Unfriended

In this viral going social media era, our actions must be very cautious!

A new age cinema. I don't know how it was put under 'found footage' subgenre film, since the webcams involved I think it is very much valid. There are lots of interesting stats for this like it is a $1m film, 80 minutes long, shot within the 16 days, but made to look like a single shot film in real time. This is a story of friends gang whose friend was recently committed suicide. Like usual one day, they are all hanging out on the Skype for a group chat, finds a stranger contact live among them who claims she's their dead friend. So the quest begins to find who really it is and what is the purpose behind such a pose.

This story is very familiar. Like a gang w...

'Unfriended' is a modern horror film with interesting messages about modern society and our addiction to social networking tools on the Internet. It touches on quite a sensitive subject in cyber bullying from the very disturbing introduction. It tells the story of a teenage girl who was publicly humiliated on the internet and commits suicide due to the heckling and bullying from her peers. A year on and it seems that this group of peers are being stalked online by a vengeful pursuer.

Gabradze's direction is very intriguing. 'Unfriended' (lovingly renamed 'Mad Macs' by me) plays out in very simplistic fashion. The film shows the main character's computer screen throughout it's duration. The audience see every keystroke and mistake made by...

Actually pretty alright, maybe the format has been utilised better elsewhere, but you still have to admire Unfriended's dedication, especially for all the way back in 2014. That dedication does have some drawbacks though, the devotion to the realism unfortunately also means realistically low quality webcam video & audio, as well as the realistic wait times I've using a computer. It felt like for so much of Unfriended I was just sitting there waiting for a page come up, or a file to download, or a response on an IM, and yes of course any computer user will absolutely have to wait for these things, but it's not what you go to the movies to see.

Final rating:½ - Had a lot that appealed to me, didnt quite work as a whole.

Online, your memories live forever... but so do your mistakes.

A group of online chat room friends find themselves terrorised by someone or something using the account of their dead friend.

For someone like me who is way out of the age sphere for such things like the social media world featured here, Unfriended is a fascinating and unnerving experience. When your on line experiences are simply message boards and discussion forums etc, where twitter, skype, facebook and their like are alien to them, then one can only praise when an innovative and fresh idea is brought to the horror realm of film making. And lets face it, horror always needs new splinters to off set the ream of numerical sequels and remakes from hell.

Unfriended is...