436: Unfriended

[00:00:00] Alright, so that's it for the Blair Witch franchise. Hope you enjoyed that. Now let's get to our bonus reviews, which is the Unfriended horror franchise.

[00:00:11] So, I didn't see these movies until after they came out maybe a couple years. I saw the first one probably 2019-ish, I would say, for the first one, and then I just watched Dark Web this week after I watched Blair Witch.

[00:00:28] It's a pretty underrated series in my opinion, like I said. It in some ways maybe wasn't the first, but at least was one of the first if I'm not mistaken, to do films entirely from the computer point of view.

[00:00:44] In both of these movies, you never cut away from the computer. It's all FaceTime, web browsers, text message, or direct message, Windows, all that stuff. And for me, with how it's done in these two movies, it's pretty well done.

[00:00:58] I was really surprised, as I think many people were, when this first came out and that idea was revealed. I think people were thinking, this is going to suck, this is so stupid. And in some ways that's what made me think of Blair Witch, where it's alright here, let's make this documentary in this way and have this lost footage.

[00:01:15] And I'm sure there were plenty of people who were disregarding it at first, and while this is nowhere near as influential or as big as Blair Witch, it's still in some ways set a new kind of style in filmmaking in terms of horror, found footage, Blumhouse-esque films.

[00:01:32] And so I'm excited to talk about these. So let's get into Unfriended. This one came out in 2014, is directed by Levon Gabriadze, sorry if I butchered that name, stars Heather Sossaman, Matthew Borer, Courtney Halverson, Shelley Hennig, Moses Storm.

[00:01:54] And the synopsis is, a group of online chatroom friends find themselves haunted by a mysterious supernatural force using the account of their dead friend.

[00:02:03] And as I mentioned, the entire movie, it starts with the computer screen popping up and that's where the entire movie is. You're never cutting away into the rooms where the computers are, you're never doing anything else other than seeing what's happening via those computer cameras.

[00:02:19] And there is, you would think this is going to be so repetitive, so bland, so lame. And in both of these movies, it's very creative, very immersive, weirdly, and very compelling, you know, which I never thought it would be. And I am excited to see more movies do this if they can pull it off well.

[00:02:40] And I know a couple of mimicked it in some ways. But when I first saw it, I really enjoyed it. Didn't think it was a masterpiece or anything like that. But I thought it was quite solid, very enjoyable, very entertaining, had some good horror and scares and all that. And does in some ways, I think the second one is better at this, but it does bring true the horrors or the mysteries of the internet and digital media and people mimicking other people.

[00:03:10] And accounts and all that and hacking. The main issue with me in comparison to the second one is the second one is way more unsettling, and horrifying and disturbing because in this one, the main foe crux of the movie is like a supernatural kind of poltergeist thing. It's not a real person as it is in the second one spoiler.

[00:03:37] So while this movie is entertaining, and I like the idea of these friends having to suddenly deal with this mysterious apparatus online presence online, it just doesn't hit home as hard as the second one does. Because by the end, you're like, Alright, well, that was a supernatural thing doing all this basically. And so that makes it seem a little bit more goofy, not as grounded and not as relatable.

[00:04:03] But for low budget horror movies for Blumhouse films, it's pretty well done. Still, it's entertaining. It's got some good chills and suspense. There are some good kills like with the person putting his head or his neck in the blender. Like that's a really good moment. And the idea of this dead friend who commits suicide because of this video being posted online and the idea of someone being shamed forever because once it's online, it's there forever.

[00:04:31] And it spreads like wildfire. I think all that stuff is relevant in a lot of ways like that happens all the time now where people some video comes out of them doing this or that are being seen here and then suddenly their life is ruined, especially if they're in the celebrity world.

[00:04:45] So all that stuff is good. And I feel like I do have more to say about the second one that I do this one. But if you had heard about this movie, and you thought it sounded stupid or lame, I would give it a look because there are a lot of things you can do with this concept. You can call it a gimmick. But because I think calling it a gimmick sounds a bad like a bad thing like Blair Witch in a way. I don't think it's a bad thing in this in both movies. I don't think it's bad. So very worth a watch if you like horror films.

[00:05:15] And if you want something a little bit different, give it a chance. But in my opinion, and we'll get to in just a minute, I would watch Dark Web because you don't have to have seen the first one to enjoy Dark Web or understand that they're each standalone stories. So good movie. I do like the end scene, even though it is a little goofy and supernatural. I still like it. Just not as good as the second one, in my opinion, which I feel like most reviews I read, it's the opposite.

[00:05:43] I feel like a lot of people like the first one more, maybe because it's the first one. But I actually like the second one a lot more. So this one is a three and a half out of five.