The Horror Show
Unfriended
by Levan Gabriadze
Found footage horror has been a big trend, until now. Unfriended could potentially spawn the era of a new sub-genre: an advanced and cyber-enhanced found footage horror. This updated version introduces a bright new style of online terror aiming to capture the audience’s attention through the use of the web, and it’s a concept based entirely on the internet and social media.
Director Levan Gabriadze did a ground-breaking thing with Unfriended, as he managed to create an entire horror movie by showing nothing but the protagonist’s laptop screen, one video call, and a few online messages. It’s an overstatement to say that it was completely successful, but his risky experiment led to a rather interesting and refreshing outcome. Why’s that? Because the whole story is unravelled through Youtube videos, Skype calls, and Facebook messages. And it goes as follows…
It’s been a year since Laura Barns (Heather Sossaman), an attractive high school girl from California, committed suicide after an embarrassing video of her was posted online and ruined her life. Her closest friend and lead actress Blaire (Shelley Hennig) is still trying to recover from the tragic event and we see her on the anniversary of her best friend’s death spending a casual night at home chatting online with her boyfriend Mitch (Moses Storm) and joining video calls with her friends.
An annoying Skype glitch turns into a vicious presence from beyond, as a supernatural force stirs up waves of panic and gore when it joins their group call. The group is terrorized by an entity – a violent and vengeance seeking cyberbully - that claims to be their deceased friend Laura, and forces them to play a game in order to get the truth out of them and expose everyone’s dark secrets. At first, the malicious apparition makes its presence known by chatting with the group and hacking their accounts, but eventually its murderous intentions will cause mayhem and culminate in violent killings. Entertaining? Yes, but certainly – and unfortunately – the least possible.
Since we’re dealing with a new type of horror here, it’s unlikely to be bombarded with bland clichés and generic tropes, however, it’s going to take more than a group of friends being bullied by a tormented dark soul to win the crowd over.
Unfriended comes from a new generation of film-makers who have the web in their bloodstream, and online interaction is a natural part of life. In the end, is it an interesting approach? Yes. Is it a scary choice? No.
Maria Kriva, HMS
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