Film Review: Unfriended

Paranormal Webtivity

When it comes to horror movies, I tend to pass on the films that can be placed within the "cattle-prod" genre of cinema, whereby the main shock factor is a buildup of silence which is then suddenly interrupted by a massive BANG, particularly massive within a cinematic environment, where the volume is cranked up to eleven. The horror films that really give me the creeps are those that are ambiguous in their nature, the films where not everything is explained, and where the scare factor isn't relied upon making the audience jump but by making the audience feel threatened accompanied by an overarching sense of dread. Thankfully for Unfriended, Levan Gabriadze's new take on the overused found footage genre doesn't rely on cheap jump scares and instead presents an interesting and clever concept of which is wonderfully executed making it hands down the best horror movie of 2015 so far.

With the film being based solely around the screen of a Apple Mac, the fundamental nature of the film was going to be rather restrictive, but within its' short 80 minute runtime, I never felt the boundaries were being exerted upon and in fact, was even more engaging than I thought it possibly could have been. This was due in part to the acting of the young victims of Unfriended who go full on in terms of horror movie actor traits, particularly the leading lady Shelley Hennig as Blaire who tackles a whole spectrum of emotion throughout the film and provides one of the more iconic roles in a film within the found footage genre. Of course naming your leading lady Blaire is an obvious throwback to the incredibly creepy 1999 found footage film The Blair Witch Project and it is particularly this film where Unfriended seemingly takes its' cues from with both having an unseen entity, both relying more on creep factor than cheap scares, and both taking the chance to redefine the blueprint of a genre that has begun to well up over the years previous to its' release. 

Being in the same category as The Blair Witch Project is definitely a brilliant feat to have achieved and although Unfriended may not be the horror film many will be looking for, for me it was a brilliant and overly refreshing experience, something of which has been overly lacking within the horror genre over the past few years (The Babadook aside). If you want a movie that decides to stay away from cheap jump scares and one dimensional characters and instead focuses on evolving sympathy for its' victims by effective characterisation and having an underlying tone of ambiguity and fear, then Unfriended is definitely the film for you. Go see it.

Overall Score: 8/10