I got a text message from R last Friday asking if I had time to watch this movie because he got intrigued by the good reviews it received because of its unusual presentation.  Despite the fact that I’m not the world’s horror genre’s number one fan, I admit that I was curious as to what this seemingly B-movie has to offer.

Here’s the round-up of Levan Gabriadze’s (Lucky Trouble) Unfriended.

Please note that there may be spoilers.  Read at your own risk.

THE STORY:

A group of seemingly normal teenagers – Val Rommel (Courtney Halverson – The Hammer), Blaire Lily (Shelley Hennig – Ouija), Mitch Roussel (Moses Storm – Correcting Christmas), Adam Sewell (Will Peltz – In Time), Jess Felton (Renee Olstead – The Bling Ring) and Ken Smith (Jacob Wysocki – Pitch Perfect) – log on to a chatroom and get terrorized online by Laura Barns’ (Heather Sossaman – Totally Baked: A Pot-U-Mentary) social media accounts.  The only problem is, Laura killed herself one year ago because of the pressure from cyberbullying.

THE GOOD:

1. The really, really, really creative format.  I think technically this could still fall under ‘found footage’ but it was such a creative and innovative twist that I don’t find myself minding at all.  I never thought that it was possible to build a movie, a decent one at that, around a computer screen.
2. The prettiness that was Will Peltz.  He’s the token douchebag but he’s super pretty.  Reminded me a bit of Zac Efron, while R was reminded of Colton Haynes.
3. That all the elements of the horror genre are still there.  You have the douche, the mean girl, the ditz, the nerd, and the seemingly perfect lovey dovey couple.  I like it because even though the format is different, all the players are still recognizable, although I suppose real hardcore horror enthusiasts might see this as an actual step backwards.
4. It wasn’t as violent as it could’ve been.  I’m also not a fan of gratuitous gore and I appreciate the fact that only glimpses of the killings were shown on screen.
5. I like that all the characters were all incredibly horrible people but kept on insisting that they weren’t.  Very realistic.
   

THE BAD:

1. Why did Laura Barns wait a full year to
   get her revenge?  It’s a negligible detail but if she had the power to hack and destroy the lives of the people who pushed her to kill herself, why did she wait so long?  Also, wouldn’t it have been more fulfilling to leak out all the dirt she knows about them and make their lives insufferable?
2. The film makers changed the title.  Personally I think Cybernatural fits the movie better.

THE UGLY:

1. Hard core Horror fans probably won’t like this as much, for most of the reasons why I liked it.  It’s fairly predictable and doesn’t have as much gore so if they went in expecting those things, they’d definitely be disappointed.

All in all Unfriended was one of the more enjoyable B-movies I’ve seen in a long while, although this was more because of the innovative format than anything else.  Performances were exactly what you would expect from a slasher film so there’s no real disappointment on that front.  The plot is as predictable as a movie from the 90’s but if you’re like ne, that might not necessarily be a bad thing.

THE VERDICT: 7.5/10.

*All photos are lifted from the film’s IMDB page.