I’m going to be totally honest here, the primary reason I went to the press screening of Unfriended was because I thought it was going to be hilariously bad. I remember a few months ago when I first saw this trailer in a movie theatre: my friend and I turned to each other and smiled, and I said “This is going to be amazing!” You know, in the same way that the movies on Mystery Science Theater 3000 are amazing. As it turns out, Unfriended is a ton of fun, and not even because it’s horrible.
The main character of the movie is a high school girl named Blaire. She, along with her boyfriend Mitch and her friends Jess, Adam, and Ken, are having a fun night hanging out at their respective homes and talking to each other via Skype and Facebook. There fun is only slightly disturbed by the fact that it is the one-year anniversary of the death of their classmate, Laura Barns. After being viciously cyber-bullied, including having a very embarrassing video of herself posted to YouTube, Laura publicly committed suicide by shooting herself in the face (which, of course, was also filmed and uploaded to the internet). Blaire and her friends eventually realize that they have an anonymous and uninvited guest to their digital hangout session. After fruitlessly trying every possible method to get rid of the intruder, Blaire realizes that the interloper is using Laura’s account. One of the kids jokingly says that it must be Laura, which they quickly laugh off. As you can tell by the trailer though, things begin to go downhill fast.
The main character of the movie is a high school girl named Blaire. She, along with her boyfriend Mitch and her friends Jess, Adam, and Ken, are having a fun night hanging out at their respective homes and talking to each other via Skype and Facebook. There fun is only slightly disturbed by the fact that it is the one-year anniversary of the death of their classmate, Laura Barns. After being viciously cyber-bullied, including having a very embarrassing video of herself posted to YouTube, Laura publicly committed suicide by shooting herself in the face (which, of course, was also filmed and uploaded to the internet). Blaire and her friends eventually realize that they have an anonymous and uninvited guest to their digital hangout session. After fruitlessly trying every possible method to get rid of the intruder, Blaire realizes that the interloper is using Laura’s account. One of the kids jokingly says that it must be Laura, which they quickly laugh off. As you can tell by the trailer though, things begin to go downhill fast.
As everyone probably already knows, Unfriended is shown entirely through one character’s (Blaire’s) laptop screen, making it seem like it was made using those screen capture programs that people on YouTube use to make Let’s Play videos. It is certainly a gimmick (although apparently it has been done before), but the gimmick actually works. The filmmakers actually took the time to put in the little details like the characters’ bookmark tabs (Forever 21 for the girly girl, for example) and browsing history (mostly cat videos and porn sites). Plus, they actually use the online gimmick in a couple of clever ways, like using the time the computers take to buffer videos and download files to build up suspense, and after the shit hits the fan one of the characters thinks up a pretty clever plan to save herself using, of all things, Chatroulette.
Here’s the thing about Unfriended: I was not once scared while watching it because it is not a very good horror movie. The plot is extremely predictable, the characters fit every horror-movie trope to a T, and all the movie’s frights are cheap jump scares. If you go in expecting a scary movie, you’re going to be disappointed.
But on the other hand, this movie is a great comedy, and not even just in a so bad its good manner like I was expecting. Unfriended makes the crucial decision to not take itself too seriously; if it had it would have been a train wreck. The horror moments are frequently hilariously cheesy and over-the-top, and the movie actually has a lot of great dark comedy moments; I don’t want to spoil anything, but there’s a couple of great jokes the movie makes by using Blaire’s Spotify playlist. I found myself actually laughing with the movie and not at it. The audience was also really into it, and they were clearly having a great time.
And that’s what Unfriended comes down to for me: it was a lot of fun. It is a very self-aware horror/comedy flick which doesn’t take itself too seriously and knows how to have fun. As long as you go into it with this mind, preferably with a bunch of friends to enjoy it with you, you’ll have a lot of fun.
Grade: B
Here’s the thing about Unfriended: I was not once scared while watching it because it is not a very good horror movie. The plot is extremely predictable, the characters fit every horror-movie trope to a T, and all the movie’s frights are cheap jump scares. If you go in expecting a scary movie, you’re going to be disappointed.
But on the other hand, this movie is a great comedy, and not even just in a so bad its good manner like I was expecting. Unfriended makes the crucial decision to not take itself too seriously; if it had it would have been a train wreck. The horror moments are frequently hilariously cheesy and over-the-top, and the movie actually has a lot of great dark comedy moments; I don’t want to spoil anything, but there’s a couple of great jokes the movie makes by using Blaire’s Spotify playlist. I found myself actually laughing with the movie and not at it. The audience was also really into it, and they were clearly having a great time.
And that’s what Unfriended comes down to for me: it was a lot of fun. It is a very self-aware horror/comedy flick which doesn’t take itself too seriously and knows how to have fun. As long as you go into it with this mind, preferably with a bunch of friends to enjoy it with you, you’ll have a lot of fun.
Grade: B
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