**This post contains spoilers**
The Story- A harmless Skype group video chat between Blaire (Shelley Hennig), her boyfriend, Mitch (Moses Storm), Adam (Will Peltz), Val (Courtney Halverson), Ken (Jacob Wysocki), and Jess (Renee Olstead) is interrupted by billie227. Billie227 oddly uses Laura Barns’ (Heather Sossaman) username and her account for the chat. Laura, Blaire’s longtime childhood friend, committed suicide at a park one year ago, after an embarrassing video was posted online.
After numerous failed attempts to remove billie227 from the chat, billie forces everyone to play a game of Never Have I Ever. The consequences? Refuse to play, and certain death is the penalty. Secrets are exposed, and a series of strange occurrences leads to one troubling question: Has Laura Barns returned from the dead to seek revenge?
My Thoughts- Realism! There’s an upside for sticking to a screencast POV for the vast majority of the movie. Unfriended’s story plays out in real time. You’re witnessing the chaos unfold step by step, without any cuts, theme music, or big flashy special effects. If we’re talking about the overall presentation of the movie, Unfriended definitely has a raw, rough cut feel to it that benefits its style of storytelling. They ran with the simple idea of a group of friends getting together to hangout and have fun online, but when things go south, you can see the panicky sense of hopelessness, while everyone is scrambling to figure out what’s going on.
The downside? Unfriended’s screencast POV loses its wow factor pretty quickly. You REALLY have to pay close attention to everything Blaire is doing, every little detail. The messages, her research, what she decides to type or not type, the windows she opens and closes, or you might miss a crucial development that’s connected to her mindset and her true intentions during the madness. It’s a situation, where your eyes are basically forced to dart all over the screen to keep track of Blaire’s speedy actions.
Sticking with Unfriended’s realism, using Live Leak, You Tube, Facebook, Chatroulette, and Skype worked as perfect tie-in platforms for the movie. The internet and social media were catalysts for Laura’s suicide. Laura was shamed, hurt, and alone, when the video of her drunk and laying passed out on the ground surfaced. Unfriended delivers social commentary about suicide, growing pains as a teenager, and bullying. Social media can be harmless, but there’s also a dark side to it, when thousands or millions of people can see your worst moments in an instant.
There’s not too much I can say about the acting. Angry yelling and hurling deeply personal insults at each other eats up a lot of the screen time in Unfriended. It’s the usual group of high school personalities you’d expect. Blaire is the innocent one (well, maybe not that innocent), Mitch tries to be the levelheaded nice guy, Adam is the angry cool kid rebel, and Ken is the goofball jokester. Jess and Val clearly don’t like each other, so it’s another feud between friends here. Shelley Hennig carries most of the emotional weight with her performance, making it easy to buy into Blaire as a character, because she’s going through an unexpected emotional crisis.
Betrayal is a big theme here. Blaire was the one who recorded and posted the video of a drunken Laura, and she lied to Mitch about saving her virginity for prom night. Blaire slept with Adam, and there’s more revelations amongst the group, including Jess starting a rumor about Blaire having an eating disorder.
Did Laura go too far with her quest for vengeance? Well, yes. There’s no doubts about that. But we’re lead to believe Laura was an outcast, and Blaire was her only true friend in the world. So it’s gotta hurt, when someone, who you shared a trusted bond with laughs at you, while you’re passed out on the ground, and your rear is covered in feces.
Laura’s ghost is responsible for all the mayhem! That’s right, it’s confirmed during the final moments of the movie that Laura is the puppet master terrorizing Blaire and everyone else.
Halfway through the movie, it’s more obvious that all the deaths are not purely the end result of an elaborate troll job or a prank. There’s a big clue early on for Laura’s ghost being the culprit. On Facebook, Blaire accuses Val of being the one behind the personal attacks. Notice how Blaire received a response denying Val’s involvement before she had a chance to hit the reply button. Laura’s ghost was always watching.
All things considered, it’s a brutal ending. Laura saved Blaire for last, because she wanted her to suffer. She wanted Blaire to watch all of her friends die agonizing deaths. And we don’t actually see Laura until the final moments of the movie, because it’s supposed to be a big deal, when Laura finally appears to confront her ex-best friend.
Unfriended has its problems. They harped on the petty teen drama bs too much, with all the constant bickering and childish name calling.
Still, there’s a serious and admirable effort to put a refreshing spin on the found-footage sub-genre with the screencast POV. You’ll see all the glitches, including the Universal logo intro, the lagging issues, and how long it takes to connect a call.
There’s more realism with Laura’s suicide posted on Live Leak, because it’s a website that was known for grisly and disturbing unedited videos. The idea of Laura possessing each member of the group and forcing them to commit suicide is truly terrifying. Blaire, Mitch, Adam, Jess, Ken, and Val can’t run, hide, or rely on the police for help. No one can save them from Laura.
A handful of gory deaths, including Ken being mangled by a blender, Jess choking to death on a hot curling iron, and Mitch stabbing himself in the forehead. Only ONE jump scare, and it’s an appropriate jump scare, when they finally show Laura as a ghost during the final shot of the movie. There’s also some good dark humor. Laura chooses an ironic song (I Hurt Too, by Katie Herzig) after Mitch’s death, and she immediately turns Jess’ death into a meme. Unfriended isn’t a complete swing and a miss, but there’s no denying the loaded potential for a home run.
Rating- 6/10
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