Unfriended might change that, though. Borrowing techniques from found footage movies like Paranormal Activity, the focus here never shifts from a computer screen. It’s been a year since Laura (Heather Sossaman) killed herself because a cruel video of her passed out at a party went viral, and her former BFF Blaire (Shelley Hennig) is video chatting with her friends on Skype. But something’s wrong with the program, because an extra person no-one knows keeps being added to their conversations. Is it just a glitch? Well, no. Because in another window, Blaire’s receiving creepy Facebook messages from someone claiming to be Laura… Watching the story unfold in real time on Blaire’s computer is kind of hypnotic. You’d think it’d be dull, but it’s not. Blaire’s the kind of person who doesn’t keep her desktop tidy, and she’s always got about fifteen tabs open at any given moment. If you get bored during the first act, when most of the conversation is about which of their friends no-one really likes, and what kinds of concert tickets are the best, you can let your eye wander across the screen and check out Blaire’s bookmarks (Jezebel; Teen Wolf) and open tabs (Facebook; Forever21). Blaire uses her computer like a real person, and there’s a weirdly voyeuristic thrill in scanning her internet history or watching as she types, deletes, then re-types messages, searching for the right words. Looking at her computer is like looking into her brain. There are some missteps, like a botched 911 call that stretches credulity a little too far, and a Chatroulette scene that’ll make you laugh when the film wants you to be most scared. Plus, underneath it all, the story is a pretty straightforward tale of a ghost looking for revenge, which we’ve all seen more than once before. But the cleverness of the conceit combined with the use of real websites and a clear understanding of the online world makes it feel fresh – and creepy. Unfriended is set in a familiar landscape; these aren’t teenagers blithely traipsing off to an isolated cabin to get picked off by a maniac, they’re just kids messing about on the internet, and that makes it scarier. It also might have a real point to make about the things we do online, and how easy the internet makes it to be incredibly, deeply cruel to another person without ever really thinking about it. Words on a screen might seem harmless, but there are real people on the other end, and our online lives aren’t separate from our ‘real’ lives. The two are inextricably linked, and that means online actions have consequences. It’s unlikely that internet trolls are going to be scared off cyberbullying because this movie suggests a vengeful ghost might appear to punish them for their sins, but, ah, wouldn’t it be nice if they were? In the end, how much you like this movie might depend on how much time you spend online. If some part of you isn’t filled with trepidation as the computer tells you the other person is typing… typing… typing… then Unfriended might fall a bit flat. For those of us whose teenage social lives played out almost entirely on a screen, though, it’ll be terrifying. Follow our Twitter feed for faster news and bad jokes right here. And be our Facebook chum here.
title: “Unfriended Review” ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-22” author: “Jean Wilson”
As the film opens, however, the first image we see is a YouTube video of another teen girl, Laura Barns (Heather Sossaman) shooting herself in the head outside school exactly one year earlier. The popular but nasty Laura, it seems, was shamed into suicide by an embarrassing video posted online that showed her getting not just shit-faced drunk but shitting her pants as a result. Since horror stories tend to take place on the anniversaries of such awful events, it’s not terribly surprising when our six friends’ video chat is interrupted by a user named “Billie227” — while Blaire herself begins getting Facebook messages and emails from someone claiming to be Laura. You can guess what happens from that point on, but the basic predictability of Unfriended’s plot is countered at first by the unique way it’s presented. Everything unfolds through those overlapping browser windows, and director Leo Gabriadze and screenwriter Nelson Greaves use the format to cleverly create genuinely chilling moments as well as small character details — such as when Blaire begins typing a response to question, pauses with her cursor hovering, then changes the answer to something slightly more damning to another character. Perhaps the eeriest image is the empty silhouette of a person that is the avatar of “Billie227” — anyone who has been contacted by an unknown user or spammer will recognize the tiny worm of fear it induces. Don’t look for logic in Unfriended: this is a horror story, where the rules of the real world don’t apply, so there’s no explanation for either how Laura Barns’ vengeful spirit gets online or how she perpetrates the deadly deeds that follow. But the steady build of tension and dread in the movie’s first half as she hijacks the chat between the six protagonists is the best part of Unfriended and induces some well-earned scares, while making good use of Blaire’s ever-shifting screen to emphasize both what is the priority in any given “scene” and approximate how teens manipulate their online universe. The six actors are all solid enough, but the only recognizable name among the cast and filmmakers is producer Timur Bekmambetov, whose own directorial resume includes vapid idiocies like Wanted and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Bekmambetov conceived the idea for Unfriended and sold it to Blumhouse Productions, the horror banner known for Paranormal Activity, Insidious, Sinister and others. The movie is creepy and entertaining, but beyond its admittedly interesting setting, it’s just another ghostly revenge story with performances that vary between good and annoying and little to say about the way young people communicate except that cyber-bullying is bad — and even that worthy message gets lost in the online noise, eventually breaking up like a bad wi-fi connection.
