of this film! The format of; as said before, only so much you can do, this film succeeds in all aspects of which could of been done, entertaining us audience, giving us more, and more to look forward to. It’s defiantly a fresh take in horror as well, giving us unique elements that no other horror movie has been able to do, while succeeding, and keeping it fresh, and new. It also has some amazingly fresh aspects, for example when the characters try to exit a screen, but when trying, it fails. An aspect of which could scare anyone when online, once again scaring us audience. The fail: the anti climatic ending does leave a little sour taste, it seemed almost out of left field and just seemed like a cheap scare. The believable performances of the young star cast especially Shelley Hennig is another reason why you stay glued. On the whole, ‘Unfriended‘ is a novel idea which executes well enough & doesn’t disappoint as a movie! Even if you’re not a computer freak, Unfriended will probably hook you as it did me. Give it a chance. It deserves it just for being brave and ambitious enough to try out something entirely new.