By Staci Layne Wilson
@StaciWilson

If legendary cinematic showman William Castle were alive today, he’d probably be making movies just like this. You see, Unfriended is a gimmick flick. The action unfolds entirely on the screen of an internet user’s laptop – she checks her email, Googles stuff, goes to Facebook and Skypes with her friends and we see it all in real time.

It’s hardly escapism or relief for we poor eye-strained souls who watch a movie to get away from our everyday lives chained to a computer; as such, the look and feel of Unfriended is anything but cinematic. However, that’s where its strength lies. It feels so real, that when the horror elements kick in it’s like we’re watching a homemade YouTube video, and it’s impossible to look away.

Our POV is through the eyes of pretty teen Blaire (Shelley Hennig), whose classmate Laura (Heather Sossaman) committed suicide after an embarrassing cellphone video of her was leaked online – it’s one year later, but everyone in school is still gossiping about it. While Blaire and her boyfriend and buddies are video chatting on that fateful anniversary, a supernatural presence logs in and infects each of their computer systems, revealing shocking secrets about them and forcing the kids to kill themselves one by one.

While there is a moralistic thread running throughout the storyline – internet trolls getting a taste of their own bitter pills – it succeeds on the level of exploiting tried and true tropes (think: Agatha Christie’s Ten Little Indians meets The Ring) that are wrapped in a brand new OS that’s at once frustrating and refreshing. As for the visuals, they’re authentic. For a cinephile like myself who enjoys artistic, stylish and composed cinematography, Unfriended is often a chore – the squared heads of bickering teens talking over one another in six or seven open windows as they toggle back and forth is a bit trying. But again, in its weakness lies its strength: we, too, are trapped in a world where there’s no escaping the hijacked, virus-ridden computer that’s steering us straight to hell (or LiveLeak.com… same difference).

While it’s not a flawless fright flick, Unfriended gives us a good gimmick as byte-sized horror that’s easy to “like” before moving onto the next distraction.

Rated R
1 hour, 22 minutes

Get times and tickets on Fandango.com.

UNFRIENDED Review