Technically, it's more of a variant of the found footage format, in the sense that the main narrative isn't told from the point-of-view of a handheld camera. Instead, the entire story takes place on the computer screen of the main character, with interaction among the other characters in the story taking place via chat and webcam windows.
The Premise
A girl has a humiliating video of herself posted online, and it goes viral. She takes suicide. A year later, on the anniversary of her death, a group of teenagers are in a group chat when they are suddenly joined by an unknown user. All manner of attempts to evict the user, who identifies herself as the girl who killed herself, fail and the teenagers start getting picked off one by one.Warning: Definite spoilers ahead!
This is a horror movie. And half the scare is in the unknown. If you're planning to watch it, you may want to skip all the way to the end.The Characters
Shelley Hennig as Blaire Lily. The range of emotions she portrayed was entertaining - from seductive/virginal to peacemaker, to hysterical, to mortified, and finally guilty.Moses Jacob Storm as Mitch Roussel, Blaire's boyfriend. A horny teenager who's best friends with Adam, which is the source of many more twists down the road. His performance was blah, and only merits a mention because the character had the second-most screen time in the movie. The Chekov's Gun in the shape of a knife, was a nice touch.
Will Peltz as Adam Sewell, tall. dark and brooding. With anger-driven impulses. I found the character more compelling than Mitch. Overacted a little near the end, but I can live with that.
Jacob Wysocki plays Ken Smith, the fat stoner dude who also happens to be the group's tech whiz. I liked this guy, but the moment he started being the one to come up with solutions to evict the ghost, I knew he would be among the first to die.
The rest of the cast were... bland. Their characters were typical bratty self-centered teenagers with no inkling of the consequences of their casual cruelty.
The Mood
Started out light-hearted and - dare I say - banal, but quickly upped the tension and the creep factor as things progressed.What I liked
Foreshadowing. "I GOT HER" was a nice touch.The study in human behavior online. You'll see this in things Blaire, the main character, chooses to say to the group, in private to others, and things she initially wants to say and then retracts. And if you have enough of an eye for detail to look around what's shown of her desktop, you'll get a stunning amount of insight on her character.
You'll also see this in the way the characters use their perceived anonymity online to participate in malicious attacks on each other. And the scary thing about this is - it's based on things people do, and do on a regular basis.
What I didn't
The humiliating video taken of the vengeful ghost did not seem enough to warrant her suicide. Sure, honey. You got filmed passed out and soiling yourself. So what? Then again, I've never been a teen girl brought up in today's viral cyberworld, so...Which brings me to my next point - this film will hit you particularly hard if you are a teenager brought up in today's viral cyberworld. Even to people like me, who grew up without the internet but have adapted to this way of life, this hits us more or less where we live. And if not, this may just look like some overlong advertisement for Skype, Facebook, Google, Instagram and YouTube. Oh, not to forget iTunes.
Also, the fact that the ghost of Laura Banks forces people to kill themselves, came off as a little trite.
Conclusion
I was entertained. Unfriended is a work of art, and the first of its kind. Hopefully it's the only one of its kind, not because it's bad, but because its appeal lies in its originality. Any follow-up clones would serve only to lessen the impact of the original.My Rating
8 / 10
I give this flick one huge and heartfelt Like.
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