Review of Unfriended (2014) by Ray J — 22 Aug 2015

Although it may seem like a negative thing to say, this surprisingly wasn't terrible. In fact, it was pretty decent.

The fact that it takes place almost entirely on a laptop screen is surprisingly original (you could say The Den or The Sick Thing that Happened to Emily off of the first V/H/S did it first, but neither of them did it to the extent that's done here). There's a lot of advantages that can obviously be done with this format. An example, is a song is played (How You Lie, Lie, Lie) that perfectly accentuates the scene on-screen.

Of course, at the same time there's things that are shown that would never happen on an actual computer; such as some of the text appearing on screen far too quickly than it could have ever been typed, and at one point crucial plot information is shown while the main character is sharing her screen (via Skype) that none of the other characters ever react to.

All of the characters are acted rather well, although they are horrible, horrible people. The best aspect of movie though (and this is another benefit of it taking place on a computer screen) is the cursor. The cursor hovers around ever so often (and acts a an extension to the anxiety of the main character). And also, on occasion, there will be a phrase (or even a few at times) started on a chat program that ends up getting deleted (which is a great touch).

The ending, though, is poorly done, hamfisted, cliche ridden, and it shows that someone didn't place much faith that the format would hold up on it's own. What happens, is that the laptop is closed by a set of hands into a dark room, a few seconds passes and Ghost Laura shoves her ugly mug into the camera. It definitely wasn't needed, came out of nowhere and ruined the tone of the entire movie.

Despite that, it's a good (and rather clever, as well) attempt at at a slasher flick, and I could easily see it being a Halloween movie in a few years.