Unfriended is a neat little riff on the found footage/quasi-documentary style of horror that has been popular since The Blair Witch Project burst onto the scene in 1999. The entire film plays out on a computer screen in real time, bouncing back and forth between internet searches, private messages, social media, and video chat. It's web surfing as spectator sport, but at only eighty-two minutes, it's brief, and surprisingly effective.
The premise is simple: One year after their friend, Laura, committed suicide -- the result of a humiliating viral video and cyber cruelty -- a group of teens are harassed during a video chat by an unknown person using her account. What begins as a seemingly sick joke turns deadly as someone seeks revenge on Laura's behalf.
The characters are certainly stock, but the actors do their job being appropriately irritated, confused, terrified, etc. What is more impressive is the overall execution of a concept that could have gotten tired very quickly. Director Leo Gabriadze (Vykrutasy aka Lucky Trouble) and his team do a great job of making sure your eyes are moving back and forth across the frame, from one window to the next and one face to another.
Using the name "Laura," is most likely an homage to the 1944 Otto Preminger film, which is fitting because Unfriended works as an updated version of old-fashioned Hollywood mystery movies. So, while this would seem to appeal solely to millennials, who are more in tune with digital gobbledygook (which there isn't that much of, actually), those who love whodunits like The Thin Man or Ten Little Indians will at least recognize the classic formula and payoff. I certainly appreciated it more for that reason, but my expectation level was very low going in.
