Unfriended (2015) Review

"Who would hack into a dead girl's account?"

-Jess Felton

On an average school night, Blaire Lily (Shelley Hennig), her boyfriend, Mitch Roussel (Moses Jacob Storm), and a group of their friends are all having a video call on Skype, but they notice there is an anonymous person in the chat with them and they can't get rid of them.  The person, who is calling themself billie227, reveals that each of them has dark secrets, most of which involve a student named Laura Barns (Heather Sossaman), who committed suicide exactly one year prior after being harassed about an extremely embarrassing video of her posted online.  Now it seems that someone has hacked into Laura's account to extract revenge, or could it be Laura herself, back from to dead to get her vengeance?

What Works:

I gotta say, I thought this movie looked extremely stupid and I had no desire to see it.  In the years since its release, I've actually heard some positive things about Unfriended, so I finally decided to give it a watch and I was pleasantly surprised.  I actually enjoyed this film.  Yes, the premise is still stupid, but Unfriended really leans into it and has a pretty solid execution.

The biggest compliment I can give the film is that it feels very real.  The way the characters use the Internet, switching back and forth between programs, getting distracted and not getting back to your messages, and typing a message before deleting it and sending something else.  This was all very familiar territory for me and I found it surprisingly engaging.

I also have to give major props to the cast.  The acting is probably the most impressive aspect of the film and helps with the realistic feel.  The characters are all obnoxious high-schoolers who do nasty things to one another.  They're all pretty fake and two-faced and simply are not good people.  So pretty much your average high-schoolers.  So, while they were not likable characters, they were realistic.  And they weren't irritating, so while I was still 100% rooting for the killer, it wasn't because they were annoying to watch, and that's pretty much all I need from a slasher movie.  But these actors really went above and beyond and I was truly impressed with all of their performances.

I also liked the themes of the movie and how it handles cyber-bullying.  It may not be subtle in the slightest, but it didn't need to be.  It had a message and a point and delivered it just about as well as it could have.  That's far more than most slasher movies do, so again, I will give props where they are due.

What Sucks:

Again, the premise is fairly stupid and it does lead to a few potholes.  I'm still not entirely sure why the kids stayed online as long as they did.  I guess it could be a commentary on Internet addiction, but all I know is; I would have been long gone well before things got that insane.  But, I can mostly ignore this for the sake of the story they were trying to tell.

I really didn't care for the Chatroulette sequence.  That was one Internet fad I never took part in, so it did nothing for me.  It was kind of unintentionally funny, but it was easily the weakest segment of the film.

Finally, I don't love the ending.  I think we could have done something better than a jump-scare for our last shot.  99% of the time I am against having a last second jump-scare.  I find them very cheap and it causes my final thought of the film to be annoyance.  They could have easily had a much more intelligent, poignant ending that would have been far more satisfying.

Verdict:

I thought I was going to hate Unfriended and had very low expectations going in, but it was actually a fun movie.  The acting and the style gives this movie a very realistic tone, which was shocking to me.  Plus, I liked how they handled their themes.  There are some plot-holes, one uninteresting sequence, and a weak ending, but I gotta say, for the most part, Unfriended has got it going on.

 7/10: Good