Critics have been split on this film. Some say it is actually scary and praise it for being original while others claim it's just another teen slasher. The trailer makes the film look like a below average found-footage ghost story. So what is it?
Unfriended is about a girl, Laura Barns, who gets too drunk at a high school party and goes beyond just making a fool out of herself. After a video of her drunken, embarrassing behavior surfaces online and she becomes a victim of cyber bullying, she commits suicide. The film begins by showing footage of Laura shooting herself in the face. It's actually a decent opening and a great backstory for a horror film. Unfortunately, it's all downhill from there.
The entire film plays out on the computer screen of Laura's friend, Blaire, exactly one year later. Blaire and her boyfriend, Mitch, are interrupted during an intimate Skype chat by three of their friends and an unidentified person. They all disconnect and try to restart their group chat but the unidentified Skype user is somehow still connected as part of their group. When Blaire looks at the mysterious user's profile, she is startled to find out the name on the profile is Laura Barns.
How annoying would it be to have to listen in on a group of American teenagers over Skype? Imagine how bad it would be if they were even more trashy, two-faced, self-righteous, backstabbing, egocentric narcissists than the majority of American teenagers. That's about as irritating as it is having to watch these characters on-screen.
As the film continues, what may or may not be the ghost of Laura Barns begins to force these friends to play games that reveal just how awful and despicable they truly are. It's all pointless since we already know they are going to die as they are cliché slasher film characters. We don't need anymore reasons to hate them, yet the filmmakers feel the need to over-justify killing them. Perhaps they don't know we've already seen through these vein, selfish stereotypes and are just waiting to see them die in the most horrible ways possible. Yet, the filmmakers don't even indulge us in the guilty pleasure of watching them die. The deaths are either off-screen or we only see short clips through glitched video. As a slasher, Unfriended is a tease.
What keeps this teen horror flick from being a complete disaster is Shelley Hennig performance as Blaire and the mysterious unseen force. Whether it's a killer exacting revenge, a manifestation of these character's guilt that causes them to kill themselves or the ghost of Laura Barns, in the end, the line between protagonist and antagonist is blurred. It's the only real hint of originality Unfriended has.
Does it do anything new for found-footage horror? Not really. Does the story benefit by playing out on social networking sites and services? Not at all. Is it scary? Not even in the slightest. In fact, without the backstory, it doesn't do anything that Paranormal Activity 4 tried and failed at. What should be a cautionary tale about cyber bullying is wasted, which is a real shame. It's a miss of a great opportunity.
Don't let the critics fool you, Unfriended is as terrible as the title sounds.
Unfriended is about a girl, Laura Barns, who gets too drunk at a high school party and goes beyond just making a fool out of herself. After a video of her drunken, embarrassing behavior surfaces online and she becomes a victim of cyber bullying, she commits suicide. The film begins by showing footage of Laura shooting herself in the face. It's actually a decent opening and a great backstory for a horror film. Unfortunately, it's all downhill from there.
The entire film plays out on the computer screen of Laura's friend, Blaire, exactly one year later. Blaire and her boyfriend, Mitch, are interrupted during an intimate Skype chat by three of their friends and an unidentified person. They all disconnect and try to restart their group chat but the unidentified Skype user is somehow still connected as part of their group. When Blaire looks at the mysterious user's profile, she is startled to find out the name on the profile is Laura Barns.
How annoying would it be to have to listen in on a group of American teenagers over Skype? Imagine how bad it would be if they were even more trashy, two-faced, self-righteous, backstabbing, egocentric narcissists than the majority of American teenagers. That's about as irritating as it is having to watch these characters on-screen.
As the film continues, what may or may not be the ghost of Laura Barns begins to force these friends to play games that reveal just how awful and despicable they truly are. It's all pointless since we already know they are going to die as they are cliché slasher film characters. We don't need anymore reasons to hate them, yet the filmmakers feel the need to over-justify killing them. Perhaps they don't know we've already seen through these vein, selfish stereotypes and are just waiting to see them die in the most horrible ways possible. Yet, the filmmakers don't even indulge us in the guilty pleasure of watching them die. The deaths are either off-screen or we only see short clips through glitched video. As a slasher, Unfriended is a tease.
What keeps this teen horror flick from being a complete disaster is Shelley Hennig performance as Blaire and the mysterious unseen force. Whether it's a killer exacting revenge, a manifestation of these character's guilt that causes them to kill themselves or the ghost of Laura Barns, in the end, the line between protagonist and antagonist is blurred. It's the only real hint of originality Unfriended has.
Does it do anything new for found-footage horror? Not really. Does the story benefit by playing out on social networking sites and services? Not at all. Is it scary? Not even in the slightest. In fact, without the backstory, it doesn't do anything that Paranormal Activity 4 tried and failed at. What should be a cautionary tale about cyber bullying is wasted, which is a real shame. It's a miss of a great opportunity.
Don't let the critics fool you, Unfriended is as terrible as the title sounds.