Unfriended

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Unfriended is the kind of horror film that gets your wondering if its absurdity is intentional or not. My question – does it matter? The movie is entertaining. Some will say it is ridiculous and stupid, others will say it has legitimately terrifying scenes. I saw a bit of both, and found myself at the edge of my seat with intense anticipation, as well as drawing attention of every moviegoer in the theater as I laughed along to some of the death scenes. Add that up, I’d be lying if I didn’t say I would recommend this movie to people.

In a highly original approach, Unfriended takes place almost entirely on the computer screen of high school student Blaire. On the anniversary of her classmate Laura’s suicide, she Skypes with her boyfriend Mitch and their four friends. The friends recount the events that caused Laura to take her own life, which all trace back to the backlash and bullying that resulted following an embarrassing video that went viral.

Blaire and her friends notice an unknown member in their group chat who they aren’t able to remove, report, or block. Soon, the glitch reveals itself to be the ghost of Laura, which no one seems to care about at first except for Blaire (who obnoxiously and incessantly texts her boyfriend out of fear). Laura’s spirit controls everyone’s computers, contacting the group through Skype, FaceBook, Google, and even their printers. Slowly, Laura taunts all the friends with threats to kill they if they sign off, and possesses their bodies and forces them to commit suicide as their friends watch helplessly from home. As the fear heightens, the strength of their friendship is tested as secrets of their relationship with Laura and the role they played in her death comes to be known.

Unfriended has scenes of genuine tension, with one shining examples being one where two of the friends receive threatening notes through their printers which leads up to the most shocking death in the film. However, some moments are, for a lack of a better work, stupid. One scene shows Blaire and her friends facing an immediate threat, to which Blaire responds by taking a five minute diversion from the horror to bring us a head-scratching Chatroulette scene. And then we have some funny scenes, which include Laura’s spirit posting a meme after killing one of the teens.

But let’s backtrack for a second. The whole concept of Unfriended is completely absurd. The idea of conveying an anti-cyberbullying message to a teen audience through a film that takes place entirely on a computer screen is great. That had me intrigued. But the ghost in the film is of a bullied girl who committed suicide. Why did she kill herself? A video emerged after she pooped her pants. Yes, a girl committed suicide because everyone laughed at her after she pooped herself. I just laughed to myself at this idea – not at the idea of a teenager being humiliated to the point of killing herself, but at the idea of a girl feeling like there was no other way…because she pooped her pants. These days, people kill themselves for being called slut, gay, or whore, and if people committed suicide for pooping their pants, no one would make it to the first grade alive. Having said that, this definitely added to the overall feel of the film, which was, again, absolutely ridiculous.

So while Unfriended isn’t the highest quality horror film, I did enjoy it for the most part. I basked in the stupidity and actually enjoyed and commend some of the more intense scenes, and I laughed more times than I ever have in a “horror” movie. So if you go in with this mindset, Unfriended is an achievement. But if you want to be genuinely scared, watch something else.

Rating: 3/5