#Unfriended had a Wondercon Panel, followed by a screening of the film. Unfriend is a horror film telling the story of Laura Barns, driven to suicide after being victimized by cyber bullying. A year after Barns' death, spooky facebook and skype messages start appearing to a group of her frienemies. The selling point of the film is the fact that it is depicted entirely through a computer screen. Everything in the movie is seen through Youtube videos, Skype chats, Facebook messages, Google searches, and webcams. It is certainly unconventional, however, it is easy to see how this might quickly become standard for horror films set in the age of social media. Filmed in 16 days with a cast of unknowns, this film has a chance to be the indie horror darling of 2015.
As far as the panel goes, one of the more interesting things discussed was the fact that the cast had very little interaction with eachother throughout filming. Each of the cast members was sequestered in individual rooms, where they communicated and acted through the Skype-like interface the audience sees in the film . According to the cast, the filmmakers often heightened the element of suspense by creating action that was not in the script, like cutting the lights without warning or keeping deaths secret until immediately before filming.
Unfriended had the opportunity to skewer horror tropes while conveying a powerful anti-bullying message. However, it relied far too much on those very tropes to have its own voice. The begins with a Youtube video of high school senior Laura Barns' drunken exploits, with a caption urging her to kill herself. Protagonist Blaire (Shelley Henning), is watching the video of Barns' suicide on the anniversary of her death. Things start to get predictably creepy shortly after, as Blaire gets a skype message from the deceased Laura Barns, while on a group Skype chat with her friends (each a horror archetype!) and a mysterious Skyper.
All of the characters are unlikeable, the ultimate goal of Laura Barns. As she slowly reveals the ensemble's deepest, darkest secrets, they are forced to turn on eachother. This could have been an opportunity to address the issue of mortality and morality: what would we do if we had to choose our lives over our friends? Does confessing our sins absolve us of responsibility? However, the quickly devolves into jumpscares and predictable "plot twists", leading the audience to apathy, as we don't care which of the friends dies first. While there is one gruesome death, most of the carnage occurs off-(web)camera. Some of the shots use the medium of a computer screen to a suspenseful advantage, but it is easy to see how the filmmakers could have embraced the medium to create an even stronger sense of dread. Another issue in the film is the acting. Though the script doesn't allow for much depth, there are some cringeworthy acting momemnts, particularly with the leads, who aim for over-the-top. A strong point in the film was the humor, which could have been employed with greater measure since some of the acting borders on unintenionally humorous.
While the brilliant Cabin in the Woods used horror tropes to lampshade the genre and provoke questions about the role of entertainment in society, Unfriended merely used horror tropes to mask two dimensional characters and failed to take a strong enough stance against bullying. Ultimately the film was pretty entertaining and kept me satisfied the entirety of its 82 minute run time, however, it wasn't extremely scary, nor did it capitalize on its intriguing premise. It had a chance to become a cult classic and ended up as your average teen bloodbath. Unfriended is worth checking out at a matinee for the premise alone.
I would give it a C.
Unfriended is in theatres 04/17. Watch the trailer here:
Source: myself, I own a bike.
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