Technology has become so integral to our daily lives that it was only a matter of time before someone made a movie that unfolds entirely on a computer screen, and though “Unfriended” isn’t the first to use this gimmick (Nacho Vigalondo’s “Open Windows” employed a similar premise, as did a recent episode of “Modern Family”), you can be certain that it won’t be the last. But for as miserable as that viewing experience may sound, Levan Gabriadze’s “Unfriended” actually does a surprisingly good job of holding your interest. Where Gabriadze fails is in creating a horror film that isn’t plagued by the same poor writing, tired clichés and shallow characters that commonly exist within the genre, making this supernatural slasher movie for the social media generation a lot less enjoyable than it could have been.
The film takes place over a Skype call among a group of high school friends who apparently spend their nights chatting with one another from the comfort of their homes instead of socializing in person, because that’s what kids do these days. When an anonymous user enters the chat without an invitation, they initially think that they’re being harassed by a trolling hacker, only to discover that the stranger is posing as Laura Barns, a former classmate who committed suicide exactly one year ago after being cyberbullied due to an embarrassing video posted on the web. Blaire (Shelley Hennig) believes that it might be the vengeful spirit of Laura punishing them for what happened, but she swears they had nothing to do with it. When the stranger begins revealing dirty secrets that turn the friends against each other, and then gruesomely kills them one by one for their apparent role in Laura’s death, they realize that this isn’t some sick prank, but something much worse.
