Reviews Film / Unfriended

Surprisingly Enjoyable

This film was far more clever than I ever thought it was going to be walking in. The use of social media in the film wasn't just a gimmick, but ties into the overall theme of the movie. Laura's life was ruined by a video that was plastered all over social media sites, and so she in turn uses those same sites to ruin the people who drove her to suicide. Like my favorite horror villains, Laura's got personality and a dark sense of humor and uses it well, digging into the characters with every post and forced confession. For some reason I really loved when she would hack into Blaire's music library to play humorously (if you're twisted like me, anyway) fitting music for the scenarios at hand.

The title of the film was what made me not want to see it at first, but after the film was done, it made sense. The theme of the movie is, essentially, how easily friendships can be destroyed. On social media sites, online friendships can be suddenly ended with nothing more than the press of a button. Like how Blaire destroyed her friendship with Laura as well as Laura's life in general by simply posting the video of her getting drunk and passing out, complete with a title telling Laura to kill herself. The majority of the movie is composed of a group of supposed friends ripping each other apart over lies and hidden betrayals that are gradually dragged out of each of them. The people that Laura considered to be her friends turned on her and drove her to kill herself and are shockingly callous about their roles in her death, so she turns them on each other to more or less drive them into killing each other and themselves.

Is this the next Silence of the Lambs or at the very least next big horror franchise? The first: no. The second: eh, probably not. But still well worth the time to watch. If you're willing to deal with the computer format, it's a fun watch. A dark sense of humor also helps.