Horrorfest 2023: Unfriended

Unfriended

Written by Nelson Greaves

Directed by Leo Gabriadze

Starring Shelley Hennig, Moses Storm, Renee Olstead, Will Petz, Jaco Wysocki, Courtney Halverson and Heather Sossaman

USA, 2015

One of many internet-based horror movies that have come out over the last couple decades, the entirety of UNFRIENDED takes place on the computer desktop of a high school girl (Shelley Hennig). As the movie opens she's having an intimate video chat via Skype (remember Skype?) with her boyfriend (Moses Storm), but it isn't long before her friends, another couple (Renee Olstead and Will Peltz) and a tech savvy third wheel (Jacob Wysocki) interrupt and join the call.

Strangely, another user who does not have their camera on and does not have a photograph for an avatar is also on the call -- and no one knows who it is. They also don't seem to be able to kick the unknown user off of the call, and now matter how many times they end and re-start the call, or who ends it and re-starts it, the unknown user seems to come along.

If you're guessing this unknown user is the vengeful spirit of their high school friend (Heather Sossaman) who killed herself shortly after being humiliated both at a party and online -- you guessed right!

A movie like this is made or broken in large part on the believability of the on-screen experience -- is this what computers actually look like and how they behave? And by this metric I'd say UNFRIENDED passes with flying colors. Nothing looks glaringly like a made-for-movies operating system or program. It all seems like the real deal. And, aside from a few things that could be waved away as the main character's quirks, the people in the movie interact with the technology the same way a real person would.

There's also, of course, the way the script uses the technology, and again, here, everything remains fairly non-convoluted -- the filmmakers do not bend over backwards attempting to shove their square premise into a round hole. They find clever ways to make it work seamlessly. Really the only big question I had was whether or not teenagers in 2015 commonly hopped on Skype calls together, but since I was an old man by then, I do not know from firsthand experience and am willing to meet the movie halfway.

The best (and most chilling) sequence is one in which one of the characters realizes he's being watched by a camera in his own room. Like, a camera other than the one he is using. Creepy, huh?

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention he performances, however, which must have been difficult to pull off sitting in front of webcams and interacting via screens. By the end of the movie most of the cast has basically gone into freak out mode, but there's a nice build up to that, and they do a good job of getting their characters and motivations across without a lot to work with.