Cinema of Spookeries – Day 14: Unfriended

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The Ghoulish Plot: OMG LOL! Thanks to modern technology, nowadays teenagers can always be talking shit about each other. In one such instance at a Fresno high school in 2013, a girl named Laura is caught on video getting wasted at a party and soiling herself. The video is posted on YouTube and in the wake of all the bullying and lots of fun, lighthearted “you should kill yourself” messages Laura gets, Laura publicly kills herself. GTFO! 

Exactly one year later, a group of teenagers who had been at that party is using the miracle of internet technology to avoid doing anything of substance and instead are just flirting, cracking jokes and being generally worthless online. What a miracle age we live in. In the midst of a group Skype chat, a mysterious unseen stranger joins the conversation and won’t leave. 

Members of the group start getting private messages from somebody claiming to be Laura, and then the stranger starts to reveal their secrets. In the wake of one secret being revealed, one of the group’s camera goes black, then returns to show her standing perfectly still, and then suddenly in a flash she drops to the ground in an apparent suicide. STFU indeed. 

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More and more secrets are revealed and one-by-one, people in the group die by apparent suicide. At one point it is brought up that angry spirits can possess people they are seeking revenge against and force them to kill themselves, and that this happens after you are contacted by the dead, and the only way to save yourself is to confess what you did wrong. 

Finally down to just Blair, Laura’s supposed ex-best-friend and her boyfriend Mitch, the person claiming to be Laura presses them on who posted the video that drove her to suicide. Will there be a confession or just some totes online trolling? 

The Scariest Part Of The Movie: That this is how most people under 25 see the world – through a screen. The entire movie takes place on a laptop screen with Skype windows, IM’s popping up and Facebook. In the 70′s and 80′s horror movies happened at campgrounds and lakes, now kids don’t even have to get out of bed to get murdered. 

Our Hero’s Downfall: Hella lying, yo. 

Could It Happen: As long as your WiFi is working. 

Spookiness Factor: 6 out of 10. The movie gets pretty intense as it chugs along, although some of the deaths are a little silly and the ending is a bit anticlimactic. 

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