Monday, May 4, 2015

Review: Unfriended (2014)


Six Californian teenagers chatting online, exchanging gossip and usual adolescent exploits suddenly find themselves under attack from a supernatural force using the account of their deceased friend. Who sadly met her end by way of suicide as a result of extreme cyberbullying, inflicted on by her peers. 

I admit that I'm pretty out of touch when it come to modern horror films, but I have heard this movie isn't exactly the first of it's kind so credit can't be given for being entirely original. Although I will say that the concept is rather ambitious; that of a social media orientated supernatural horror film viewed from a unique and unconventional perspective. However; and this is where I stop being kind, the screencast perspective simply results as a gimmick that gets old very quickly. I think a lot of us go to the movies to get away from our computer screens, not to stare at one giant projection of one. Plus nothing really happens. I can remember more of what I was thinking about while watching the film than the film itself. Further more the motive of the mysterious antagonist becomes pointless as the film progresses, leaving the viewer mostly uninterested in watching a group of teens screaming helplessly into their web cams. There is no resolve or lessons learned, which I think given the issues of teen suicide and cyberbullying it would have been a good idea.   

I think teenage audiences will enjoy Unfriended more than their adult counterparts as they'll more than likely find the film's idea original and exciting. In addition to what I mentioned above, unsympathetic characters, the absence of any real plot and poor acting made Unfriended an overall unpleasant and very forgettable movie going experience.

★½


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