Directed by:
Лео ГабриадзеScreenplay:
Nelson GreavesCinematography:
Adam SidmanCast:
Shelley Hennig, Moses Storm, Renee Olstead, Will Peltz, Jacob Wysocki, Courtney Halverson, Heather Sossaman, Cal Barnes, Mickey RiverVOD (1)
Plots(1)
Ushering in a new era of horror, Universal Pictures' Unfriended unfolds over a teenager's computer screen as she and her friends are stalked by an unseen figure who seeks vengeance for a shaming video that led a vicious bully to kill herself a year earlier. (Universal Pictures US)
Reviews (8)
I’m giving it a weak four stars with a clear conscience. It’s not a horror film that would make you pull at your hair in fear, cover your eyes or turn the lights on after watching it, but I appreciate the playful and fun way the vengeful spirit fucks with the Skypers, and, in particular, the original concept, how it’s maintained throughout the film and how convincingly it’s delivered. It’s not something entirely novel, films like The Den and Open Windows used a similar format, but the former switched to other cameras somewhere around the middle, and in the latter the laptop camera begins to disappear and in the end it goes God knows where, because the film completely breaks down conceptually. Unfriended is the first (as far as I know) film that strictly sticks to the concept. It feels realistic (not only technologically, but, surprisingly, also in the behaviour of the characters, including the performances of the actors) and also takes place in real time. For me, reason enough for an above average rating.
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Spending 12 hours in front of a computer screen every day and not being able to avoid it even in the evening when I want to chill with a movie is not exactly my idea of fun. And watching (on a big screen!) the dialogue of bored, constantly arguing and eventually frightened teens, interrupted by the constant ringing and hang-ups of Skype is even less so. But the aura of a hidden, supernatural evil gradually starts to work and brings a few chilling moments. A surprisingly promising concept, which, were it more thought through, might have discouraged some from logging into their social network accounts for an evening, which no movie has ever achieved before. A weaker three stars.
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This is good work, surprisingly. For the first fifteen minutes, I thought that this theme would only hold up in the short film format. But then the casual conversation film is disrupted, the relationships start to intensify, and evil starts to work through the tiny windows of the blurry Skype image. After that you're just waiting for it to devolve into standard genre explainer and it... great ending.
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Uninitiated viewers might be satisfied, but well-read horror fans have long known that Unfriended is a recycled product and brings nothing new to the table; Megan is Missing and The Den, for example, were far more disturbing and objectively better. Unfriended's biggest issue is that it doesn't stand up as a horror film. It lacks scares, it lacks blood, it lacks chills and goosebumps. The deaths of the friends are edited very quickly and we don’t see shit (I had the same problem with Sinister). As for the game itself, the film could have been more disturbing and better developed in that aspect as well, these are huge downsides. On the plus side, there's a lot of realism, since we deal with cybercrime on a daily basis as opposed to serial killers or unexplained apparitions. I also liked that the film aptly depicts today's society of young people who have no respect for each other, no one carries any guilt, no one has a guilty conscience, and what they do to their friend is truly reprehensible. Not bad, not bad at all, just a pity for the horror aspect. 60%
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Imaginative, suspenseful, restrained. Pleasant surprise.
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Ironically, the uniqueness of the form doesn't stand out as much in the theater as it does on my monitor at home, where it handles one of horror's most terrifying premises: that I have an Apple interface on my screen. Otherwise, it's a genuinely interesting bit of exotica that, while it can't sustain multiple films, now manages perfectly to bring that shit to your room, not to mention that the main cast are a bunch of complete jackasses and the avenging ghost isn't so much scary as a cool troll proving the age-old truth that Hell is 4chan.
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The movie Unfriended doesn't have very good acting performances, but it's enough to present the current young generation. The actors are more annoying than downright bad. You would expect exactly similar steps from them, and so what's happening doesn't even seem so much like a screenwriter's creation, but it all fits together nicely. The film has good progression, and by the end, I was quite engrossed, and at the same time, I realized how well it all came together.
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A stylish one-off that works in a relatively creative way with the concept of the "revenge movie", as it manages to portray a truly suspenseful and frightening atmosphere on the very limited space of home computers. Still, it is a bit of very simple "fun", which is fine to watch, but doesn’t require you to do a lot of thinking during (let alone about) the film. It's just a bit cheesy, but it's undeniably got its qualities. A better 3 stars.
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