Anti-social media
Film reviewed - Unfriended by Levan GabriadzeStarring - Heather Sossaman and Shelley Hennig
Synopsis - A group of friends discuss the death of their classmate in an online chat room before realising they are being stalked by social media accounts.
Review - My wife is a big fan of horror films. Therefore whenever a new scary movie is released I head off to the cinema to gain some much needed brownie points (especially with Avengers being released recently). However despite my initial reticence, I really enjoyed Unfriended - or Cybernatural as IMDb seems to call it (one of the original names given to the film).
WARNING - the next sentence may make you feel quite old. The Blair Witch Project came out 16 years ago and during that time it has spawned many 'found footage' horror films - some good, some bad. In this case, Unfriended has taken the Blair Witch concept by the horns and dragged it into the cyberworld of the 21st century.
I'm not saying Unfriended is as good as Blair Witch (because it isn't) but you can not fault it for originality - which is not something you can say about most films these days.
The entire film takes place on the computer screen of Blair Lilley (no not a witch) as she chats to her friends on Skype, iMessage and Facebook. The group quickly realise that they are being stalked by the account of their late friend Laura Barnes who committed suicide after an embarrassing video of her was uploaded to YouTube.
The story is compelling and and grips you from start to finish (all 89 minutes of it). And as it is a horror there are a few cliches thrown in for good measure (I'll leave it up to you to spot them). The only part of the film that lets it down is the deaths which seem to be a bit B-movie and not in keeping with the rest of the film. Don't be put off though, this is the only mark against a film that overall is a good solid horror flick.
In summary - A new and interesting take on the found footage fright flick format.
Go and see it if...Blair Witch was your thing.
Rating - 8/10
