Unfriended - Film Review
Cyber-bullying is one of the most unfortunate downfalls of the technological revolution, when something is posted online, it's there forever - something that all of the characters in the film Unfriended know too well.
Directed by newcomer Levan Gabriadze, Unfriended follows the story of a bunch of friends who are Skyping together, but are soon joined by an anonymous Skype account. At first they think this person is a hacker or an 'internet troll', but soon realise that it's something more sinister, and something not of this world.
Unfriended is nothing but innovative, implementing the entire narrative structure as somebody on their computer, chatting to friends and browsing social media platforms. This is interesting, and original, as well as utterly relatable. You soon wonder how a bunch of friends video-chatting can become scary, but it does. Each of them have dirty secrets that are soon revealed, and we learn a lot about each character and also a little bit about ourselves, as the online generation.
There are only so many jump-scares you can handle until they become tedious and just frustrating, and you couldn't count the amount of them in this film. Unfriended starts on a good pace, with a premise that seems orignal and fleeting, yet, this originality soon turns gimmicky, and wears thin, very quickly.
Nevertheless, there is something here to learn as an audience, and as people. Possibly, this is a new-wave of horror films in the same realm as The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity, but will found-footage horror films soon wear thin? Only time will tell.
All-in-all, Unfriended is a film that you don't need to see. Although it's innovative and somewhat original, this uniqueness is shadowed by the bland narrative and slow progression - as well as a gimmick that wears itself as the film goes on.