Random Movie Review - Unfriended

Oh, where do I begin? I'm going to come out and say that unlike most people, I generally avoid the cinema when it comes to these jumpscare films, but with Unfriended (which was formally known as Cybernatural), it looked like something that may or may not have been done before. I mean yeah Paranormal Activity is known for its found footage and it may have introduced the whole idea of filming things via a Mac Book, but seeing things just on a computer screen, that I believe has not been done before and if it has, well its obviously been overlooked. So yeah, I went to see this film last week. Chances are that I was among the last to see it and well, let's see what I think of it:

So a common thing that is seen in most of these kinds of films, is the whole dumb teenager gig where each one gets killed off one by one and its normally the stereotypical ones that get killed off first and it then eventually comes to just the love birds, not that reveals any spoilers there or anything like that. So after seeing a variation of the Universal logo (I do love seeing these logo variations, I really do), we then cut to a computer screen used by one of the films's main characters Blaire Lily (played by Shelley Hennig) who as any person her age, is just doing social media stuff as it were. Her boyfriend Mitch Roussel (played by Moses Jacob Storm) then contacts her via Skype and are about to get it on as it were, before being interrupted by their 3 other friends Jess Felton (played by Renee Olstead), Adam Sewell (played by Will Peltz) and Ken Smith (played by Jacob Wysocki). As they chat on Skype, they become aware of an unknown user listening in and try whatever they can to get rid of this user, leading them to contact another friend of theirs Val Rommel (played by Courtney Halverson) who is also unclear of who this user is. They then realise that its the 1 year anniversary of the death of one of Blaire's friends Laura Barns and soon realise that this user may be her or some other entity. Either way, they are in for one hell of a ride where death can only be a click away.

So I'm going to come out and say it. As much of a fearless hound that I am, I do find jumpscares to be really creepy at times and I think about half way through, any jumpscare after like the first few, I'm OK with. I liked that the film tried to be creative with using a wide range of social media and Internet stuff with Skype taking centre stage with things like Facebook, Messenger (the Apple version), Google, YouTube and even Chat Roulette popping in from time to time which does work. But I just don't like it when you have a film like this using the same generic scenario that has been used in many horror filsm that have come before it. A bunch of dumb teenagers (though in the film's defence, at least this time there was a little bit of intelligence inside them this time) coming together, only to find that there is some kind of killer on the lose and takes them out one by one with the stereotypical or the useless ones if you will, being the first to go. Yeah I just don't like that scenario very much, but I will say the film did do well to try and be anything but that and it kind of works in a way. I also felt that there were parts that did drag on more than it needed to, but considering that it is just to build up to a jumpscare and getting us all at the edge of our seats, I'm going to let it slide. If you don't mind jumpscares, then I think you'll enjoy what there is here as I do think its an enjoyable film. I wouldn't call it a great film, but it is creative, it does get you at the edge of your seat and its good to use cheap equipment like a Mac Book instead of more expensive equipment as it just makes the film all the more fun and enjoyable. 8/10