UNFRIENDED (2014)

Surely my online interactions won't bite me in my ass in a literal sense. Right?

"Drifted apart? Is that how you remember it?"

Yeah, yeah, it's been forever. Read up anyway! 😆

The overall idea driving this film is somewhat simple and boils down to "Slasher-flick but over Skype" which is one of those notions that could certainly go either way. As with pretty much everything else, it all comes down to the execution, doesn't it? 

'UNFRIENDED' is a film that garnered some bad reviews and mentioning it in places like r/horror can still drum up a contingent of naysayers. I agree with some of the criticism, but a lot of it seems like reflexive disdain for "these kids today and their bliggetty-blogs and their facey-spaces and their tweety-pages" (my apologies to Denis Leary) rather than any genuine observation and analysis of the film on its own merits. So, let's get the bad out of the way, and then we'll talk about the good. 

When it comes to slasher-flicks, it's generally accepted that one thing an entertaining one needs is some form of inventiveness when it comes to the kills. Sadly, the ones we get here fall pretty damn flat for the most part and aren't particularly disturbing when it comes to their presentation. As such, the lack of truly novel character-deaths is a knock against it, although not a huge one.

But the film's most egregious misstep is a lack of emotional investment in the characters. 'UNFRIENDED' definitely suffers in this regard, as you don't really get to know much about the characters, and a lot of what we're shown isn't particularly flattering. The protagonist, Blaire (ably portrayed by Shelley Henning), is something of a typical teen cypher at the start but that falls away as the film unfolds. In one of the film's truly inspired and subtle twists, we get to see her thought-process as she types up responses, only to edit or delete them outright before saying something else or nothing at all. It's something that makes her feel like a real person interacting over a text-based medium in a way which is familiar to almost everyone at this point. And while I don't wish to spoil anything, I feel that the movie makes some very brave choices in regard to her character as well, which is another point in its favor.

Still, in the end, the film fails to truly make me care about most of the characters as people, and because of that, I'm not terribly invested in their fates. Now, it's possible that may be an intentional development on the part of the director, given the levels of separation involved in internet-based communication, and it certainly adds some weight to the framing, but it still feels like something of a misstep.

Now, all that aside, 'UNFRIENDED' absolutely excels as a technical achievement, and that's where it truly impressed me. This film took its central narrative conceit and totally ran with it, and as a result it really feels like you're watching all of this unfold on a laptop screen. Facebook, Skype, YouTube, Chatroulette, and IM chat windows are all utilized and presented in ways that read as accurate, natural, intimately familiar, and ultimately immersive, even if the Gui details are oh-so-slightly dated now, 10 years later. 

I also really liked how the film delved into the notion of social death leading to physical death, and I want to thank nathaxnne over on Letterboxd for pointing this one out. This is, after all, a very instinctive fear that we humans, as eusocial animals, still possess to a large degree. We remain a tribalistic species, and just a few thousand years ago, a punishment like banishment was tantamount to a death-sentence for the majority of our species. Flash-forward to the present, and so much of our lives is spent in a wholly artificial, electronic environment that only reached a point of mass-engagement 30 years ago, and it's an environment that is ever-changing. 

Now we dwell in an electronic wilderness where we encounter people of all types, from those we know in the "real" world, to those we only know digitally, in a place where it's even easier to hide the less savory aspects of our nature. A world filled with friends, foes, celebrities, trolls, and bots, where parasocial relationships can become extremely unhealthy and cyberbullying is a very real issue that does real harm that can spill over from the electronic environment into the physical one. A place where a moment of teenaged thoughtlessness can end up being recorded and shared to a wide audience of people who are all-too eager to turn into metaphorical sharks when they smell blood in the water, a place where we tend to eat our own and ostracization feels like the end of the world. And for some it ends up being exactly that.

For better or worse, this is the social environment we live in now, and it's one that 'UNFRIENDED' depicts very well. The only real difference between our world and the one in this film is the supernatural presence of a literal deus ex machina, who comes gunning for the characters with righteous, vengeful anger.

It's also very impressive that the film was shot in extremely long takes that allowed the actors to play and feed off of one another's performances. As a result, the acting in this film is very, very strong, and punches far above its weight. The angst and conflict that result as the relationships between the characters degrade before our eyes is palpable and manages to successfully generate a lot of tension. Kudos to everyone involved in the production at every level, because they really nailed it, and it raises 'UNFRIENDED' from the realm of a middle-of-the-road curio of a horror film to the level of something that is actually worth your time.

Sadly, one final disappointment remains, and that's the climax. If the director had simply opted to shave off about sixty seconds or so, this flick would have earned itself an additional half-star. I've been told that final sixty seconds was added in later, and I don't know if that's actually true or not but leaving that off would have made for a far stronger ending. 

Even so, 'Unfriended' remains a very good film. The framing, the pacing, the performances, are all excellent, and I'm very glad that I finally got around to watching it.

Three-and-a-half stars (***1/2). recommended.