back to article Unfriended: Odious screen-teens get theirs in this flat horror

Few movie genres see as much innovation as horror, pioneer of the found-footage style and master of the macabre comedy. Just because something is new and clever doesn’t actually mean it will make a better film. Unfriended has a good idea and it runs with it for the whole movie. We open on a pretty teen girl’s Mac screen and …

  1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Devil

    The original Blair Witch wasn't that good either

    Laura joins their Skype call, starts sending them messages, photos and videos and, ultimately, forces them to be suicidal.

    This is taking malware to a whole new level. Maybe if Laura were an AI excellent in psychology it might actually work?

    It also sounds a bit like Serial Experiments: Lain

  2. x 7

    "These teenagers aren’t just privileged, annoying and self-involved, they’re also utter assholes"

    So whats new? Thats what teenagers are.....

    Of course you could replace "these teenagers" with "most Americans......" and it would be equally valid

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      'Of course you could replace "these teenagers" with "most Humans......" and it would be equally valid'

      FIFY.

      1. Sokolik

        As always, thanks, Anon, for a clever and factual riposte.

        -- Resident Flaming-Liberal Left-Coast Colonist

  3. H in The Hague

    FT review

    There's also an interesting review, which places the movie in the context of the genre, in the arts section of the FT:

    http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/573a6274-ee81-11e4-88e3-00144feab7de.html

    Have a good weekend,

    H

    (who definitely doesn't go to horror movies)

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Terminator

    I'm working on a new film - "With Windows 10"

    It's a first-person action film showing one man's epic attempt to install and use Windows 10. Watch his struggle in real time as he tries to work out what it's all about, how he tries (ultimately unsuccessfully) not to send all his personal information to Microsoft, and how he emerges broken and ruined after his first experience with the 'improved' start menu.

    The nadir of the whole film has to be some considerable time in, after yet another 5 minute reboot, when his wife asks (off screen, a beautiful touch) "are Macs this difficult to set up?". All the man can do is weep, lamenting his lost life, his lost innocence. "Why won't it just work!?" he screams at one point. We hear the slam of a door as his wife exits - into the sun, into the light. The man remains chained to his PC and his demons. Another reboot follows. And another...

    5 hours, rated PG.

    1. dogged

      Re: I'm working on a new film - "With Windows 10"

      It's a comedy about the technically inept, then?

      (Don't want MS to get your data on this heavily-instrumented not-ready-for-production preview software? Yank the network cable).

  5. sandman

    Pah, amateurs

    My computers are protected by an Elder Sign (one that eats the brains of passing teenagers).

  6. Sokolik

    OMGosh...

    ...I could not have stated it half-as-well. Your excellent, quick, accurate satire put a needed smile on my face. Thanks!

  7. Irongut

    "Just because something is new and clever doesn’t actually mean it will make a better film."

    "It’s certainly interesting, but it ain’t the new Blair Witch."

    Found footage films are generally terrible, there are a few exceptions but Blair Witch definitely ain't one of them. Also doesn't help that the name always makes me think of Cherie Blair.

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      It was all a foreshadowing of Tony Blair and the War on Terroair. You can't escape, and it will eventually consume you.

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