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Unfriended (2015), R, ★★★

Oh, Skype. What a cool way to connect with many people at the same time.
Social media is the biggest tool of marketing, advertising and communication in its technology industry today. Communication is vital amongst clients and family but also with fellow friends. But, sometimes, social media can get a person in quite some trouble. If anybody does something vulgar and puts in on YouTube and/or Facebook and you're in the middle of a job hunt, that one moment can interfere with your prospects and life. Let me clarify: If you mess with somebody, that one moment can definitely mess with your life as witnessed in this movie. It is just a fun Friday the 13th film with a technical twist.

The movie starts off with a girl named Laura Barns partying and drunk and lying on a table with a guy on top of her. But, also we see a disturbing video of Laura committing suicide in a baseball field with a gun as it is anonymously posted. However, we see a Skype video of a shirtless guy named Mitch who is talking with his girlfriend named Blaire as they are sort of talking sexually as he wants her to take off her panties or he'll do it for you. They're role playing. But, they are interrupted by three other people popping up on the Skype call - Mitch's best friend, Adam, Blaire's friend, Jess and their wisecracking pal, Ken.

They notice a mysterious person on the Skype chat and they all disconnect him and it's sort of a fuss as Blaire and Mitch message each other asking who the person is. Blaire gets a little scared as she tries to unfriend or block the person posing as Laura. It is a little messed up. They bring Val into the conversation which everybody despises and then someone posing as "Billie" tells them if they hang up the Skype account, they are going to die. I'm telling you - this is like Friday the 13th or a cabin horror film on digital media. Uh oh!

Is she going to survive?
How can I discuss this horror film seriously? I'll say this that it is a great way to create a horror film by generating suspense in the digital media. It's a clever way to covert horror clichés in the only screen that we're watching during the entire duration of the movie because we will not see like a jump as many filmmakers feverishly and predictably edit like "Oh, here's the shot where someone comes out and scares that person and the audience." This whole movie plays like a gimmick but it is a pleasant gimmick. The only concern is that if future filmmakers will rip this off. Advice: DON'T TARNISH YOUR REPUTATION!!!

Most of the cast members are unfamiliar but they all do a good job. There are only a few I recognize: Renee Olstead, which she did a TV show that I cannot recall, and Shelley Hennig who did also a few other TV shows. But, the others look like are having a good time playing their part and being scared as they play normal teenagers in a scary situation. Which teen does not interact on social media nowadays?

The whole movie is long enough at around an hour and a half and the whole movie does not seem to slow down as we, the audience, are in the middle of their conversations. It is like we're their parents and seeing what's going on. The only major flaw that bothered me is that what were the parents doing when the kids are getting in trouble. Plus, there is a flaw that bothered me a bit which is a spoiler so I cannot address it. However, this is a film that a teenager can watch and have fun but also learn a lesson that even though, social media is fun, there could be consequences in your actions. It is a solid horror film that twists the clichés and plugs it into a technological phase that creates tension.

***

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