Unfriended

Unfriended
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Leo Gabriadze
Produced by	Timur Bekmambetov Nelson Greaves
Written by	Nelson Greaves
Starring	Shelley Hennig Moses Storm Renee Olstead Will Peltz Jacob Wysocki Courtney Halverson Heather Sossaman
Cinematography	Adam Sidman
Edited by	Parker Laramie Andrew Wesman
Production companies	Bazelevs Company Blumhouse Productions
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release dates	July 20, 2014 (2014-07-20) (Fantasia) April 17, 2015 (2015-04-17) (United States)
Running time	83 minutes[1]
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$1 million[2]
Box office	$64.1 million[3]

Unfriended is a 2014 American found footage supernatural horror film directed by Russo-Georgian director Levan Gabriadze,^[4][5][6] written by Nelson Greaves, exec-produced by Jason Blum, co-produced by Adam Sidman, and produced by Timur Bekmambetov and Greaves.

The film premiered at the Fantasia Festival on July 20, 2014, and at SXSW on March 13, 2015. It received a theatrical release on April 17, 2015. The film, which is told entirely through a high school student's Macbook screen,^[7] stars Shelley Hennig as one of several friends who find themselves terrorized online by an anonymous person.^[8] The film received mixed to positive reviews from critics and has grossed $64 million against a $1 million budget.

A sequel to the film has been greenlit and is in development.

Plot

When a humiliating video of Fresno, California high school student Laura Barns (Heather Sossaman) is uploaded to YouTube, causing her to endure widespread mockery and ridicule, she promptly commits suicide.

A year later, her closest friend, Blaire Lily (Shelley Hennig), views a LiveLeak video of Laura's suicide - where she is seen pointing a gun to her head and shooting herself, despite nearby students begging her to stop. Blaire is then contacted over Skype by her boyfriend Mitch Roussel (Moses Jacob Storm). Both are joined by their classmates Jess Felton (Renee Olstead), Ken Smith (Jacob Wysocki), and Adam Sewell (Will Peltz). During their conversation, however, they notice a random user dubbed "billie227" in their chat, who was not invited in by any of the participants.

After several unsuccessful attempts to get rid of the stranger, the fivesome suspect a sixth classmate–Val Rommel (Courtney Halverson), whom they all despise—is pranking them. Accordingly, they invite Val to their chat. Without warning, Jess's Facebook is updated with photos of Val drinking and smoking at a party. As Val loses her temper, Jess proclaims her innocence while struggling to delete the photos, which suddenly reappear on Adam's account. After repeated threats from Billie, Val calls 911 to report online abuse and then signs off.

The fivesome discover that "billie227" was Laura Barns' Instagram account. Blaire is sent a link that reveals a photo of Laura messaging Val for her to remove the humiliating video and asking for friendship, and Val rejecting her, telling her to kill herself. Multiple Instagram users then slander Val, who is suddenly brought back into the chat, sitting motionless in her bathroom next to an open bottle of bleach. Initially thinking her camera is frozen, they discover that Val is in fact paralysed in some way as her phone is seen vibrating when Blaire attempts to call her. Val then crashes to the floor as the police arrive. At first, the friends believe she just experienced a seizure, but thereafter, based on the codes that the policemen relay to their colleagues, they deduce that Val committed suicide, most likely by being forced to drink the bleach.

Ken finally gets Billie out of their chat using anti-virus software. When Adam tries to call the police, he is warned by a mysterious voice against hanging up. Billie resurfaces with a camera view from across Ken's room. Ken walks over to have a look and freezes in horror. His webcam momentarily disconnects, and then reconnects to show him being thrown about by an unseen force and mangling his hand in a blender, before using the blades to slice his own throat, thus killing himself. Billie then displays the video that caused Laura's eventual suicide; dubbed "Leaky Laura", it shows a drunk Laura face-down on the ground near her house, barely conscious, sprawled in her menstrual blood and excrement.

Billie forces Adam, Blaire, Mitch, and Jess to play Never Have I Ever, stating that the loser of the game will die. All four friends are forced to reveal dark secrets which put them at odds with each other: Jess spread rumors that Blaire had an eating disorder, Blaire got drunk and crashed Jess's mother's car, Mitch kissed Laura soon before her death and reported Adam to the police for selling weed, Jess stole $800 from Adam, and Adam offered to trade Jess' life for his own. Soon after it is also revealed that Blaire had sex with Adam behind Mitch's back on two occasions and Adam forced their classmate Ashley Dane to get an abortion after he date raped her using roofies at a party.

Blaire and Adam suddenly receive secret messages from their printers. Worried that they are still lying behind his back, Mitch furiously demands that Blaire reveal her note to him and threatens to leave if she doesn't. Billie assures Blaire that if Mitch leaves, he will die. In a moment of panic and high stress, Blaire shows her message: "If you reveal this note, Adam will die." Under Laura's thrall, Adam suddenly kills himself by shooting himself in the face; as he collapses, his camera reveals his note: "If you reveal this note, Blaire will die."

Billie then asks which of the threesome defaced Laura's grave. When Blaire warns Jess against answering said question, Billie turns off all the lights in her house. Jess hides in her bathroom, while Blaire goes on Chatroulette and gets someone to call the police. Suddenly, the video feed disconnects after Jess is seen screaming and being thrown around the room by an unseen entity. Soon after, Blaire receives a Facebook notification from Jess's account. A video of Jess being fatally choked with her own electric hair-straightener appears, and is then uploaded as an Image macro, with the caption being "looks like she finally stfu".

Billie privately messages Blaire on Facebook, finally wanting her to confess who uploaded the Leaky Laura video. Blaire tries to deny any involvement from her and Mitch, but after Billie continues counting down the seconds she has to admit the truth, she confesses that Mitch did it. Without warning, Mitch grabs his own knife and stabs himself in the head, collapsing and disconnecting his video feed, leaving Blaire all alone.

As Blaire breaks down in tears, Billie - finally unveiled as Laura herself - declares her appreciation for Blaire's honesty. A desperate Blaire tries to remind Laura of their friendship when she was alive, but Laura responds by uploading another video of herself on Blaire's account. It is the same Leaky Laura video, only this time the video continues to show that Blaire was the one recording it, laughing at Laura's misfortune and treating it as a prank. With the truth finally revealed, Blaire's account is soon bombarded with hateful comments from those who denounce her for causing Laura's death. Laura tells Blaire that she wishes she could forgive her before signing off.

Blaire is left alone once again; during the silence, her bedroom door suddenly creaks open. A pair of hands slams her laptop shut before disappearing into the darkness. Blaire calls out to Laura, and without warning, Laura's vengeful spirit lashes out at Blaire, presumably killing her as the screen cuts to black, showing the title of the movie.

Cast

• Shelley Hennig as Blaire Lily
• Moses Jacob Storm as Mitch Roussel
• Renee Olstead as Jess Felton
• Will Peltz as Adam Sewell
• Jacob Wysocki as Ken Smith
• Courtney Halverson as Val Rommel
• Heather Sossaman as Laura Barns
• Mickey River as Dank Jimmy
• Cal Barnes as Rando Pauls
• Writer Nelson Greaves makes a cameo as one of Blaire's Facebook friends.

Production

Gabriadze was attracted to the project (then titled Offline) as it focused on the theme of bullying. He noted that the nature of bullying had changed since he was in school, as the Internet allowed for bullies to continue their actions even after school hours.^[9]

The film's title changed during shooting (and would also change prior to its theatrical release), as the film's crew felt that the title of Offline was "too general and not obvious" and that the then title of Cybernatural was "more to the point of what it is".^[9] For wide release, the film was re-titled Unfriended. Production was 16 days total, including six 12-hour days of principal photography, three days of pick-ups and then a few more reshoots.^[10]

Release

Unfriended initially had its world premiere on July 20, 2014 at the Fantasia Festival and screened on the film festival circuit under the title of Cybernatural.^[11] A generally positive film festival reception and test screenings for the film prompted Universal Pictures to pick up the film rights with the intent to give it a wide theatrical release the following year.^[12][13] The film's title was changed from Cybernatural to Unfriended and the film was theatrically released on April 17, 2015.^[14] The film was screened at Playlist Live on February 6, 2015^[15] and premiered at SXSW on March 13, 2015.^[16]

Marketing

In July 2014, a teaser trailer was released with scenes from the film. The teaser shows the original title of the film which at the time was Cybernatural.^[17] On January 12, 2015, the film's first official trailer with the title Unfriended was released.^[18] Shortly after, on February 6, 2015, the film was screened at Playlist Live, a popular convention for internet celebrities from Vine and YouTube.^[15] On March 13, 2015, the day of the film's official premiere at SXSW, scenes from the film were uploaded and a chat box appeared, where viewers could talk to Laura. Once she was finished talking, scenes appeared on the screen. Images were also released.^[19]

On February 13, 2015, a campaign was launched with Kik Messenger, in which Kik users could have a chat conversation with Laura.^[20] This made use of automated responses and pre-scripted responses, while also driving users to a dedicated microsite.^[21]

On March 13, 2015, after the film's premiere at SXSW, an after-party was hosted by Blumhouse. Exclusive Never Have I Ever cards were released at SXSW later, and a "NEVER HAVE I EVER" section was set up on the film's official website. Unfriended-themed photo booths were set up as well^[22] During production, official Facebook and Skype accounts were set up for the characters in the film, and, after the premiere at SXSW, people who attended were "friended" by the official Laura Barns Facebook account. There was also a Twitter account, which tweeted attendees of the after-party.^[23]

Unfriended was released on DVD and Blu-ray on August 11.^[24][25]

Reception

Box office

Unfriended has grossed $32.5 million in North America and $31.6 million in other territories, for a worldwide gross of $64.1 million against a budget of $1 million.^[3]

In North America, the film opened simultaneously with Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 and Monkey Kingdom on April 17, 2015, across 2,739 theaters, earning $6.8 million on its opening day.^[26] In its opening weekend, Unfriended earned $15.8 million, which was higher than its $12 million range projection, and finished in third place at the box office behind Furious 7 ($29.2 million) and fellow newcomer Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 ($23.8 million).^[27] Its opening weekend is the biggest debut for an original horror movie since The Conjuring, which opened with $41.9 million in July 2013.^[28]

Critical reception

Unfriended received mixed to positive reviews from critics. Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a rating of 62%, based on 147 reviews, with an average rating of 6/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Unfriended subverts found-footage horror cliches to deliver a surprisingly scary entry in the teen slasher genre with a technological twist."^[29] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 59 out of 100, based on 30 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".^[30]

Reception at the Fantasia Film Festival was mostly positive.^[31][32] Common praise for the film centered upon its acting and visuals,^[33] and Twitch Film commented that the film was an "interesting look at modern methods of communication and the ramifications of the new normal of always-on social interaction."^[34] Variety commented that while the film was "exasperating" at points, they also felt that it was clever and innovative.^[35]

Dread Central also praised the film overall, but stated that they felt that the movie's one major flaw was "the fashion in which we are trafficked to each scare- through multi-screen clicking, copying, pasting and re-sizing, basically all-around multi-tasking. It can be trying to sit through and I liken it to sitting over someone's shoulder watching them web-surf... endlessly."^[36] It was named Most Innovative Film at the Fantasia Film Festival and received a Special Mention for Feature Film.^[37]

British film critic Mark Kermode gave the film a positive review, calling it a film which understands Skyping culture and cyber-bullying. He said, "Many people who've seen the trailer say, 'You're being stalked through the internet. Just log off.' The point is they can't because they're addicted." While on one hand admitting it was a "shrieky, teen-terrorized, slasher movie," on the other hand he said it was a film about how cyber-bullying only works if you cooperate with it.^[38]

Irish film critic Donald Clarke, writing for The Irish Times, gave the film a very positive review, describing it as "genuinely unsettling" and praising the filmmakers' "uncanny grasp of the complicated dynamics of contemporary interaction" and how they succeeded in "[retaining] a position on the moral high ground while bloody mayhem rages around their feet".^[39]

In CinemaScore polls conducted during the opening weekend, cinema audiences gave Unfriended an average grade of "C", on an A+ to F scale.^[40]

Sequel

Blumhouse Productions has confirmed that a sequel has been greenlit and began development.^[41][42]

See also

• Bullying and suicide
• Cyberbullying
• The Den
• Connection Lost, an episode of Modern Family with a similar filming style
• List of ghost films

References

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Unfriended

• Official website
• Unfriended at the Internet Movie Database
• Unfriended at Box Office Mojo
• Unfriended at Rotten Tomatoes
• Unfriended at Metacritic