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Critics Consensus: Unfriended subverts found-footage horror clichés to deliver a surprisingly scary entry in the teen slasher genre with a technological twist.
Critic Consensus: Unfriended subverts found-footage horror clichés to deliver a surprisingly scary entry in the teen slasher genre with a technological twist.
All Critics (169) | Top Critics (35) | Fresh (106) | Rotten (63) | DVD (1)
It's a premise that seems ridiculous until you start to realize it might actually be brilliant, or at least charmingly clever.
I'll admit the film held my attention but I left the theater unsatisfied, which I think will be a common reaction among those not within the demographic niche for which the production was mounted.
You feel some mild critique of lives lived through web applications. What you don't feel is sustained visceral fright.
You might find yourself rooting for the murderer.
If you can give yourself over to the idea of Unfriended,you'll find it's surprisingly engrossing and really quite clever.
Perhaps director Gabriadze and writer Nelson Greaves intended to create a Social Media "Scream" and a commentary on cyber-bullying, but "Unfriended" comes across as disdainful of millennials.
It worked as a way to teach teens to be more compassionate when it comes to cyber bullying, and it effectively demonstrated that whatever you put on the internet is there forever.
The metatextual implications of the film serve to make the whole experience deeply unsettling in a way that ghostly jump scares never could.
With some decent performances and genuine scares, Unfriended is a clever, fun horror film that you will only need to see once.
....It's also hard to re-create the same type of tension as other horror films; much like a badly shot found footage film; we don't see enough to truly horrify us.
The centrality of the laptop screen in Unfriended has been identified by some critics as a new or experimental take on found footage horror, but this is not the first film to use this idea.
Unfriended successfully sets up a more modern format for horror and the socially conscious but doesn't stray to far from the warm embrace of tired jump-scares and screaming.
Okay, ending was a bit silly, but considering this story takes place entirely on one girl's computer screen, I found this an original and interesting idea. It had me quite tense in a few places, so overall I would say it it works.
Super Reviewer
An exhausted and cliched version of the modern day dangers of the web.
More efficient than other recent "computer windows" horror flicks like The Den and Open Windows, it knows how to build tension and is clever to show what the protagonist is thinking through the way she writes (and sometimes erases before sending) messages on her computer screen.
You'd think that after every failed found-footage type film, studios would learn that the genre is down in the dumps by now. Boy do I love thinking that when walking into a movie and then being totally surprised. "Unfriended" Focusses mostly on the character of Blaire as she group skype calls her boyfriend along with a few of their friends. After losing one of their friends through suicide, a mysterious caller pops up in their group chat session. Wreaking havoc on their lives, it seems to be the ghost of Laura Barns (their deceased friend) or a computer hacker messing with their heads. Forcing the lies out of them until death begins to ensue, "Unfriended" is a tense thriller than really has never been done before in feature film length. This film worked for so many reasons, and I even felt a smile beginning to come on during this film, because movies like this usually turn me off. Well-executed, well-planned, and strategically directed and written, this film was a lot of fun to watch. Sure the acting is not great, and a few of the climactic moments felt chuckle-worthy, but all-in-all it is a very solid film for what it is. Definitely recommended to horror fans, thriller fans, and people who are just looking for a fun little original film to kill your time. There is nothing great about a film like this, but it had me on the edge of my seat, and for that it get's major props. "Unfriended" is a great attempt at something new.
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