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UNFRIENDED (2015) MOVIE NEWS & REVIEW

unfriended (2015) movie

Genre | Horror Thriller

Classification | MA 15+

Running time | 83 minutes

Released | 30 April 2015

cast

Shelley Hennig ... Blaire
Heather Sossaman ... Laura
Matthew Bohrer ... Matt
Courtney Halverson ... Val
Moses Storm ... Mitch
Will Peltz ... Adam
Renee Olstead ... Jess
Jacob Wysocki ... Ken

director

Levan Gabriadze ... (as Leo Gabriadze)

writer

Nelson Greaves ... (writer)

cinematographer

Adam Sidman

music

film editor

Parker Laramie
Andrew Wesman

box office result

Worldwide $64,056,643

Australia $2,285,525

North America $32,482,090

the best dialogue

Ken Smith: Let's say her karma wasn't completely unwarranted okay, nobody wants to talk about it but Laura fucking sucked, she was a big bully and she deserved all the shit she got from that video.
Adam Sewell: [burying head upon desk in shocked laughter and disbelief] Aw Ken buddy...
Blaire Lily: Ken...
Ken Smith: What? I'm sorry that was in poor taste.

Ken Smith: [as billie227 turns on Blaire, Mitch, Adam and Ken's Skype mics with him whispering into the phone] Guys can you just fucking trust me, install this software and I'll find out who it is.
Jess Felton: [Being the only one with an already turned on mic witnessing billie227 IM nice try guys let me turn those mics on for you and then switch their mics on] Guys! Guys, he can hear you, he can turn your mics on.

Ken Smith: [Clicking multiple things on his laptop and standing upright relaying to the others in shock, disbelief and concern as Blaire's jpeg message from Blaire downloads through] I can't fucking shut it off.

UNFRIENDED (2015) MOVIE IMAGES

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UNFRIENDED (2015) STORY SYNOPSIS

One night, while teenagers Blaire, Mitch, Jess, Adam Ken and Val take part in an online group chat session, they are suddenly joined by a user known only as "Billie227." Thinking it's just a technical glitch, the friends carry on their conversation... until Blaire begins receiving messages from someone claiming to be Laura Barns, a classmate who killed herself exactly one year prior. As Blaire tries to expose Billie's identity, her friends are forced to confront their darkest secrets and lies.

UNFRIENDED (2015) MOVIE REVIEW

Reviewed by Mark Geraghty | Review date 30 April 2015
Pop Movee Rating ⭐½

Some movies just make no sense whatsoever. UNFRIENDED is one of those movies. It's been a while since a film as bad as this has received a cinematic release. Having said that, there was a section of the preview audience that seemed to "GET" what Unfriended was all about. Perhaps youth has finally made of for greener pastures… The film lacks any sort of internal logic, as the story's primary antagonist displays omnipotent powers that can manipulate the internet, make teenagers do crazy things and exercise a malevolence that is straight-out sadism.

The premise of Unfriended is so silly that it's hard to believe that the film was given serious consideration, let alone able to secure funding to get made. Imagine a group Skype call that gets hijacked by a "ghost" who has an axe to grind. That's UNFRIENDED. The 80 odd minutes of Russian director Leo Gabriadze’s film are spent examining all different forms of social media, the way the youth of today use them and the manner in which people can manipulate them to hurt others. The film goes beyond the usual “hurt” (as in feelings) and depicts cyber-bullying with some genuinely horrific outcomes.

UNFRIENDED's plot is driven by events surrounding the cyber-bullying of a girl named Laura Barns and what her "so-called" friends did to her by way of social media. An unflattering YouTube video of Laura is released and results in her committing suicide. On the first anniversary of her death, a group of five of her friends end up on a Skype group call. At first, there seems to be a software glitch, as a sixth unidentified user keeps popping up on the screen. The group dismiss it, but it soon becomes clear that someone else has joined their party line. It becomes pretty clear, pretty quickly that this group of teenagers is your stock standard"lambs to the slaughter", much the same way that slasher movies since the 1970s have lined-up groups of hysterical teenagers for never-ending ways in which they can meet their demise.

What follows is a complete shambles culminating in a clichéd, contrived ending that is straight out of the "seen one, seen 'em all" handbook of horror movie making. The most frustrating and distracting part of UNFRIENDED is its narrative device - social media and instantaneous messaging framed within the boundaries of a computer screen. The film never moves beyond this framing device and its scenes skip between Skype, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Snap Chap and several other lesser known social media forums in an attempt to keep the audience interested.

The cast of relative unknown actors try to be compelling, but the computer screen look of the film continually detracts from their performances. Shelley Hennig, who plays the central character of Blaire Lily, is the stand-out, but that really is faint praise. Any nuance that Hennig, or any of her fellow actors, may have brought to her character is lost in the effects created to show the time-lag associated with online telecommunications. (People who have used Skype know what this means.) Other than Hennig, Will Peltz, as Adam Sewell, tries to make the best of his material and, at least, shows some semblance of being less than dim-witted to the online antics of the online stalker playing games with his friends.

UNFRIENDED was written by Nelson Greaves, based on his experience with the film’s producer Timur Bekmambetow, whose business interests are split between Russia and America. Bekmambetow convinced Greaves there was some kind of story to be told based on the amount of time he spent communicating via the internet with the US from his base in Russia. Judging bywhat ended up on the screen, it’s pretty clear that much of UNFRIENDED was not so much lost on the information super highway, but more so, simply lost in translation.