In the current climate Skype, Zoom, Facetime and other video call applications are being used more than ever. I myself am having daily Zoom calls for work and also video calling friends and family miles more than I usually would. So, with that in mind I thought what better film to watch than 'Unfriended' (2014), a horror film that takes place almost exclusively through Skype. This film had mixed reviews on its release, but there was a few critics who I tend to agree with (namely Mark Kermode) who had positive reviews of the film. Unfortunately, as with Hush (2016), I am going to have wholeheartedly disagree on this one. The film follows a group of young friends as they chat to eachother on Skype. They are joined in the chat by a mystery person who they dismiss as a glitch, but who they soon realise is using the account of their classmate, Laura (Heather Sossaman), who had recently commited suicide. The mystery person soon starts toying with the group, attempting to make them spill their deepest secrets to each other and making them kill themselves if they do not play along with the game. This soon has the friends turning on each other and showing their darker sides while also attempting to survive the game they have been forced into.
The first to mention about this film is the films gimmick, in that it all takes place on one of the group's computer screens. In this case it is Blaire (Shelley Hennig) who's screen we are watching. I do not hate this gimmick. It is an interesting way of telling a story in the digital age and this film does well in utilizing the concept, mostly with its editing. The film uses buffering and frozen screens, problems that are prevalent in video messaging, as a way to disguise the cuts that are occurring and make the film feel like it is all happening in real time. This is about as far as the smarts of the film go, its all down hill from here. At the end of the day, this film is just your average group of teens get killed in gruesome ways by an unknown, evil force with a gimmick thrown over the top. Yes, it is a new and interesting way to tell a story, but you need an interesting story to be playing out alongside the gimmick instead of just relying on the gimmick to carry you through. A good example of this is in 'Searching' (2018), a film that uses the exact same gimmick as this one but has an engaging story behind it which you can invest in (I also wrote a whole review on this film if you fancy giving that a read). It would also be a nice idea to, oh I don't know, make your horror film scary. This film fails pretty miserably in that department. I think this came mostly from the fact I did not like any of these characters and so I was more than happy to see them getting terrorised. Also, the ghost had a great sense of humour. There are a few times in the film where the ghost makes pop ups appear or songs start on the screen and it is genuinely quite comedic, which I feel was definitely not the intentions of the filmmakers.
In terms of acting I suppose everyone does a pretty decent job. At the beginning of the film it does feel like they are genuinely on a Skype call and not just acting like they are on one which is to be commended. However, as the film progresses and the horror moments start to come more quickly the acting becomes much more typical horror film fare with the screaming and the sobbing and the shouting. It isn't bad acting but it is just very typical of these type of low budget horror film. There are a couple of performances that are better than others. I think Shelley Hennig and Moses Storm, who plays Blaire's boyfriend, Mitch, are probably the pick of the bunch. They have decent chemistry and do well when it comes to the moments where they need to be emotive they do this well. They are also the only two characters who I had any kind of care for, and even then it was very minimal. I found the rest of the characters to be really annoying and pretty mean for the most part. If this was the intention then bravo to the actors, but I feel like they were meant to be likeable characters who you feel empathy for. I blame the script more than the actors in this situation, but that doesn't mean that the performances didn't grate on me at times.
'Unfriended' is a film that holds itself up on its gimmick and offers very little after this. I can kind of understand some of the praise that this film got from a technical point of view. The editing hides behind the gimmick quite well and this allows the film to feel like it there are no edits at all. The acting is also fine if not amazing, even if the characters that are being portrayed are infuriating at times. However, this is a horror film and it is just plain not scary. In fact it is mostly just dull and I found myself checking the running time on more than one occasion. There is another aspect of the film I am also yet to mention and that is the ending. My god the ending. It is so bad that it somehow becomes the most memorable aspect of the film. I won't spoil it but it genuinely made me role my eyes and sigh. Off the top of my head I can think of at least two endings that would have worked so much better than the one they went for so it baffles my brain why they chose this one. I would not recommend this film at all. If you think the concept sounds like an interesting one then watch 'Searching'. It is levels above this pile of crap. However, this film was probably seen as a critical success and was definitely a commercial one, so much so that it got itself a sequel, 'Unfriended: Dark Web' (2018). And, seeing as I am a masochist, you can probably expect to see a review of that film very soon. Maybe even tomorrow...