Universal Pictures
I love movies. I love going to the movies and I love watching movies at home. I love writing about movies, something I’ve been doing now for fifteen years. But I often feel like I’ve become jaded by seeing so many movies. It’s hard to find something that really surprises me anymore, something I desperately want to talk about with my friends after a screening. Maybe Hollywood just isn’t turning out those kinds of gems anymore, focusing more on blockbuster tent pole event movies that they can hopefully extend on for many, many sequels at the cost of doing something new and original.
When I first saw the previews for Unfriended, I just figured it was another twist on the found footage horror genre where a bunch of unlikable kids are picked off one-by-one by some boogeyman or unseen supernatural force. I was prepared to be completely underwhelmed by the film as it began to unspool on the big screen, but I perked up a bit when the Universal logo came on and it appeared to have some kind of bad internet connection. I love when studios play with their logos. But then I was wondering what was about to happen as it appeared that we were looking at someone’s computer monitor with various windows open, like Skype, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and other websites. We then log in to two teenagers having a private video chat before several of their friends barge in on the call. As this went on for a few minutes, I began to wonder if the entire movie was going to be like this.
And it was. And I thought it was never going to work or be the least bit interesting. And I was wrong … dead wrong, because as the friends were all chatting, there was one mysterious profile on screen that was not participating (at first) and could not be deleted. Turns out, this is the day of the anniversary of the suicide of another friend. Turns out she had been shamed and bullied so badly by a video someone posted of her with the suggestion that she kill herself, so she did. Could this mysterious profile be the dead girl? When it finally starts chatting and claims to be the girl in question, it also reveals that it knows all of the others’ dirty little secrets and one-by-one they will each pay for their complicity in the girl’s death … even though they all claim to be innocent. But are they?
Unfriended is a truly original new take on the found footage/horror genre. tweet
Unfriended is a truly original new take on the found footage/horror genre because we’re an active participant in the video chat (so it’s more live footage than found). It sounds like it could be the most boring thing to sit through, but the film is brilliantly put together to make it feel like one real-time event with chats, videos, emails and music adding to all of the action on screen. The film is also surprisingly intense because as the unwanted participant starts making threats, things start happening to each of the teens but, in a truly genius move, they’re all separated in their own homes so there’s nothing anyone can do for the others except sit and watch in horror as they’re bumped off one-by-one, and that just ratchets up the tension for the audience as well. It really is a brilliant concept executed to perfection.
Unfriended has a brilliant concept executed to perfection. tweet
What is also great about the movie is that it isn’t simply a “dead teenager” movie; it’s really a movie about the effects of bullying and the consequences of those actions all couched in a vengeful spirit horror flick. The only problem is that the film is littered with F-bombs and some brief but unsavory visuals (some of them are so fast you think you see more than is on screen) that have earned the movie an R rating, so the target audience, those teenagers who really should see the movie in the hopes that they’ll get the bullying message, can’t see it (at least not legitimately). I’m sure they could have dropped some of the language to get a PG-13 rating, and even though I was thrilled to see an R-rated horror film for a change, I think the filmmakers are short-changing themselves by going for that R.
Unfriended is really about the effects and consequences of bullying. tweet
That being said, the cast is brilliant, giving it their all and making everything from their conversations to their moments of terror completely natural and realistic. This is a movie I really want to know more about, like was everyone ad-libbing, were they just given an outline of the story, was each of them getting messages from the director on what action to do while the others had no clue of what was coming so as to catch their true reactions? The movie seems like it’s all in real-time, but I’m sure those times when a chat session or a video or email pops up to cover the Skype session was were edits were made. However it was done, it was done extremely well and I came out of the movie with plenty to say to anyone who cared to listen.
If you think Unfriended is just another in a long-line of cookie cutter horror movies, you’re completely off base. The film may not play well to an older crowd that isn’t computer savvy, but anyone who spends time on video chats and various social media sites should find this of great interest. Unfriended is the first movie this year that has really excited me about going to the movies.
Unfriended has a run time of 1 hour 23 minutes, and is rated R for violent content, pervasive language, some sexuality, and drug and alcohol use – all involving teens.
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