Unfriended (2014)

Movie Info

Who’s the cyber-bully now?

Blaire Lily (Shelley Hennig) and Mitch Roussel (Moses Jacob Storm) are just having a night-time online chat when their friends join in their conversation.  It is the anniversary of the death of Laura Barns (Heather Sossaman) who killed herself after an anonymous video was posted of her at a party.  The friends are hiding secrets and when a mysterious person jumps into the chat, they cannot get rid of them…has Laura come back to reveal the truth of her death?

Directed by Leo Gabriadze, Unfriended was an experimental horror-film.  The movie was previewed at the Fantasia Film Festival (under the name Cybernatural) in 2014 but did not receive wide release until 2015.  The movie garnered mixed reviews with some praising the attempt and others condemning it.  The low-budget film had a strong box office return.

So the “heavy-set” kid is the one who who knows about computers, is mouthy, and gets killed by a blender…way to break stereotypes Unfriended

I have to say I wasn’t too excited about Unfriended since it seemed like a flavor of the week type movie.  The combination of social media and found footage films seemed a little off-putting, but I decided to try it due to some positive reviews.  Unfriended left me with mixed emotions.

Someone was going to make a social media movie and the decision to make it an all-webcam based film was a brave one.  There is always seems to be a niche for horror based on new technology since inherently technology is “evil”.  Unfriended’s plot is both too cliché and hip at the same time for it to work however.  It just is dull…and suffers the classic found footage crisis of not really showing any of the horror.

The cast likewise is pretty bland.  With small windows and rather typical teens, you don’t ever get a real feel for any of them.  The films tries to be pretty natural and have the kids talk to each other like they’ve known each other for years…but as the viewer, you don’t and therefor you get no character development…which hurts the already generic plot line.

Your friend ’til the end!

Though the catch of the movie is the web cam style, it also is what hurts it.  Unfriended could have been made as a classic linear film with the kids in their rooms and panicking with a mixed media approach, but then the weaknesses of the plot would have been more evident.  By putting it as an “online” film, you witness the screen of Blaire Lily…but watching a person type isn’t compelling film footage.

Unfriended was interesting in its attempt, but ultimately fails.  I will say that watching on a computer in a window makes it even more bizarre and the makers should have possibly have released it as a “web-only” film to tie into that theme.  Despite some unique gimmicks, I don’t think I can really “like” Unfriended.