This should be fun.
Directed by Levan Gabriadze, a Georgian-Russian director in his first American feature, Unfriended takes the supernatural element to another level. It's very unique and different; the entity invades social media – what's not to love?
The story is about six high school friends who engage in their daily after class Skype group sessions with each other but today's session holds special importance, for Blaire anyway, as it's the one year anniversary of their friend Laura Barns' suicide.
Suddenly someone using Laura Barns Skype and Facebook accounts begins stalking them. What they think is someone trying to scare them turns out to be the stuff of nightmares; a supernatural entity. One by one they start to be attacked by this unseen presence, who will make it out alive and what does it want?
Unfriended takes place entirely on Skype, Facebook, iTunes, YouTube, Gmail – you name it, it's here. During the Skype sessions for example, all the characters are present and you can see them all but the main protagonist is Blaire.
Still grieving the death of her “best” friend via suicide, she still watches the video of Laura taking her life which went viral on YouTube, along with the recording of Laura being embarrassed and it was that which caused the poor girl to kill herself... To a degree.
All the characters come off as very whiny and annoying but I think that's because their young and stupid. Let's face it. If you've seen how people talk to each other on social media and how vindictive they can be towards others; it would be all these six characters.
When Laura pops in for a visit, it's a relief, it's needed and boy does she get their attention.
In one way or another, all the kids are a little responsible for Laura committing suicide and when it's revealed you'll hate them all. The supernatural Laura does her best to turn them against each other, that's what she sets out to do and it works 'cause the shit hits the fan when it does.
I do have to question why any of them would be friends with each other after all the terrible things they did to one another and kept it a secret. Friends, can't live with them....
I wouldn't say it's going to be make you lose sleep but there are enough creepy moments in there to keep things interesting. Including a scene where (spoiler alert) one character stares into the camera without blinking for an extended period and then collapses.
I do have a few gripes with the film. (Spoiler alert) I do wonder why they all had to die, I mean it's not like they were all entirely responsible for Laura's death, they did certainly contribute though.
Wouldn't the best punishment be to harass and scare them endlessly for the rest of the lives? Anyway. Another pet peeve is when the deceased Laura Barns starts updating her Facebook status, wouldn't all her pals on her friends list be questioning as to what the heck is going? I sure would be.
Look, despite that and the teenagers being complete nimrods, Unfriended is a solid supernatural movie, why? Because it's different. It takes the social media concept, which is controlling our lives, and spins it on its head. Let's face it, we are all addicted to technology at some level, who's to say a supernatural ghost wouldn't use these platforms to stalk you – I would!! While I can honestly say I've never partaken in group video conversations on Skype, I'm sure it's probably a popular fad.
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