Sometimes, simple is still the best, and Unfriended is, at least on the surface, just that: a film told in real time and entirely through the perspective of one girl’s laptop computer screen. How she perceives one night. One freaking terrifying night.
The film opens as Blaire Lily takes a meander through some disturbing YouTube videos and fair warning, this includes a genuinely confronting portrayal of a teenage girl committing suicide. That girl is Laura Barns. Soon we see the video that prompted her violent action. Not long after the online world gets hairy, scary and, soon enough, deadly.
Unfriended is brilliant in its simplicity. It recognises that teens are so interconnected now online through iMessage, Skype, Facebook and the like that the plight of a group of teens that once would have been housed in the lakeside cabin of Friday the 13th or the bedrooms of Elm Street, can now be delivered spectacularly through shared text, video and photos.
And it works its socks off. The networked interaction of the teens and the slight digital distancing of Blaire’s closest friends as the night progresses somehow makes the terror and tension of this story seem more real. The film is short (83 minutes) and sharp and a genuine white knuckle ride of tension and terror.
Undoubtedly in another five years this film will feel incredibly dated and hackneyed, such is the progression of technology. For now though Unfriended is the perfect Facebook fright flick for its time.
