‘Unfriended’
C+
You’re never quite sure what you’re going to get in this modernized horror flick.
Being a part of the generation that lived its life in online chat rooms and spent hours roaming around on Facebook, I was actually creeped out a little by “Unfriended.”
It’s the story of Laura Barnes, a high school girl who commits suicide after she becomes the victim of cyberbullying. Now, a year later, her ghost is stalking a group of friends who she believes was behind the cyber attack.
The group of friends is familiar to anyone who has seen a teen horror film in their lifetime. There’s the vain slut, the drunken jock, the funny fat guy and the traditionally perfect couple.
The film unfolds in real time, the movie screen being the computer screen of the character Blaire, played by Shelley Hennig. We see Blaire simultaneously video-chatting with her friends, texting her boyfriend, Facebook stalking and, at one point, surfing around in online chat rooms.
When the attack on her friends begins, we watch as Blaire searches the Internet for information, chats with a ghost on Facebook and views the video that started it all.
At the same time, we’re getting the teenage experience — the feeling when your boyfriend doesn’t text back right away, the frustration of frenemies and the confusing love triangle that can drive a guy and his best friend apart. And it’s all wound together with gruesome and haunting death scenes.
It’s a film that accurately captures our virtual lives, meaning it’s an 80-minute advertisement for Apple, Skype, Facebook and Spotify.
“Unfriended” never goes beyond the barrier of cyber haunting and forced suicide, which is why it’s actually not too bad. I’m not saying it’s necessarily good, but writer Nelson Greaves and director Levan Gabriadze made something you wouldn’t regret going to see.
Although “Unfriended” takes its time to build its premise, the middle and end prove it is an original film that can draw a crowd.
It has some twists, a few jaw-dropping moments and an ending that will leave you vaguely impressed. It has some laughs and many relatable high school moments. Some films have great concepts but don’t deliver. In this case, it’s a bad concept, but it’s delivered well.
