By Geno McGahee
There are plenty of examples of films that attempt a new approach and sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t. Found footage is a good example of an approach that took off and, when done right, can be effective. In the 2014 film “UNFRIENDED,” written by Nelson Greaves and directed by Levan Gabriadze, we try something totally different with a one shot sort of film. We remain on a computer screen from jump and the topic of bullying through social media is explored. It is wrapped up in a paranormal horror movie, but there is a message here that isn’t all together bad.
Laura (Heather Sosssaman) was at a party, got drunk, and shat herself…all of which was caught on tape. The video was put on YouTube and it went viral, leading to the eventual suicide of Laura, also caught on tape. Her group of high school friends are still together but one of them posted it online and essentially led to her suicide. They encouraged it, in fact. The title of the video was “Laura kill urself.”
Blaire (Shelley Hennig) and her boyfriend Mitch (Moses Storm) are having some cyber sex before the prom via Skype when the other friends somehow enter the discussion. I use Skype from time to time and I have never had this happen but, then again, I have never had anything paranormal happen on Skype. So, maybe this glitch in the system was part of the ghostly plan of the evil entity that begins to haunt them.
The group begins talking when somebody named “Billie” somehow joins in and cannot be dropped. The computer whiz, Ken (Jacob Wysocki), does everything in his power to eliminate him/her, but he cannot. They are stuck. For the record, the character “Ken” is overweight. We see that. We don’t need him referencing some salsa eating to drive the point home. How terrible overweight people are treated in horror films…
What appears to be Laura begins messaging each of the people and it almost appeared to be on the verge of a whodunit sort of horror film, but it went the paranormal route…it’s the “in thing” nowadays. Ghosts are everywhere and they all want revenge!!! I will have to watch out for my grandmother. Although she has no revenge to seek, she was a terrible bitch.
Val (Courtney Halverson), the queen bitch, Adam (Will Peltz), the best friend of Mitch, and Jess (Renee Olstead), the friend of Blaire and the foe of Val, all join the party and things go according to plan…for the most part. The ghost of Laura keeps haunting Blaire and wants revenge and begins getting it. The members of this Skype group begin to get killed off one by one and everyone else in the group can see it.
When Billie suggests a game, the group agrees in the hope that they will avoid death, but the game forces them to tell the truth and their darkest secrets. Betrayals are revealed and friendships are lost…and so are lives. The game will only have one winner but that winner will not last long and we are left with a really cheap, jump scare ending. I walked away scratching my head.
I want to give credit to the filmmakers for taking a chance with this. They could have gone the found footage route, but they did something different and that deserves some note, but this quickly turned into a poor man’s I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER, and I never thought I would ever use that phrase…
The biggest problem with this film is that it just didn’t work. The style of the film was new but it was boring. You may have fun cruising Facebook and Skype on line but watching somebody do it for 90 minutes isn’t that much fun. It’s like watching somebody play video games. It’s boring. UNFRIENDED does make a statement about drinking and the social media problems which include bullying, but it would have been nice if they went with a more traditional shoot.
UNFRIENDED has a very basic storyline with a unique approach to filming but neither is anything special. The cheap scare at the end left no impression. The story was a ghost wanted revenge and chose social media to get it. The end. I would have liked a little more thought into this one. The elements were there for a good movie. The cast was very good but it just didn’t accomplish what it probably thought it would. At least all of the product placement probably made the movie a lot of money.
Rating: 4.5/10
