Unfriended: A Groundbreaking Horror for the Digital Age
A stylish and genuinely unique youth horror film – engaging, intelligent, and suspenseful.
Blair (Shelley Hennig) and her boyfriend Mitch (Moses Storm) are on a Skype call when their private conversation is interrupted by a group of their friends… and someone else. The uninvited guest has a username but remains silent and cannot be removed from the chat. Assuming it’s a glitch, the group starts an online hangout, but the stranger eventually speaks up – and it seems their visit is connected to the suicide of a girl named Laura Barns a year prior.
Thrillers heavily integrating video calls into their plots aren’t new to cinema. “Paranormal Activity 4” featured several eerie scenes involving Skype, and one of the segments in the first “V/H/S” was entirely based on a series of Skype calls, not to mention the thriller “Open Windows” with Elijah Wood and Sasha Grey. However, director Levan Gabriadze and producer Timur Bekmambetov confidently declare “Unfriended” revolutionary.
This might sound presumptuous, but in this case, the filmmakers are surprisingly justified in their bold claims. “Unfriended” goes beyond mere video communication; the entire action unfolds on Blair’s Macbook screen. Throughout the film, she switches between Skype, email, Facebook, and her music player, and these simple programs and services are more than enough to elegantly reveal what’s happening to the character. Her mouse cursor trembles, she types panicked messages but then deletes and rephrases them more neutrally, pauses mid-sentence, or frantically scrolls through her Facebook feed – all of this is meticulously crafted and perfectly “readable.” Brief glimpses into Blair’s email, browsing history, or music library help us better understand who she is.
A Familiar Story in a New Package
Frankly, even complete nonsense could have been “sold” with such a revolutionary presentation. However, “Unfriended” also boasts a solid script – not revolutionary, but confident, logical, and intelligent. The Skype stranger subjects its victims to a psychological “Saw” – rummaging through their closets for skeletons, instilling fear, forcing them to threaten and beg – and then, after crushing them morally, destroys them physically, while the others watch the carnage unfold.
Suspenseful Despite its Static Nature
Despite the relatively static visuals, the film is highly engaging. Tight editing leaves no room for lulls, some actors are weaker than others, but no one delivers a truly false performance, and Shelley Hennig in the central role is excellent. The film brilliantly blends classic horror tropes with the anxieties of our time, where a single comment on social media or a published browsing history can seriously ruin a life. On the other hand, the younger generation, with their more “fragmented” perception of the world, will undoubtedly derive the most enjoyment from “Unfriended,” able to quickly grasp disparate information and piece it together in their minds. The film is packed with so many “Easter eggs” and intriguing little details that it’s unlikely anyone will be able to catch and examine everything at once.