Yesterday I sat down and watched 'Unfriended' (2014), a dull and vapid horror film that inexplicably got good reviews due to it being 'gimmicky'. After forcing myself through that piece of shit I felt that the best thing for me to watch next would be i'ts sequel, 'Unfriended: Dark Web: (2018). You know, because I hate myself. And after watching this film I still hate myself, although I do hate myself a little bit less. As with the last film this film takes place entirely on a computer scree. This time we are following Matias (Colin Woodell), who is attempting to make and app that would make it easier for him to communicate with his girlfriend who is deaf. After getting frustrated with how slow his pc is, he takes a laptop from the lost and found at his work. He soon finds a hidden cache on the laptop that has dark and criminal videos hidden with in it. Matias' curiosity gets the better of him and he goes digging through the cache and soon opens himself and his friends up to hackers who will stop at nothing to get the laptop back.
The gimmick is back ladies and gentleman, and as with the first one it is done pretty well. It all feels quite realistic and it is an interesting concept to see in practice. The editing in this film is also much better than in the first. The first one used buffering and screen glitches to hide its cuts, but this film doesn't. This film has clear cameras the entire time, and yet I did not notice any cuts and I have to take my hat off to the filmmakers for that. The problem with the first film is that, underneath the gimmick, it was your run of the mill, crappy, teenage horror film. This film has a narrative concept that is far more interesting and far more engaging. In a film that plays out entirely on a computer screen, having hackers as your antagonist is much more interesting than having a supernatural villain like the first one did. It is much more believable and, seeing as it is the villain is a real person, it is scarier. Well, I say scarier. It was 'scarier' than the first film in the loosest of terms, but it still wasn't scary. In the first film I put this down to the characters being unbearable and so I had no empathy to their plight. This film doesn't have that problem. The characters are likeable and I did empathise with them. So what is it then? The only thing I can put my finger on is the concept taking away the horror elements. When all you have is 5 static cameras you have very little to work with in terms of cinematography or techniques to create tension and fear, and you mostly rely on jump scares. Another problem is that the film, despite being more interesting than the first, is still rather boring and has moments of pure comedy which were definitely not meant to be funny. I was almost crying laughing at one scene.
The acting in this film is also much better and I think this is helped by the fact that I actually liked these characters. The characters in the first film were all detestable and were seemingly all out for themselves despite being friends. In this film that friendship feels real and they all seem like genuine, nice people, and the actors portray them as such. There isn't a single stand out performance really, but there is also not a bad one. The chemistry between the actors is great, when they need to show fear or anger or sadness they all do a great job in doing so, and they are able to make the characters feel relatable. This allows for a much more engaging experience as you don't want these people to die, where as in the first one I couldn't wait for them all to bite it. Unfortunately, however, they are still hindered by the gimmick. In a way this does mean that their performances are more impressive as they are able to hit all the emotional beats and make you believe in what they are saying and doing all from one camera perspective. On the other it limits their ability to show off range. But on the whole this film is well performed.
I realised while writing this review that I am praising the film quite a lot and with good reason. The narrative concept is much more interesting than the first film, the acting is much better and the gimmick is pulled off well once again. But I still didn't like it, mostly because I found it boring. Like I said in my review yesterday, if you are going to make a film using this gimmick you need a really, really engaging narrative and this film does fall short. Itb has its moments, but it mostly relies on it's gimmick all over again and the gimmick on its own is dull. I don't know if I'd even recommend it to people who liked the first one because the narrative concept is different. However, if you did like the first one I suppose there is no harm in giving this a watch. But yet again, if you really like the gimmick in this film, watch 'Searching' (2018), a film that nails the concept.