Review of Friend Request (2016) by Nell A — 09 Sep 2016

I enjoyed this movie - but don't go in expecting Unfriended, which simply left more of an impression than this did. The story is similar to Unfriended, but the execution seeks to emulate American J-Horror remakes like The Ring and One Missed Call stylistically.

It doesn't quite hit that mark, but it doesn't exactly fail either. This movie has a lot of good things going for it; a solid cast, interesting characters (thank you for not making the female characters into cardboard cutouts and stereotypes, which often happens in horror for the sake of the pace and plot) and the scares are actually of decent quality.

No false jumpscares, and not JUST jumpscares (some subtle scares that are excellent). The only downside there being that there are quite a few jumpscares in there still, and they are all the same; build-up in complete silence, at a predictable moment, where it becomes so predictable and such an exact science that you find yourself just looking away because you KNOW it's coming and you just really can't be bothered to be caught off guard again and do the whole jumping out of your seat thing.

Overall I recommend this to horror fans, and to anyone up for a light fright that isn't niche like Unfriended (which wouldn't necessarily be appreciated by people who don't like horror) but also isn't so terrifying and earth shattering you'll be sleeping with the lights on afterwards.

One thing though - the ending makes no sense, is pretentious and just really sucks; it doesn't crush the whole experience, but it's disappointing. It makes the movie seem like it wanted to be something it wasn't.