Film Review: Friend Request

Another Social Media-themed horror flick has emerged since last year's Unfriended. It's titled, rather unimaginatively, Friend Request. Unfortunately, this is not the only thing unimaginative about this trite, generic fright-fest wannabe. This feels like a poor distant cousin to Unfriended. A far poorer distant cousin.

The Premise

Laura Woodson is a popular student who accepts a Facebook Friend Request from a lonely (and creepy) fellow student, Marina Mills, who starts latching on to her like a crazed stalker. When Laura eventually rebuffs Marina, Marina takes suicide and, through the use of a curse spreading through Social Media, starts killing off Laura's friends one by one.

Warning: Spoilers ahead

Fortunately though, this film is so utterly predictable and lacking in depth that not spoiling it wouldn't make a whole lot of difference. At the end of it, you probably won't even care if the protagonist lives or dies. I know I didn't.

The Characters

Alycia Debnam-Carey as Laura Woodson, looking like a cross between Jennifer Love Hewitt and Reese Witherspoon. Gorgeous. Also wooden and uninspiring.

Liesl Ahlers as Marina Mills, reminiscent of Rooney Mara's turn as Lisbeth Salander due to the complexion and the hoodie, but not much else.

Connor Paolo as Kobe. A decent performance as the cool tattooed tech geek, right up to his rather unbelievable and poorly-executed face-heel turn.

William Moseley as Tyler, Laura's boyfriend. Did little more than sit around, look pretty, deliver some insipid dialogue and die. How far he's fallen since The Chronicles of Narnia.

Brit Morgan as Olivia, a snippy bitchy lankly blonde. Nothing special. I felt nothing when she died.

Sean Marquette as Gustavo. Did what he could with a weak script to deliver some insensitive remarks here and there, but ultimately just cannon fodder.

Brooke Markham as Isabel. More cannon fodder.

Shashawnee Hall as Detective Cameron, a snarky black detective with some chuckle-worthy lines. Check out what he says upon seeing a battered and bloodied body in a hospital bed.

Cameron: Looks like someone's had a rough day.

The Mood

Slickly produced, with dimmed lighting when appropriate. Stereotypically dark during scary moments, and bright during light-hearted ones.

What I liked

Plenty of creepy gore. That's one thing they did right.

A close-up of Alycia Debnam-Carey's delectable ass. Easily one small highlight of the entire film, which is telling.

The concept of Marina Mills posting snuff films of Laura's friends dying, under Laura's own account? Clever.

What I didn't

Lame dialogue (including Tyler's brief jealous boyfriend act).

Cheap loud scares with predictable buildup. There was nothing psychological about the horror.

The focus on Laura's diminishing number of friends on her Facebook. Like, who the hell cares?

We never got the sense that the retribution was justified in any way. In a way, this is supposed to make their deaths even more horrifying, but somehow... meh. Coming up empty. Didn't like the characters, didn't dislike them... and their deaths, other than the shock quotient, were met with indifference by this viewer.

Conclusion

Unfriended is an infinitely superior offering to this lacklustre thriller. Watch Friend Request if you have time to waste, and like cheap jump scares.

My Rating

3 / 10

Not worth a Share,
T___T