In this day and age of super hyped up CGI and 3D technology, you would think that you have seen every horror movie gimmick screenwriters and producers could come up with.
There is the classic outbreak in films such as 28 Days Later and Contagion; genetically altered animals in Lake Placid and Deep Blue Sea; the watch-and-die trick made popular by The Ring; and the upping of shock value in Saw and Human Centipede.
Just when you thought you had seen everything, along comes the film Unfriended.
Unfriended, opening on April 17, is the newest in the long line of supernatural teen horror flicks first made popular during the 1990s and early 2000s. It is the brainchild of writer Nelson Greaves, directed by Levan Gabriadze, and produced by Jason Blum, Timur Bekmambetov, and Greaves.
The movie follows the story of a teenager named Blaire, played by Shelley Hennig, and how she deals with the challenges of being, well, a teenager.
She stumbles upon a video on the Internet showing her classmate Laura Barns (Heather Sossaman) killing herself. Laura, apparently, was suffering from bullying by other teenagers because of a compromising video taken of her the previous year.
The story then progresses when Blaire's friends Jess (Renee Olstead), Adam, (Will Peltz), Ken (Jacob Wysocki), and Blaire's boyfriend, Mitch (Moses Jacob Storm), find out about the shocking video recording. The group tries to talk things over through the Internet, but their chat is suddenly interrupted by an uninvited guest: Laura.
Laura then decides to punish the teenagers by harassing them whenever they go online, for allegedly spreading lies about her.
Unfriended follows the "found footage" format where the shots were taken with unsuspecting characters, similar to The Blair Witch Project and Cloverfield, but instead of using a camcorder, the footages used were from compiled video chats between the characters and a smartphone-captured clip of Laura shooting herself in the head.
It is hard to say if Unfriended would eventually catch on as a cult classic among moviegoers the way The Blair Witch Project did, but it does offer some semblance of entertainment value. Some people could even argue that the story tackles a recurrent social issue among teenagers—cyberbullying—though that would be too far a stretch for this film.
The concept of using video streaming and footage captured through mobile devices is intriguing as it explores other avenues for shooting films without racking up costs. The technique also speaks to this generation obsessed with the selfie.
One could only hope that filmmakers would build upon this idea.
Final verdict: If you are looking for a well-developed story with deep characters, then no, this movie is just not for you. While the actors tried their best to convey shock and horror on a limited platform, the format does make viewers feel like they are simply taking part in another boring Skype call between teenagers.
Be sure to follow T-Lounge on Twitter and visit our Facebook page.
