Review of Unfriended (2014) by Lamontraymond — 16 Apr 2015

Unfriended nails it. It's been a great season for horror fans with It Follows and now Unfriended in the lineup. (Though I'm not looking forward to much of the rest of the samey, occulty crap the industry has in the pipeline.

Vatican Papers? Ugh.) It fallows is more classic, retro horror, but Unfriended is horror for the new tech-savvy generation. It's a bit of a fable, really. I love the use of technology and the rules that define the action.

In the same way that Blair Witch introduced the found footage element to horror, Unfriended does the Skype/YouTube thing perfectly. Shelley Henning as Blair holds down the sympathetic lead role extremely effectively.

She's always been an underrated actress who has played the supporting role in such teen fare as Teen Wolf, Secret Circle, and Zach Stone is Gonna Be Famous, and I'm hoping that her exposure in this movie puts her into that category of actor who is considered for leads.

Speaking of acting, all of the young actors in Unfriended bring a level of authenticity to the proceedings - they simply feel real. The film's only drawback - and this is something that bugs me about many horror flicks such as the Paranormals - is the excessive reliance on demons or spirits of the dead.

It's almost a cop out - how does a spirit use Skype? Oh well, don't worry about it, it's a leap! I suppose I'm yearning for a bit more tangible reality in my horror such as the raw, depraved humanity of Rutger Hauer in The Hitcher.

But that's just nitpicking, I suppose. If your'e looking for intensity and a horror flick with a moral message to it ("don't bully!"), this one will work for you.