Unfriended (2015)

Why so much hype?

A lot of fun.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

At first I simply let this movie just, well, pass me by, that is until I discovered that there was going to be a sequel called 'The Dark Web' and the dark web has always intrigued me. More so, when I discovered that my university actually have the video available for digital download I thought I might actually watch it, if only to determine whether I would want to watch the sequel or not. Well, upon discovering what this film was actually about I'm not all that sure if I'm going to bother with the sequel, if this film is anything to go by. Honestly, I would probably describe this film as being 'The Blair Witch Project' on the internet. Well, not quite, but when I was released I knew that I probably wasn't going to like it all that much namely because I expected that it was little more than a slasher flick except this time the slasher is some unstable person who was unfriended on Facebook. Actually, I probably shouldn't joke about that because some people have become pretty unhinged due to somebody unfriending them on Facebook, but then again that particular website really does mess with your head at times. Anyway, it turned out to be one of those more experimental films, in the the entire film is basically set on somebody's desktop, namely the protagonist Blair. The entire movie is basically a skype conversation between friends, with a few other programs being intermittently used, including a chat program. However, it is more than that because as I mentioned it is also a horror film, so basically there happens to be this unknown person on their chat channel who also seems to be able to post things on their Facebook accounts, send emails, and basically torment them to a point that they basically all want to kill themselves - you could say that it is the ghost in the machine. Sure, it is pretty cheesy in that, but the idea was sure to come about sooner or later - making a movie (and they are usually always horror movies) simply with people interacting through their computers. Personally, it isn't a bad idea, except that as one commentator pointed out, if they wanted to watch people screaming their heads off over skype for an hour and a half, then they can just create their own group chats and do it themselves without having to watch this film. I probably agree, but then again I have much better things to do than spend an hour and a half on Skype screaming my head off. But there is something going on behind the scenes as well - sort of. The story is based on this girl who killed herself after a video was basically posted to the web. She was at this party, and had become pretty wasted, and her friends, if you would call them that, decided to share this with the world, of course urging her to kill herself as well. Look, sadly that is actually a part of growing up, and it is one of the really nasty things about the creation of the web. Honestly, not a day goes by without some celebrity being struck down because some thoughtless tweet from years ago has emerged. Here, this isn't even her doing it, but rather her friends. In a way it seems that you really have to be careful these days, just in case people get photos of you, and the start sharing them with the world. I could say that this film does deal with the issue of cyber bullying, but it also shows us how easy it is for hidden secrets suddenly to be exposed to the world, and how people can literally drive you from the web based on what has been revealed. There has even been stories of people who have had this happen to them and they literally cannot show their face in public again. Sure, there is this idea that people generally use social media to market their good sides, but what we must remember is that we do need to be cautious as to what we place on the web because it can seriously come back to bite us.

This movie is newer to the horror genre, a supernatural killer, a bit cliche. But with it killing people online is pretty cool. I think this is creative, some people don't though.

Unfriended is another dime a dozen found footage horror movie, but this time it takes place from a computer screen while 5 "teens" Skype each other with a ghost killing them one by one. However, it's a boring, run of the mill jump scare fest with nothing else to offer outside of... actually, no, it has nothing to offer, nothing new or interesting. All the characters are unlikable and do nothing except curse out, insult, and otherwise act like horrible people to one another, so you feel nothing when they're all eventually killed off. The premise is interesting on paper but is executed super poorly, either with long plodding silent scenes of watching people read things off their screens or garbled "webcam" footage as people die. The death scenes are also hard to follow, with one apparently dying from a seizure, I had to rewatch the scene numerous times but couldn't never tell what was happening. I can't recommend this film, in fact I suggest if you see it, destroy it, take the disc and crack it in half, you'll have a better time watching the disc break than you would watching the movie it contain.

I didn't watch this movie with high expectations, and I'm glad I didn't. Nothing about this movie is really worth writing about, but here I am anyways. The acting was average, they were convincing as basic teenagers, but the biggest issue with this movie was the characters. Ignore the terribly cringe-inducing story line, the characters were so unlikable. I've never seen a movie that made me hate the main characters more. Part of what makes a good thriller is actually fearing the fate of the characters you love. The blonde girl, Jess, was so unlikable that part of me actually felt relieved when she died. It was the same with all of the characters, they were portrayed as basic rich white kids with no issues and a cliquey attitude. Every one of these characters made a girl kill herself, so why should I feel bad when they die too? They were all pretty annoying teens and it made the movie unbearable. I will give it some credit for the style of the movie, I like those screen-share movies/episodes of shows. (also what was with the computer taking forever to download a 999KB file, yet hardly lagging at all in a multi person Skype call? and playing songs without buffering? and loading pages instantly? when my computer is downloading stuff at 55kb/s it takes FOREVER to load everything else.)