Unfriended (2014) is a Blumhouse film that brings suspense and terror to a group of teens entirely on computer screens! Producer, Timur Bekmambetov, has developed the technology called Screenlife from his Bazelevs studio. Such films include Hardcore Henry (2015), an action movie filmed on GoPro cameras, and Profile (2018), a thriller directed by Bekmambetov. Unfriended led to a sequel, Unfriended: Dark Web (2018) with a new group of teens. Searching (2018) directed by Aneesh Chaganty realized the potential of telling a story through computer screens and smartphones. These movies really show what may the future of filming that made separating actors. The film is directed by Levan Gariadze, he previously the Russian comedy, Lucky Trouble (2011), but this is his first studio feature movie. It is written by Nelson Greaves, also his debut as a writer, he would later work on the supernatural series, Sleepy Hollow. The title works with the theme of the film and superior to the earlier Offline and Cybernatural.
The logo of Universal Studios gets distorted or corrupted and then the screen goes dark. Next we get a computer screen of a website, Live Leak, that warns about Laura Barns suicide. There are a pile of photo to the side of Blaire Lilly’s computer. We also get the clever time at the top, Monday, 8:57 p.m. The mouse on the screen clicks continue and we get Laura’s suicide on April 12, 2013 at her school in Fresno, California. There are shouts for Laura Barns (Heather Sossaman) as we see her on a field. Sossaman was in the comedy, Remembering Phil (2008). The screen is blurry and then scales up on Laura. There are muffled pleas for her, and then she shoots herself in the chest to screams! The bullying and consequences are important in the film. We also get the overload and addiction of social media. The video is paused and then the mouse clicks over to the video that led to her death. At a party outside a house, Laura is drunk, it is interrupted by a video call from Mitch Rousell.
The icon of the call is switched over past Laura’s video and we get the voice of Blaire (Shelley Hennig). She was in the Teen Wolf series and also was in another horror movie, Ouija (2014). We hear the voice of Moses Storm and see his profile picture in a muscle pose. He is currently in the horror film, Bad Hair (2020). While talking Blaire clicks over to her Spotify list playing “Lost Cities” by the Banshees. An interesting way to bring in a soundtrack. Blaire whispers she wants to show Mitch something. He rushes off to the bathroom and we see Blaire’s toes on the video call screen in the corner. She playfully switches to her “demon voice.” Mitch (Moses Storm) shows his current video shirtless. There is sometimes distortion in the chat windows. He is not interested in looking at her toes and Blaire moves the camera to her legs.
Mitch asks Blaire to take off her shirt, we get an extreme close-up of her face, and he takes out a knife. She smiles at his joke and begins unbuttoning. Blaire laughs it off and nervously tells him that it will happen on prom night. They are interrupted by their friends, Jess Felton (Renee Olstead), Adam Swell (Will Peltz), and Ken Smith (Jacob Wysocki), and rush off to get dressed. Olstead was in the drama show, The Secret Life of the American Teenager, and she was in the horror movie, The Midnight Game (2013). Peltz was in the thriller Paranoia (2013) and is now in the thriller InstaPsycho (2020). Justin in the comedy, Pitch Perfect (2012), was played by Wysocki and he was also in the series, Artista Obscura (2019). They all make fun of Blaire and Mitch, then they return, there is a faceless icon on the screen. Adam tried to hang up on the unknown person. They agree to hang up and re-dial. Blaire plays “Lost Cities” while chatting with Mitch. They wonder how the unknown caller got into their chat. Mitch types, “Ghost?”
Blaire types, it is interesting to hear her typing, and the change of text in the chat. She gets no response and then tries to video call him, but it hangs up. 9:06 p.m. Silence and then the ring tone which is startling! It is a group chat again, Ken suspects that it is a hacker, so they all hang up again. Then she gets a message from Laura. Blaire goes to delete her video history and I noticed there are episodes of Teen Wolf on the screen. She asks “who is doing this?” and then she gets a video call of Adam and then brings in her other friends. Mitch notes in messages that is the anniversary of Laura’s death. Then, he sends her link to unexplained forums. Blaire clicks it and the headline is “DO NOT ANSWER MESSAGES FROM THE DEAD….” Next, we get the addition of Val Rommel (Courtney Halverson). She was in the comedy horror series, Death Valley, and starred in the horror movie, St. Agatha (2018). There is tension in the group and they are joined by billie227, the Skype account of Laura Barns, there is laptops in hell? The computer screen and activity are engaging, not confusing, and it slowly reveals harsh truths in a Truth or Dare game by Billie227 that turns all the friends against each other. It leads to some grisly deaths. Unfriended brings up the supernatural, but in the context of bullying, social media addiction, and data privacy.
Four Chat Windows out of Five!
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