Unfriended

Unfriended

Starring Shelley Hennig, Moses Storm, Renee Olstead, Will Peltz

Directed by Levan Gabriadze

Synopsis:
Laura Barns (Heather Sossaman) was humiliated when a video of her drunk and passed out spread through the Internet.  She was so embarrassed that she took her own life, and someone posted that video to the Net as well.

One year after her death, her friends Blaire (Shelley Hennig), Mitch (Moses Storm), Jess (Renee Olstead), Adam (Will Peltz), Ken (Jacob Wysocki) and Val (Courtney Halverson) were communicating together through Skype when a mysterious party joined their conversation.  They tried to get rid of this person, to no avail.  Then they received messages from "Laura" from her Facebook account, and the Skype member identified themselves as Laura. 

At first the friends think this is just a sick joke, until Laura starts threatening them, causing them to play a game where they identify secrets they held against one another.  One-by-one, the friends seemingly commit suicide in the most gruesome ways, and it turns out Laura's spirit is out for revenge against her frenemies.

Review:
"Unfriended" is "The Blair Witch Project" for today's generation, right down to the snotty-nosed fearful faces shown entirely too close to the screen.  This low-budget horror film centers entirely on Blaire's computer screen, and doesn't deviate from that setting throughout the film.  It makes you feel like you're looking over her shoulder at what she's typing for 83 excruciating minutes.

The film capitalizes on today's trending topics.  Facebook!  Instagram!  Chrome! Skype!  Chatroulette!  YouTube!  All are clearly marketed and advertised as terribly as product placements found in any "Transformers" movie.  Blaire is a computer genius, seamlessly moving from her Skype video chat to Facebook to Instagram and the web, and she tries to find out who this "Laura" person is, but a Nancy Drew sleuth she is not.

All the main actors are insufferable stereotypes of today's generation, from the computer-hacking genius, the ditzy blonde, the promiscuous girl, the spoiled rich boy, and the golden couple.  As the film progresses, "Laura" forces them to reveal their darkest secrets to each other, which leads to a very unintentionally funny sequence where everyone is yelling at each other, and I'm sure once it comes out on DVD the subtitles would say "Loud noises" instead of what they're saying, because I'm sure not even the subtitle person could be able to comprehend what was being said.  Each character is already detestable, and once you find out their secrets, they're even worse.  If this is a generalization of how today's generation interacts with each other, we're in severe trouble.

When you don't care about who lives and who dies, it shows not only poor writing, but also gives the viewer a chance to actually relax and just sit back and watch the carnage happen and not give a care.  The deaths are somewhat gruesome, but also somewhat...strange...I think is the best word for it.  I can't really explain it, but the deaths were very off-putting in that they weren't typical...that's not really the word either but I'm having trouble expressing it.  They were just weird.  

The one decent thing the film had going for it is the premise itself.  Today's generation is inundated with technology and its the main way we communicate with one another, so what happens when an outside force threatens that?  How would society respond?  These questions would be answered better by a bigger budget, a famous director and a great cast.  Instead, we got a low-budget film, a hackneyed director and a cast that is entirely interchangeable with any other good looking 20-something actors who have the acting chops as that of cardboard.

Summary:
A great premise, but "Unfriended" fails in execution, story, and characterization.

My Rating: B-