Unfriended (2014) User Reviews

Unique but flawed one-room drama

[DAud_IcI · 6/10 · 28 March 2016]

This film is certainly a breath fresh air in its genre. The execution is very unique for a full movie but even it you disregard that, it can stand on its feet as one of those "small group of people stuck together and they have talk to figure things out" sort of dramas. On the other hand if you expect a serious horror, you might be disappointed. This is about creating tension by exposing secrets at a figurative gunpoint. Not about scary supernatural things or jump scares. In other words the horror is in the theme, not the presentation. If that's what you are after it's as interesting and surprisingly satisfying story.

In terms of technique, the film is presented as Blaire's computer screen and this allows for the kind of multiple media (Skype, YouTube, Facebook, etc) storytelling that's usually limited to alternate reality games. It enables the characters to communicate each other privately which would be impossible if they were physically in the same room. It also means that every time someone is in trouble the helplessness of the others adds to the drama. Not all is perfect though. There are some cringey parts related to the scene, like Ken's anti-Trojan program looked about as authentic as the virus uploader from Independence Day and when you consider that Laura is not really a hacker it makes zero sense to find hundreds of infected files on a damn OSX! The question "what is a troll" and the answers were equally embarrassing in this day and age. The corrupted video compression that plagued the Skype calls served little purpose. It signified nothing and it was way too random. Usually effects like this exist to telegraph some "presence", but here the corruption started way too early. Another downside is that the cinematography was even more non-existent than with the usual found footage films, because it's face-time all the time.

They used an interesting technique to bring in music which is usually absent from found footage: Blaire has a Spotify player running in the background. Unfortunately this excellent idea was way underused and when it was used it was very on-the-nose. If you've ever watched an ARG like EveryMan Hybrid, where (distorted) music is used to communicate subtext or hidden messages you know what a missed opportunity this is!

Overall it's worth a shot. If you only watch films you might even find this ground breaking. But let me assure you - there is nothing here that hasn't been thoroughly explored by various web series you can find freely. Sadly this movie is another instance of old media trying to play catch-up with new media and not quite getting it.

Cool idea, stupid execution.

[ironcraftleague · 5/10 · 25 March 2019]

This was a very cool idea to do and can be potentially scary. However, the execution is absolutely awful. There's a lot of unexplained details and plot holes weirdly enough and it bugged me. Many things were mediocre and done pretty stupid. I will give credit when it's due however, it gave unintentional laughs with being so bad at some points and the deaths were a little satisfying. However, we don't know enough about the characters to care. The details that are noticed are more than baffling. This all around had some potential and it was thrown away, this was a legitimately cool idea but it's just not utilized. 5/10.

Surprisingly better than I anticipated.

[alexanderstephencraig · 7/10 · 9 November 2018]

The only reason I watched this, is because my sister and I traded blu rays so we can each see horror films the other has that we haven't. I was very skeptical to watch this. Blumhouse lately is a hit or miss. Truthfully they find some amazing horror films, then add sequels until they're bled dry. This film, by the trailer looked, seemed similar to The Gallows which I was forced to go to with my younger brother-in-law and my wife even though I knew it would be terrible; it was by the way. The movie luckily was not like The Gallows. In fact he biggest thing that surprised me was that the writing and acting was actually good. Usually with low budget horror films they grab some teenagers that have never acted in their life. Drama seems to be the easiest catagory to act but still, the acting was believable. As for the writing, the premise is simple. However they take a simple idea of Skyping and add elements to the internet that push the story along without just showing the faces of the actors interacting. However, I would probably have more of a hard time watching his again. Films like Burried and Locke are the same premise as this film in a way and those are both incredible. This film shows more to the watchers eye, however it depends on the performance if you need that. I think with both it adds enough. One thing I hate in teen based horror movies, is lingo. Thank god this film didn't throw a bunch in which also helps age the film. All in all, it's worth watching at least once. It was entertaining. Blumhouse hit a triple with this film, and thanks to my sister I got to view it.

Original idea

[Sergiodave · 6/10 · 5 May 2020]

A 21st century horror movie. The basic plot is A group of friends on an online chatroom get gatecrashed by stranger who then questions them about a friends death. A clever cheap way of making a movie that kept my attention, but not what I'd call scary. A novel idea which might frighten younger viewers.

This is a review for the actual movie, not the trailer...

[david-CD · 6/10 · 8 April 2015]

OK, I usually don't write reviews for movies, but as of today there are only reviews for the trailer and I find this to be quite stupid...similar to judging a book by its cover or by its summary...

Anyways... I just came out of the first screening of this movie in Canada. What is my first impression? My first reaction to it? I am entertained! For those who want to watch something profound, deep, meaningful or even something you will remember...this is not the right movie for you, but if you just want to get entertained for 2 hours, get some cheap scares, some good laughs (this movie is currently my #1 in most unintentionally funny movies made) and just forget about the world, this is definitely it.

Pros: - Entertaining. For me thats the most important thing. It's nothing great, but entertaining. You will have a lot of laughs and some scares. - A rather new and interesting concept. It's not as shaky and unsharp as found footage movies but isn't a normal filmed movie either....also it embodies the whole social network very well. It's feels like you are on your computer.

Mehh: - I believe it's a movie that you either watch at the cinema or not at all. I feel like it will loose most of its (already very little) tension and effect if you watch it somewhere else. - Quite forgettable. It's nothing special. It just isn't...

Cons: - The acting is quite lousy. Sometimes it's distracting, but maybe I'm too critical. - Predictable. You know from the beginning what's going to happen... - Stupid reactions...OK...this is a horror movie, so...if everyone made everything right in horror movies, half of them wouldn't exist, but I just couldn't stop thinking why they behaved the way they did...

Overall: 6.5/10 If you get a ticket, if you can convince a group of friends to join you, if you just want a date flick or are just bored and want to be entertained, this is the perfect horror movie for you. If you expect more than that, you will get disappointed.

Skip it.

[sbackfisch · 1/10 · 10 July 2015]

Guys, here's a tip if you want to see this movie. Instead of shilling out actual money, just get 4 people you know with Skype accounts, get in a group call, and then just scream for 2 hours straight. You know have the entire plot, line of events, and premise of Unfriended. Just another painful to watch, stupid found footage horror that decided to go from a normal camera to the most boring and ugly way of showing it, Skype chat, because why would you want the camera to be enjoyable? Skip the movie, just go watch a PewDiePie video, it's the exact same amount of obnoxious screaming, but you can also watch a video game instead of focusing on the screaming idiot.

So Mark Zuckerberg is the villain???....

[AlsExGal · 6/10 · 21 September 2019]

...or maybe the villain is Sheldon Cooper gone evil...Because you couldn't do the kinds of things that the villain does in this film unless you have all kinds of coding skills and superuser privileges. But I digress.

It was actually pretty interesting to me.A lot of people complain about it not being scary or containing the essence of a horror film, and I think that's kind of the point. The cliches of horror are there to throw you off the scent - the real horror comes from these kids and the depths of violence and cruelty that they show themselves to be capable of. They experience horror in the form of a ghost haunting them as they skype and chat online, but any violence that goes on is nothing compared to what they do to each other as they're forced to reveal their own and each other's secrets.

That alone, to me, makes it worth watching seriously. And the film has a "gimmick" that demonstrates a command of realism that returns to the fundamental idea of the verite style, after so many hackneyed "found footage" films made that term meaningless. The same is true for the dialogue - it's not good, because it's realistic. The characters do dumb things because it's realistic. And anyway, the idea of characters doing dumb things is a staple of horror films and makes for good writing. Characters making smart choices does not a good horror film make.

I'd recommend it.

A New Spin on Horror w/Skype

[drazeus1 · 6/10 · 17 April 2015]

Unfriended can be described as Paranormal Activity/Saw taking place over a Skype session. The pluses and minuses of Unfriended seem to balance out. This movie did well with using current technology trends such as Facebook, Skype, and iChat to bring a sense of reality to it and speaks to this generation about the growing concern of cyberbullying. What I really liked about the film is the role karma plays in the lives of cyberbullies. With technology these kids like to wear two faces. They will be your best friend in real life but in an online society, most of them will like to bring out a deceitful dark side or tough guy mentality. With that being said, Unfriended was a great idea for a horror film, but like most horror films, its script could have used some work, the death scenes were a little cheesy, and there was a lack of common sense. The beginning will be a little boring because it takes time to get use to a whole movie taking place on a computer screen.

Mostly irritating

[begob · 4/10 · 10 October 2015]

Following the suicide of a schoolmate, six skyping teens find their regular session invaded by a malevolent troll intent on revealing their dark secrets.

Well, it had to be done. I guess the editing of this is extremely clever, and why not try it on a standard ghost story? Windows layered on windows, real time typing and clicking, octobox web cammery, buffering youtube vids, pixellating feeds. It's more pure than Open Windows, but still it doesn't work.

First problem is it's just boring to watch information typed out on screen, even when the deletes suggest the character of the typist. Second is that information jumps around so much you worry you're missing out. And the webcams are so tight on the characters that it becomes really stuffy, creating a constant desire for the relief of wide shots and physical interaction. At the same time I did miss well lit, full screen close-ups.

The director failed to take a lot of short cuts - I really don't need to see everything typed, to have characters say What? to a clear question that then gets repeated, and a few other things. I guess that's down to real-time realism, but hey - it's a ghost story.

The story is OK, similar to Smiley, but the characters do become really irritating. The main girl and her boyfriend start out sympathetic, and there is an overall decay as the secrets come out, but I wasn't really interested, and of course we had to have macho guys shouting and gurning in full "Game over, man!" melt-down. Some of it was down to the limitation of the form - how are actors expected to react in a skype scenario? - but please get some better dialogue.

Music very limited, couldn't be woven into the storytelling - so that cuts out half the usual effect of a horror. The computer squeaks and beeps didn't add anything. A couple of weak jump scares generated purely through silence/NOISE.

The one sequence I did enjoy and which really suited the form and the story was the chatroulette, so that's something to think about.

Overall, it's worth a watch if only to confirm the computer screen is not the movie screen. So far.

Unfriended's cyber haunting works because of it's story rather then scares

[RforFilm · 8/10 · 20 April 2015]

When I sat through Unfriended, I kept asking myself whether modern teenagers would really communicate this way. To those that don't know, the movie in it's entirety is portrayed through a computer desktop; as in all the characters are communicating through Skype, text messaging, social media messaging or even random chat sites. My argument was that teens would rather communicate face to face rather then link their electronic devices together. But I underestimated how much our youth loves technology and can adapt pretty fast to the new hip thing, and therefore, ready to exploit it as much as possible.

Teenagers may be the best candidates to become tomorrow's online engineers, but when a smart writer comes to Facebook, we also attract a couple of rotten viruses. I'm not talking about infections to ones software or system, but those bad apples that only want to start a fight or make someone else's life miserable by bullying them. This cyber bullying epidemic is so much of a problem that the things said about others or worse, videos posted about others, has led to mental problems and even suicides. One case of cyber bullying gets their revenge in the online set, Unfriended.

The movies setting (a computer desktop) takes places on the screen of Blaire, a high scholar who is chatting with her other friends, boyfriend Mitch, alcoholic Adam, guy friend Ken, Jess, and Val. It is the one-year anniversary of the death of a fellow high-scholar, Laura Barnes who committed suicide over an embarrassing video that showed her drunk along with the message "Kill Ur Self Laura". The set of kids continue to talk about this, siding with the rest of the internet that the actions against this poor girl were awful. Things get weird when they notice that another person has joined their conversation.

The blank screen that is the sixth person chatting never shows their face, cannot be hung up on, and sends messages demanding justice for Laura. Then Laura's old Facebook account is re activated with messages demanding that Blaire and the other kids spill their secrets. Blaire simply assumes that one of the other kids may be pulling a sick prank, but that theory is disproved when the ghost hacker starts to spill the secrets for them. None of the kids are allowed to leave their computers, as they must figure out a way to outwit the mysterious sixth caller or answer to their sins.

As I've said, I've wanted more variety in the horror genre besides constant found footage features. Though this is similar, Unfriended managed to keep me on the edge of my seat. Not because of the scares I was about to face, but for the secret that each teen had to confess to. Unfriended clearly built up their characters and their history behind the cyber bullying death in a smart way that it's never spoon-fed. The revelation behind our characters is out of order and even with the computer screen facing the audience, we have to pay close attention to know what's going on.

You know your sitting in an enjoyable movie when the teenagers watching Unfriended with you are loud during the trailer, but do not even peep a whisper during the majority of the film. The people were screaming in my theater, and though not everyone works, I did jump at a few of them. Even the reveal of the hacker was a little weak. I won't spoil it, but you'd wish it was more techno based then supernatural based. But the scares weren't the point of the movie; it's a revenge thriller first and foremost.

I'll give this eight dead online accounts out of ten. Perhaps Unfriended will make you think twice before posting an embarrassing photo of someone you know; it just may come back to haunt you!

Was expecting more....A LOT MORE

[dnathanr1111 · 6/10 · 8 July 2015]

OK i've heard so many goo things about this movie and I was so excited to see it ( i had to watch it online), and I was very surprised....but not in a good way...at all.

When it started it seemed to me like the usual "teenage horror movie" and it started getting better and different than a usual horror movie. Soon, I realized just how bad it started to get. It went downhill so fast! I expected WAY MORE from this.

To me, this movie shouldn't even have a 5.9 rating at all! I've seen WAAAAYYY better movies than this garbage! I would not recommend ANY horror movie lover to watch this. It will bore you within 30 minutes an the rest of the 50-ish minutes will put you nearly to sleep because IT WASN'T INTERESTING.

Also, for those SOLELY reviewing this based on it's message are idiots. A MOVIE ISN'T A GOOD MOVIE IF IT JUST HAS A GOOD MESSAGE. A good movie can still have a bad or good message, but so can terrible movies. Makes no difference whatsoever.

Waste of Time

[serunstopheles · 1/10 · 17 May 2021]

This movie had me in tears but for all of the wrong reasons. I was literally laughing most of the time because of how bad it was. Couldn't care less about any of the characters and was actually rooting for them to die.

I am also convinced whoever made this movie has no knowledge of the internet whatsoever.

Might be a good watch if you are looking for a bad movie to watch with your friends so you can make fun of it.

Unfriended? Unwatchable!

[The_Film_Cricket · 24 April 2015]

Oh lord . . . how long till Avengers? Unfriended is unwatchable, a product of towering dullness wrapped in a gimmick that doesn't work, packed with people you wouldn't want to spend five minutes with. It's a colossal miscalculation of character and tension built on a flimsy idea and padded out by technological glitches that don't build tension so much as get on your nerves.

I admit, the ad campaign had me sort of intrigued – I looks like a new idea – a Skype horror movie. Well, I can say I've never seen that idea played out before. Actually, it's the same dreck I've seen over and over, it's just another found footage movie broken up into six screens so that we watch six people having a video conversation, and die one by one.

I had hope, maybe because my senses within the genre have been recently (and temporarily) altered for the better. Having been dazzled by the freshness and skill of the recent It Follows, I walked into Unfriended with something resembling a hopeful heart. That earlier film, about a girl who is given a curse by her boyfriend after having sex with him in his car was a welcomed drink of water in a genre that is mostly an arid desert. Watching Unfriended is like having a mouthful of sand.

It goes something like this: Recently, a party girl named Laura went out got drunk, passed out and defecated in her pants. A fellow party goer took a video of her humiliation and posted it on the internet from which came a volley of cyber-bullying so severe that she ended up committing suicide.

The entire movie is made up of six screens that make up a six-party video chat. Our main character (I think) is Blaire (Shelley Hennig), talking with her boyfriend Mitch (Moses Jacob Storm) and four friends: Jess (Renee Olstead), Ken (Jacob wysocki), Adam (Will Peltz), and eventually Val (Courtney Halverson). Also online is a mysterious presence that goes by the name billie227. No one can identify this stranger and all attempts to rid themselves of the unwelcome visitor come to nothing.

What follows is a textbook of every single manner of irritating your audience that you can imagine. From buffering to incessant typing to screen blips and flashes. billie227 plays games with their sanity and with their honesty by posting humiliating videos of cheating, and other bits of truth telling that break down their trust in each other. Much of this movie, you should know, is made up of people screaming before they meet a horrible (not to mention ridiculous) end – one guy is seen briefly with his hand in a whirring blender.

The gimmick might not be so bad if the participants weren't all screaming, self-centered bores. None of these people are worth spending time with. None of them have any real personality and when they die you really don't miss them. Then the movie comes to a baffling, nonsensical ending, a jump-scare that pulls the rug out from other whatever ground has been gained the past 80 minutes.

Unfriended is a depressing experience made by people who don't seem to have any real idea of what movies are suppose to be about. It is a movie made by committee, from people who concoct movies by gimmicks and commercial plugs, not by any sense of entertainment or giving the audience any kind of real experience. It's a hammered together project that seems based on what's popular at the moment. This is rank cynicism of the worst kind.

If you must see a horror movie this week, go see It Follows. That movie has style and a sense of characters, and a plot we care about. Sure, it's ridiculous and silly, but you come away feeling as if you've seen something new. Unfriended is the kind of movie that just ruins the rest of your day.

Interesting, Modern Twist, but Still Disliked

[rgkarim · 6/10 · 17 April 2015]

The age of technology! It is a wonderful time where the Internet allows so much to be shared with a push of a button. The media shared can bring lots of happiness, or quickly become a portal terror just like the theme of today's movie review Unfriended. From the trailers you might expect:

1. Found footage bologna we've grown accustom too 2. A simplistic plot with more drama than actual story 3. Gruesome kills that will chill you to the bone 4. Acting that is simple

So what do you get? When it comes to found footage films, we have come to expect erratic, dizzying shots of our cast running from some unknown entity. Often we get more headaches than information, leading to frustration and lackluster films. Unfriended is told through the web camera of Blaire (Shelly Hennig), as she skypes, messages, and texts her beloved troop of friends. Being on the computer, the film was limited to mostly stationary footage of Blaire multitasking between instant messaging and video chatting. Many audience members I feel will relate and appreciate the portrayal of teenagers juggling communication with other websites, as the group participates in cheesy exchanges of humorous dialog. That is until the terror starts and the social media becomes an instrument of torture that shrewdly forces our group to confess. Now I can appreciate the ingenuity of using computers and the relevance, but this movie sometimes took this angle a little too far. One particular annoying part was watching Blaire try to phrase her messages, constantly retyping the same message and hesitating to press send. A good lesson indeed for the teenage population, but I didn't need to see this five times in the movie.

With the interesting camera angle, perhaps the story had some quality to it. Unfriended does have a unique twist, cleverly manipulating the internet to develop the characters and dish out the terror. The biggest strength of this movie is the mystery of the hacker, the suspense of who will uncover the secret keeping me interested in the tale. Unfortunately it still suffers from the predictable Slasher formula starting with the convenient timing that all of their parents aren't home, on a school night. A majority of the plot is based on uncovering their "Mean Girl" like secrets, horrible, and typical, high school antics that are old hat. It does add further depth to the characters, perhaps even adding some relatable qualities that high school students may latch on to. I however couldn't stop laughing at how stupid these kids were and the mistakes they kept compounding. I wish I could say the revelation at the end made up for some of the lackluster elements, but the ending didn't deliver the satisfaction I looked for, and quite honestly seemed like a cheap write off.

Let's get to the kills you are most likely seeking from the trailer. Unfriended manages to think outside the box in terms of spilling blood, using mundane objects as the means for death. Two deaths in particular are disturbing, the web came giving you enough of the carnage to piece things together without dropping into extreme torture territory. I will admit many of these deaths are ridiculous, overdramatic messes that made some of the audience howl with laughter. Yet I can't help but applaud their integration of the murder devices into a casual conversation, with the exception of one or two that were obvious foreshadows to their demise. I can't say much more, or I might ruin this quality, but keep your eyes peeled. Oh well, at least the deaths are fairly "justified" by the mysterious hacker's actions.

Acting wise, the cast does a good job capturing the stereotypical teenager role. They capture the emotional spectrum of their characters, from shallow minded gossip to the fear and terror of uncertain death. The dialog is definitely "realistic", but my friend and I agree that all the petty arguing and screaming got old. We did however enjoy the mannerisms of CAPS LOCK and emoticons being used in the movie to mimic the current cyber chat trends. While the acting is okay, the limited characters were not ones I could grasp onto. They all were annoying idiots, whose cruelty and selfishness were over the top, taking away any sympathy I might have felt. Perhaps a good character might have helped balance the bad, but this movie held no moral spectrum other than teenagers being teenagers. Either way the acting is fine for the characters given, and some of the characters (who aren't teens) were really cute.

Unfriended is not the best horror movie by a long shot, but it has taken an interesting tangent from the normal thriller movie. Teenager and young adults alike will find relevance in the modern technology used, but others may find this more of a comedy than a horror. This rather loud and obnoxious tale fails to deliver on a lot of other levels, and I can't really recommend this one for a theater visit. Perhaps a Redbox rental is in your future for this one, otherwise let the intended audience tell you how it is.

My scores for Unfriended are:

Horror/Thriller: 6.0 Movie Overall: 4.5-5.0

Do not unfriend

[halladrian · 7/10 · 20 April 2015]

I went to the movie based on user reviews and had a perception that it should be different. Not your typical "horror" movie but still in the genre. I left at the end of the movie feeling that while it was sort of "horror" with the jumping antics but felt more like a drama. But I can also attest that my expectations were not high for the movie based on the premise of what the movie was supposed to be about but in the end... I was impressed. The movie was able to maintain my interest the entire time. The movie is definitely different from others and seems to be the new way that movies of that genre could be going in and if so it is a good start.

Sure the movie could use some tweaks but what movie doesn't need tweaks? But for what it was the movie was one that you can enjoy. And the message in it does kind of stick as far as why everything happened the way that it did. It is rather interesting. It isn't "The Movie" to see but it is one that if you have time and a few dollars to spare, just go out and see it. It wasn't a disappointment by any means.

Total Rubbish

[charles-71224 · 1/10 · 9 May 2015]

Absolute clap trap from start to finish! Best advice to anyone over 15, don't bother I'm both infuriated that anyone dare charge for this tripe and amazed that it actually got to cinema screens to begin with. The acting is more scary movie than scream and the whole one shot perspective fails to create any atmosphere. OK so there's the underlying tale of the effects of bullying, save it for the school kids. I'm a grown up. I'd discuss further regarding storyline etc but to be fair it's so ridiculous and tiresome that giving this 'film' any further credit would be criminal.

Shocker avoid!

A Rather Smart Mystery That Says A lot About Today's Times

[Michael_Elliott · 13 August 2015]

Unfriended (2014)

*** (out of 4)

Six friends get together in a chat room on the one year anniversary of the suicide of a girl they all knew. At first the six are just having some fun but they soon realize that there's someone else online with them who is about to bring out their darkest secrets.

UNFRIENDED seems to be getting a lot of mixed reviews in regards to some people downright loving it while others finding it to be a complete mess. Logic is always a very big issue when it comes to horror films and more often than not it's best that you turn your brain off and just enjoy. While watching this film I was certainly enjoying it and I thought the mystery of what was going on was captivating but there's no question that if you start to think then you're going to find some loose ends.

With that said, I found the film's mystery to be extremely well-made and it played out quite successfully. I'm not going to spoil anything about the film since that would be unfair to new viewers but the movie uses current technologies like a chat room, instant messenger, Facebook, Skype and other things. It plays out in real time, which was another great bonus because it feels as if you're right there in this chat room. Director Levan Gabriadze and writer Nelson Greaves have really broken a wall down because there really hasn't been anything like this done before. Sure, the elements have been in other movies but never put together like this.

Another thing that works so well is that all six of the actors do a terrific job. Not for a second do you feel as if you're not watching real teenagers battle it out. Some have called the characters annoying and I'd agree with that but in this case it actually helps because these are flawed characters and their dumbness, shallowness and ugliness just helps the central mystery. Technically speaking the film is well-made and it certainly keeps you guessing as to what's going to happen next, which is the hardest thing for any horror movie to do. While I never found it to be scary, the film was still a success.

I think the film is a lot deeper than many are going to give it credit for. It's funny but I think this here really does play to generations. I'm not sure if someone in their 80's would fully get everything going on here. Not because they're not smart enough but today's times are just different and the "event" that leads to the "mystery" here is something that happens quite often on social media. This film certainly attacks current issues and does so in a believable way. UNFRIENDED is a lot smarter than most are giving it credit for.

That's it.. I'm deleting Skype.

[kieranbattams · 7/10 · 1 May 2015]

I saw the trailer for this movie a while back and i thought it looked generic and crappy, i expected a jump scare trash fest. What i got was probably the single creepiest cinema experience i have ever had. I seriously do not want to use Skype again. It had that much of an effect on me.

I usually explain the plot here but Unfriended has a plot that is hard to explain but i will try my best. A girl called Laura Barns killed herself after an embarrassing drunk video of her was released online titled "Kill urself Laura Barns!!!" On the anniversary of her death 6 friends are using Skype and an unknown person enters the call claiming to be Laura. She then threatens to kill them all one by one and the only way to stop her is to confess what they have done. It is an intense film that got under my skin to the extent that at points i had to uncomfortably look away as things happen and you expect the worst.. but the real beauty behind the film is that you never do know what will happen next and who Laura's next victim will be.

The cast are seemingly a bunch of unknown actors but they play their roles so well and it feels extremely realistic. You get to know each victim and you almost root for their survival, but you just know that it is almost impossible for them to live. I felt like i was going to be the next victim at points. Whilst the film takes place entirely on a computer screen through a Skype call and through Facebook messages the film still manages to keep the audience scared and engaged throughout. Like i said with It Follows horror is really coming back to the clever and unsettling techniques we used to get with horror classics like A Nightmare on Elm Street and The Evil Dead. Whilst not as good as It Follows as a film i do feel it was scarier. It is a film that really needs to be seen in a cinema for the full experience i think.

The only thing that let the film down for me was the ending. It was stupid and felt like a cop-out in the vein of Paranormal Activity. The whole film is unsettling with minimal jump scares but the ending did almost tarnish the experience. Other than that i enjoyed this film and found it well worth watching even if i wont get much sleep tonight. Time to delete my Skype account and never touch it again. I mean it, I really am doing that.

Ghost in the Machine

[doug_park2001 · 6/10 · 18 April 2015]

Laura Barns has some very embarrassing party videos of her posted to YouTube by certain friends (?), commits suicide, and returns to hack into her little circle's Skype/Facebook/Youtube/Google Mail/iChat accounts and play them off in deadly games against one another.

UNFRIENDED is a scarily fun film, more of the "jump scene" variety than the truly haunting, layered type, intended, it seems, mainly for the adolescent and adolescent-at-heart. I saw it in the theater and can testify that it elicited several screams of terror and loud "Eews!" of surprised disgust, mainly from the high school and college-aged kids in the audience. When it comes out on DVD and (appropriately) Instant Video, it will be a good one to watch late at night in a darkened house. Something will be lost by not seeing it on the big screen, but the Blu-ray version will definitely have its perks. There is some really gross and disturbing stuff here along with some humor, but UNFRIENDED does a nice job of separating the modes and not trying to make the scary stuff funny and vice versa.

Highs: All of UNFRIENDED takes place in the above-mentioned online forums between its teenaged characters, with virtually no view of the outside world. There's probably already a name for this technique ("cybernatural"?), but I have no idea what it is. Though confining, the whole effect is interesting; UNFRIENDED will most likely help spawn a whole new subgenre, just as the "Blair Witch" films assisted in the birth of "found footage." Some of its imitations will no doubt be quite awful; however, with a little more imagination and budget, others should well surpass UNFRIENDED. While it doesn't get preachy in this regard, there is also some nice satire on the foibles and pitfalls of social media.

Lows: It just seems that the makers of this film could have been a little more inventive in places. Though there are some good small surprises, the whole plot follows a rather predictable pattern. There are numerous blank spots and contradictions, which is almost to be expected in a film of this sort; nevertheless, a more cohesive storyline would have been easily possible with a little more work and thought. Character development is tough in a short film using this online technique, but still, the high school cast seems soooo stereotypically California teen and comes across as a bit vapid. They're all toh-tally obsessed with who slept with whom, who started that rumor about who, who scored some good weed, etc, and that, like, keeps them from being as convincing as they might be. A little more back-story and character introduction, especially in showing what led up to Laura's suicide, would have helped, but I can see why the directors and writers didn't want to get into that. All that being said, UNFRIENDED still succeeds at believably showing adolescent rivalries and love-hate relationships even when its characters are utterly flat stereotypes.

UNFRIENDED is a film that depends entirely upon the individual. Many are bound to love it just as many are bound to be quite disappointed. It's mostly one for funzies and can't be taken too seriously, a very good very bad film. If you just enjoy a nice horror ride with something of a new twist, UNFRIENDED should be worth watching. If you enjoy dissecting films for quality of plot, acting, and so forth, there will be much you will love to hate. Taking this film for what it is, lesser qualities aside and crabby old man of nearly 50 though I am, I basically enjoyed it.

Awful

[claudio_carvalho · 1/10 · 18 September 2015]

Six high-school friends are chatting through Skype when they receive a message from their former friend Laura Barns, who committed suicide after watching a footage in Internet showing her completely wasted. They believe it is a troll, but soon they learn that something supernatural is happening. Further, their dirty little secrets are exposed while they are mysteriously murdered one by one.

"Unfriended", a.k.a. "Cybernatural", is among the worst movies ever made. The idea of a group of friends in front of monitors is only to make an extremely annoying low-budget movie. The great mystery is how there are viewers that write reviews promoting this terrible flick. My vote is one.

Title (Brazil): "Desprotegido" ("Unprotected")

Very creepy, nice little surprise for me which I was not expecting.

[subxerogravity · 7/10 · 20 April 2015]

I did not know much about the movie when I went to see it, except that it was a horror film about social media.

Reminds me of paranormal activity, but instead of documenting the ghost the ghost is hidden within the web.

But the film goes by a "don't show the monster" situation, so it's always up in the air what's really going on.

All I know for sure is that 6 kids are being hunted by the Facebook page of a girl who committed suicide about two years prior on the anniversary of her death.

Social media is becoming a big insert in a lot of movies today, but this movie uses it a lot more with the whole almost 90mins of film happening all on the computer with the young cast using Facebook, Skype, Google and YouTube. Plus some new stuff that I think I'm too unhip to be down with.

Definitely have to recommend seeing this one. It's haunting and creepy, which makes it scary, and the filmmakers did a phenomenal job setting up the mood for all the fright that happens. It was an entertaining almost 90mins at the movies.

Blair Witch Project Entirely on Skype

[peter-osullivansphr · 7/10 · 20 April 2015]

It wasn't... bad, per se. It just had very limited opportunities due to its constraints in sets (there are only 4 locations in the entire movie). I imagine they made a lot of profit on this indie movie because it cost almost nothing to make.

The ending can be guessed within 10 minutes of the movie's start so that wasn't a big shocker.

The revelations of the characters in the classic horror back story reveal shame game was as tired as it always is and very few of them were that interesting.

All in all, the movie does the best with what it has and the actors are pretty decent.

I'd watch it once, but not twice.

Unfriended

[kosmasp · 5/10 · 10 January 2016]

Or "Unknown User" as it is being called in Germany. Before you come up with things like innovative and never seen before, let me refer to something called "Open Windows" (which by comparison might feel like a masterpiece and it isn't either). That's just one example there are others too (The Den to name another which is also slightly better than this).

That doesn't mean you can't have "fun" with this movie too. It's just that it feels weird to say the least. I still was curious to see where it would go, but at times it felt like watching someone type ... which it sort of is too (literally at points). Also teenager drama can be annoying, characters swing their moods more often than a pendulum and the "twist" is so mad, that it almost destroys the whole movie ... A shame for some more than interesting points the movie has.

The Internet is Possessed

[billygoat1071 · 7/10 · 3 May 2015]

At glance, Unfriended seems like an odd cinema. I mean we are watching a computer screen at the entire time. Well, found-footage is pretty cool; it uses amateur equipment in vast circumstances that may outsize its frame. But looking at someone else's computer may seem unexciting and quite silly as well, but nonetheless it can be intriguing, only if it's well pulled off, and surprisingly, it does. This is one of the rare of the genre that keeps things minimal, as in rarely pushing the limits of the aesthetics and lets the audience dive into a single screen and see how these little details on screen bring real horror within the experience. The story and the characters remain generic as a horror film, in spite of sneaking in some interesting social commentary, but the achievement of realizing this crazy idea already made it quite interesting and that is somehow enough if you'd like to see what a more believable cyber-horror film looks like.

There's always been an issue about depicting the cyber world in movies, but Unfriended tackles the easiest one that already has a well known culture to it. And so, it's no surprise when one gets easily too hooked on this style; logging into Facebook, a video chat on Skype, searching in Google, checking out videos, listening to music, etc. The internet is a new reality and the mouse cursor has represented the user's soul (well, sort of.) It gets even better when the villain behind this diabolical game is also effective. It gives a few interesting tricks, mostly when it puts the characters in dilemmas that involve exposing their scandalous past and even their true colors; summing up its theme of cyberbullying and exploring the bitter nature of social media. And instead of jump scares (which apparently still exist here at some point), the more genuine horror the visuals could offer is basically just how the system goes out of control, acknowledging the fear by just seeing computer errors and glitches.

But it still follows the same formula of the genre. We see the characters getting killed one by one, and it doesn't add up anything else. The real problem is how difficult to sympathize its characters. Sure, most teens are unlikeable fools and the movie wants to realistic in that sense. But the movie just showcase the worst of adolescence, which is totally reasonable, but it would be nicer if there is a sign of redemption for the characters. That only happens when it's already too late, but if you have an evil entity having the time of his/her life, wouldn't it be much scarier if it afflicts the people that you could actually care for? But I guess the movie just wants to present that kids in the social media (or just teenagers) are just terrible people. The acting is alright, they mostly yell each other, a little too much, but those reactions do sell the terror and humiliation they're facing, anyway.

Unfriended somewhat exceeded some expectations. It could have been some lame gimmick that picks up some mainstream culture and slap it around the found-footage horror genre, but this film understands its nature. And its criticism towards how it affects youth today is what makes it gripping. Also, the idea of just watching someone's computer screen turns out to be not a terrible one after all. And since found-footage is starting to die by just losing its credibility, this movie somewhat brings the trend a new hope. Well, only to the fact that the illusion works. There is still some tweaks that Unfriended could have considered, but by its subject and style alone are what makes it worth checking out.

Flat-Out Stupid!

[SteveJ_888 · 1/10 · 12 November 2015]

I like the Blair Witch Project. I like the Paranormal Activity movies. Unfortunately, though, those movies inspired a succession of non-talents to simply recruit a few annoying non-actors, get a cheap camera, record some BS, and call it a movie. They then find a distributor who will be complicit in attempting to scam the public.

I won't even dignify this non-movie by making any specific comments. If you watch it you will be bored and irritated by a stupid story, bad video, and group of annoying wanna-be actors whose only talent is that they can scream and carry on like imbeciles for 90 minutes.

Of course when I checked out the other user reviews for this movie I found some glowing and highly suspicious 10-star reviews. The scam wouldn't be complete without them.

If you have no talent, no imagination, and no principles, please don't make a movie!