Halloween 2021 Review #7 – ‘Unfriended’
Unfriended is a 2014 found-footage horror directed by Leo Gabriadze. It stars Shelley Hennig, Moses Storm, Renee Olstead, Will Peltz, Jacob Wysocki, and Courtney Halverson. Furthermore, it’s different to the previous movies I’ve watched.
In the spirit of transparency, Unfriended is a last-minute decision. Originally, I was going to watch Host, a movie I’ve already seen. However, after searching for an extended version I couldn’t find it. But I still wanted to watch something similar.
Luckily, Unfriended’s something I’ve been meaning to watch for some time.
It focuses on a group of friends meeting up on Skype. While the premise isn’t scary, it’s what happens next that is. Straight away, the film sets up the ‘antagonist’ through a series of videos. My first issue comes with one of the videos.
We see something horrible happen to a character. At first glance, it seems strange for everyone to do nothing to help. They’re filming the event and shouting at the person, but not helping.
Yet, thinking about it, the scene almost seems like it’s holding a mirror up to society.
It’s showing what we’ve become. People are too busy filming than being in the now. Because of that, a slew of bad things happen. Of course, stopping it means no movie.
Unfriended takes its time to start the scares. It focuses on building its characters first and foremost. To me, this is the most important aspect of horror. Sure people come for the scares but without an attachment to the characters, it’s difficult to feel bad for them.
This is the best and worst thing about the movie. The characters are real. By that, I mean they’re problematic. But, by the end, you’re left questioning if you actually care about any of them dying.
If anything, you might find yourself rooting for the spirit of Laura Barns.
Unfriended shines in the script department. The slow suspenseful burn leaves you at the edge of your seat. My idea was to live-tweet the movie. However, that quickly changed. As soon as Laura Barns’ name appears, everything changes.
And in a good way.
From there, audiences are invited to realise nothing is what it seems. Moreover, nobody, and I mean nobody, can be trusted.
If you’re looking for genuine scares, Unfriended is the movie for you. It clocks in at 83 minutes so in comparison to most movies nowadays Unfriended isn’t a huge investment of time.
