Unfriended

A surprisingly decent little horror film, Unfriended transpires entirely from the point of view of Blaire’s (Shelley Hennig) laptop computer and follows the character as she and five Skyping friends slowly come to the realization that they’re being haunted by a dead classmate. It’s about as gimmicky a premise as one could envision and yet Unfriended, for the most part, comes off as a tight, fast-paced chiller, with filmmaker Levan Gabriadze effectively placing the movie’s impressively well-developed characters into a scenario that grows more and more compelling as time progresses. It’s clear, too, that the progressively engrossing atmosphere is heightened by the sporadic inclusion of creepy interludes, including a palpably tense segment in which a seemingly frozen screen turns out not to be quite so frozen after all. The computer-based POV does, however, ensure that Unfriended suffers from a handful of narrative lulls, with the less-than-consistent vibe compounded by relentlessly choppy Skype video that may be authentic but is also, from time to time, infuriating. The increasingly grim final stretch renders such deficiencies moot, however, and Unfriended ultimately is, silly final shot notwithstanding, one of the more impressive internet-based horror flicks to come around in some time.

*** out of ****