Unfriended… the title doesn’t exactly send shivers down the spine. And call me a ghost story purist, but I find it difficult to get truly frightened over a Skype conversation with a malevolent spirit. Or a deceased person using their old Facebook page to stalk their old pals. I mean, if you were a supernatural entity that could do anything, would you bother going online to do your dirty work?
Media-obsessed kids may relate to this tactic, but it’s far more difficult to take seriously as an adult. Admittedly, this is a movie that deals with cyber-bullying and the filmmakers are clearly attempting to tie the online world together with its revenge plot. But for it to be in any way effective, one really has to work hard and stop themselves from imagining a disheveled ghost with a bag of chips and bottle of soda typing out threats. In spite of few decent moments, I ultimately couldn’t get that image out of my head.
Told entirely from the point of view of a person’s computer monitor, viewers witness Laura (Heather Sossaman) as she Skypes with friends on the anniversary of a classmate’s suicide. When the dead student joins in, locks them into the conversation and starts sending nasty messages, the kids can’t quite believe what is happening. But events take a darker turn when the cyberstalker forces them to reveal their deepest, darkest secrets before violently offing them. Thank goodness none of them think to simply unplug or turn off their computers.
As goofy as it sounds, the movie does slightly better than one would expect at utilizing the ridiculous concept. I can’t recall seeing a feature-length movie taking place entirely on a computer screen and developing as a character flips between Skype, Facebook, Gmail and Youtube accounts. This novelty keeps one interested far longer than they would be otherwise.
If only the characters themselves weren’t so unlikable. We don’t get much time to get to know them and they’re at each other’s throats almost from the get go. These are nasty teens (and they’re supposed to be), but as written they’re in no way charismatic. This makes their bickering an endurance test. And with the vantage point locked off, there is not a lot that can be done with the murders themselves. It doesn’t help that the events are predictable and viewers will know what’s ultimately going to occur long before it happens.
At least there are a few tense moments during one game in which the leads are forced to reveal truths about themselves before a countdown clock hits zero. It’s a clever concept that builds up a strange rhythm and does generate some suspense, even if the sequence itself ends up being played out over far too long a period of time.
Points go to the filmmakers for attempting something a little out of the ordinary and for a tense moment or two. One can appreciate a movie suggesting that everyone has their fair share of embarrassing secrets and that it’s wrong to humiliate others for it (unless you’re a spirit getting revenge on them for their transgressions on you… then it’s okay).
In the end, Unfriended is better than 2002’s Feardotcom, but that’s hardly a ringing endorsement. And it might play better at home than on a big screen (one will also be able to avoid people at the cinema who read the text messages out loud as they appear onscreen). While the film works in fits and starts and the cast do what they can with limited material, it still doesn’t earn the required chills or transcend its goofy premise.