Unfriended Movie Review:
Cyber-horror
BY IAN TAN
Unfriended follows a group of six
friends on Skype who are suddenly threatened and haunted by an “internet ghost
troll” of a recently deceased friend of theirs.
Said friend committed suicide a year ago due to cyberbullying and now
comes back to terrify the ones responsible for her misfortune.
Like The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity, Unfriended has created yet another unique
and (arguably) effective subgenre horror film for the contemporary horror
moviegoer. The concept of having the entire film seen from the point of view of
a laptop screen is an intriguing one, one that will most likely capture the
interest of pretty much any college student out there who uses Skype (and has a
thing for horror).
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| Whoddat? |
With such a
unique premise, and if the movie performs well in the box office, there’ll surely
be other rip-offs, sequels and/or spin-offs of this newfound style of
moviemaking ala the Paranormal Activity series
and other found footage horror movies, which have now become a cheap way for
studios to spend a couple of dollars on a movie and make back millions because
no matter how stale these movies have become, people still line up to see them,
and their sequels. Let’s hope the same doesn’t happen with Unfriended’s filmmaking style.
But let’s get to
the movie itself. The performances here are fine; nothing to shout about. They’re all serviceable enough to the story. Shelly Hennig's performance as Blair in particular really made me feel as
frightened as her character was in the film, which is good as she’s the character
in focus most of the time; it is her laptop we’re experiencing the whole movie
from.
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| The stress is real |
I really
appreciated the little things director Levan Gagriadze incorporated into the
film i.e. glitches during Skype calls, quality shifts, lag and other little
touches of reality that every other movie featuring the internet and Skype does
without. That attention to detail ultimately makes the film a whole lot more
realistic and scary – so full points for the production design of this film.
Other than that, the way the film provides exposition for characters and descriptions
of certain internet terms (e.g. “internet troll”) are done with a good sense of
believability – there’s always one in a group who isn’t too well-versed with
certain terms.
There
are a few downsides to Unfriended however.
The main one being that after leaving the theatre, you’ll look back at it and realise that it actually wasn’t all that terrifying. Tension is built, sure,
and it does get intense when it has to be, but that scare factor The Blair Witch Project and the first Paranormal Activity nailed so well
simply isn’t present here. While the latter two films made us afraid of things that go bump, Unfriended
doesn’t really make us shy away from that group Skype call we’ll probably have
after watching this movie.
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| The horror of Skype lag |
Besides that, instead of serving up scares through eeriness and
atmosphere, Unfriended takes the
gore/violence route method of scaring, which is disappointing for a concept
with such potential to be scarier in other effective ways. Also, watching all this happen
on a cinema screen takes away some of the realism of the movie. I’d say the
best way to experience Unfriended would be on your laptop - a Macbook preferably. That would probably send more chills down your spine because Skype-sized horror
upsized for the big screen doesn’t work as well as Skype-sized horror on, well,
an actual Skype-sized screen – your laptop.
Final Verdict
Unfriended gets 6.7 out of 10 stars – Interesting, but
never as frightening as you’d expect it to be.
