Unfriended Movie Review | by tiffanyyong.com
Recommended Audience: Fans of Heather Sossaman, Matthew Bohrer, Shelly Hennig, Moses Jacob Storm, Renee Olstead, Will Peltz, Jacob Wysocki, Courtney Halverson and thriller movie fans
Unfriended Movie Synopsis
A group of online chat room friends find themselves haunted by a mysterious, supernatural force using the account of their dead friend. Stalked by an unseen figure, someone seeks vengeance for a shaming video that led a vicious bully to kill herself a year earlier.
Unfriended Viewer Rating: 3.5/5 ***
Unfriended Movie Review:
I decided to catch this film after Fred Hawson, a fellow film critic friend from Philippines raved about this film. Got to admit, a film that is able to keep the audience focused on a computer screen for 80 minutes, Unfriended is the first of a kind and it is pretty impressive.
The film revolved around Facebook, iMessage, Skype, Spotify, Google and Gmail. Something we use everyday. MacBook Users will definitely be able to relate it more than Windows user. It was kind of unnerving for me to watch the film as Lily Blaire, the female lead had the same desktop layout as mine. Her menu bar was placed on the left instead of the default bottom, and looking into her world via her computer screen, I see her friends, relationships and activities. I see how she multi-task, say one thing on skype, but say something else in private to someone else. I was able to relate to her, they all felt real, because they are doing the things I do everyday.
I like how many emotions like fear and hesitance were expressed not via speech but through typing. Just like how we type and delete sentences online, pondering if we should write certain things, everything were close to our daily lives. And with the “glitches” and “lags” via the skype, I anticipated a lot of jump scares, and I was not wrong.
Although this new digital age horror film has no scary ghost faces, the scariness is deadly. Just last month, a Taiwanese online model Cindy (楊又穎) committed suicide on April 21 2015 due to Cyber bullying and harassment. It was horrifying to see what goes online is brought offline. The trauma, the depression, the shock were real. The more ironic thing? These people who thought it was “ok” or “fun” to join the crowd to cyber bully someone never thought it was their fault. They thought it was harmless. They didn’t think it was their comment or actions that triggered the suicide.
Horror aside, this is a thought-provoking film which will most probably make you think twice when you next type something online.
Do You Know?
Heather Sossaman had to shoot seven different ways for her character Laura to commit suicide. In an interview with We Got This Covered, she stated that one of the ways Laura was originally going to die was by hanging and she said filming that scene was scary. When it came to committing suicide by shooting herself, she saId that was one of the easiest ways and the film ended up going with that.
Shelley Hennig’s second horror film to be released by Universal. The first one was “Ouija”.
This film was inspired by actual suicide events such as Amanda Todd, and Audrie Pott.
All of the Facebook accounts shown in the film, actually exist and can be found on Facebook.
The “skype chat” was filmed in one house with all the cast members in different rooms.
The filmmakers created a mock Skype interface for the film to avoid technical issues such as lag.
The film was originally titled Offline, then it was Cybernatural, then finally re-titled to “Unfriended”. In an earlier cut of the film, the characters’ dialogue could be heard during scenes of text messaging between Blaire and Mitch. In the final version, all background dialogue is muffled during the texting.
Shot in one long take, in real time, with the characters on actual computers (with Go-Pros attached). Production lasted 16 days total, including six 12 hour days of principal photography, three days of pick ups and then a few more re-shoots and other stuff. To keep the film suspenseful and believable, each take had script alterations and the cast were encouraged to improvise and react to the unexpected story changes.
The film is technically an independent film due to no studio being attached until 2014 when Universal had acquired distribution rights.
Around the end, on Blaire’s Facebook’s private messages page, at the left side, where the previous messages are listed, shows one message at the top of the list that doesn’t appear throughout the film. The message is by Nelson Greaves, with the last sent saying ‘JK IT WAS MEEE’. Nelson Greaves is the writer of the film.
Information from imdb.com
Interviews
Check out Unfriended Official Website and Facebook Page!
Unfriended is out in cinemas on 30 April 2015.
xoxo
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*Disclosure: No monetary compensation was received for the movie review.
1/2 of #TheEpiphanyDuplet, Tiffany Yong juggles her ABCs – Acting, Blogging and Coaching/Consulting as she is fuelled by passion and drive to succeed.
It is not easy to make a living in Singapore just purely based on Acting, so with Blogging to help her with her online presence, and Coaching kids drama, private tutoring and freelance social media consulting to finance her life, she is currently leading the life most people hope to have: Living the Dream!
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Cyber bullying is a real issue in today’s world! Maybe I should catch the show with my pre-teen kiddo.
Unfriended to me is so so only, yes certain part is scary but overall was not so entertaining.
This is a new twist to movie storyline. Intriguing how they capture the issue of cyber-bullying and turned it into a horror movie. I think I might just watch it. Thanks for sharing 😉
A lot of people have been saying that it was sort of a disappointing movie after being hyped up on social media so much. I bet it would be fun to watch with friends though! Haha! 😀
Alright! I am watching this now! haha I must admit those captures you’ve posted makes me even more curious and interested! hmmmm, I’m also a fan of suspense thriller movies. So.. I should watch this one. 😀
I’ve also seen this film , thanks to Fred .. not quite scary but I like the pacing of the scenes.
Isnt it quite scary kind of a movie !! I really need some guts to go and watch it.
This is the perfect movie for the social media page. I better check this out and see if I can relate.
Not really scary but I can’t sleep for the whole night >.< But it's a good movie 🙂
I have heard this was a creepy movie and since I make a part of my living in the social media arts I think I will be skipping it, LOL. I know it is all in fun, but no thanks!
Thank you very much for the special mention on your blog, Tiffany! And I am glad you also liked this innovative little horror film. Thanks too for the informative background details you have provided about this film. – Fred
Now you and fred reviewed this film. Now i really have to watch this intriguing film.
I waited for this movie to be shown here on our local cinema but due to hectic schedule at work I was not able to watch it. Reading your review makes me want to watch Unfriended on big screen
I’m not too much in horror/thriller/scary movies but I saw the preview for this and thought it looked good. I’ll wait until it becomes available on Netflix though.
I’ve seen the trailer last year and I’m glad it’s already showing. I’m just not sure if it’s showing in the cinemas near me. For sure, I’ll be watching this.
It’s scary because it was an inspiration to a true suicidal stories. I hope this movie not only scares people inside the cinemas but also scare them to the possibilities a bullying can do to a person.
I still haven’t gotten around to watching this movie, but I definitely will, hopefully. I’m looking for a new scary film and this sounds like a good one to see.
It seems a good movie and nice to watch ’cause of its new plot. Well, this deserves to be watched for audience.
You’ve piqued my interest because of the production. I just don’t think I can watch this at night and when I’m alone in my apartment. Lol. I clicked on the link about Amanda Todd … it’s sad what happened to her. Cyber-bullying is a serious issue and should not be taken lightly.
I still haven’t seen the movie, but my sister and some friends already did. They already spoiled me a lot about the film, but I’m still planning to go see this if it’s still showing in our local cinemas. If not, I’ll just have to wait for a dvd copy and watch it on my computer. I think doing that will make the film feel even more realistic and scary. XD
I’ve read a review of this film from another blog. I like watching horror movies and I can’t wait to see this.
With social media getting more and more popular, I guess this is the right movie to watch, to create awareness on internet safety and unfriending trend? hahaha~
Not really into scary movies and stories with suicides just isn’t my thing haha. I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep a wink if I watch this! Thanks for the heads up, staying away from this one for sure haha.