While Unfriended may not be the best film out there, it does have some originality that plays to fans tired of remakes and the same old same old in the genre.

 

 

By Adam Holtzapfel

 

Unfriended follows six friends a year after the suicide of their I guess for lack of a better term, frienemy Laura Barnes. 

 

Set up as being viewed through Blaire’s laptop we see the group on video chat with an unknown person by the screen name of billie227. No one knows who billie227 is, which leads to a series of disconnecting and reconnecting the chat shots. The death scenes aren’t particularly gory or really even seen, which I think the film could have benefited from a little gore.

 

As the film rolls on we see the video of Laura that in addition to being bullied caused her to kill herself (viewers are also treated to the suicide video as well).

 

Overall this was a middle of the road film for me. I did like that director Levan Gabriadze had the balls to stick with it all being shot via Skype instead of starting that way and turning into completely something else. Complete with chat windows, website searches, chat roulette, and more that watching this on a laptop instead of TV could make the film more intense. The director did accomplish bringing horror into a more modern era vs the weak I don’t have a cell phone signal (c’mon everywhere has cell service these days).

 

If you’re into found footage or supernatural horror this is worth a viewing just for the originality in the setting.