We’ve
seen different kinds of found footage films over the years. Some with really
crappy cameras, some recorded off of phones, and even ones recorded off VHS
cameras. While they may have some creative concepts, they execution of almost
all of them turn out like complete crap. So when the trailers for “Unfriended”
started to pop up, a lot of us were groaning in disgust at the film. I mean, a
found footage Skype movie? Really? There’s no way that this film is going to
work out well.
The film
showcases six friends talking over Skype: Blaire, Mitch, Jess, Adam, Ken, and
Val. The group talks about what their plans are for an upcoming concert, only
to be dealing with an uninvited guest who won't seem to leave them alone. The
account of the guest belongs to Laura Barns, a girl who had committed suicide a
year ago, after an embarrassing video was published online. Now one by one, the
friends are taken out, as you soon discover who posted the video and all the
dirty secrets that each one of them has been hiding from each other.
Despite the groan-worthy premise, I did want to give the film a chance and see if this Skype found footage film could have something worthwhile. And much to my surprise, it was better than I thought it was going to be. Almost the entire film is shown through Blaire's computer screen and there's a majority of it not featuring the Skype call window. Sometimes it'll be on her Spotify playlist, where the entity plays music that either makes it tenser or add a sense of humor to the film. Other times, it'll focus on chat messaging between Blaire and Mitch privately, or Blaire sending messages to Laura's facebook and the ghost knows what she's saying before she sends the message. It cleverly allows the audience to feel the sense of fear that Blaire is feeling throughout the film.
It isn't just your typical flavor-of-the-month horror film, but rather a film that's about a major topic: cyber-bullying. I mean, it does show us in the trailer that a girl ended up taking her life because one of her friends humiliated her so much, and this film shows us the kind of people that they really are. A lot of people's major complaints with the film was with the characters being absolutely intolerable, which I totally understand, but that's the intent of what the film was going for: showing us horrible people get what they deserve for treating somebody as badly as they did. This film shows audiences that there are going to be consequences for bullying or any kind of people that try to get attention for being a troll. Plus, this isn't the first time we've seen bad teenage characters we wanted to see die (slasher films much?).
Now what
about the film did I not like? Well, the kills that we see in the film are very
predictable. There are moments where the kids threaten the ghost back with like
a gun or knife, or something in their surroundings that tell you exactly how
they’ll get axed off in the film, so there’s not much surprise. I also didn’t
like the last moment of the film, where it ends in a big jump-scare. I felt
like with such really damn good build-up, they could have given off a better
pay off, or better yet cut to black before we see what happens to the last of
these kids.
Aside
from that, “Unfriended” really turned out a lot better than I thought. It may
not be revolutionary to the horror genre or anything, but it still does its job
excellently. In terms of found-footage horror films, this is one of the rare
good ones. If you don’t like it, I won’t hold that against you, some people
have different tastes. However, if you’re willing to give this film a chance, I
recommend giving it a watch.
Rating:
8/10
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