31 Days of Halloween 2018: Unfriended

2014, Levan Gabriadze (Lucky Trouble) -- download

Well, that was clever.

Am I wrong, but shouldn't every horror movie about friends who did something wrong (i.e. I Know What You Did Last Summer) have one nice girl/guy survivor? Or are we, in this age of the social media based judge & jury state, everyone is guilty and worthy of punishment? I suppose that since this entire movie is around social media based interaction, its appropriate?

You saw that episode of Modern Family where the mom tries to track down the daughter, and we see it all through the "eyes" of her macbook screen? This movie is like that, all in the evening social "gathering" of a group of of highschoolers on iChat. Is that what Apple calls its PC based video chatting? Or is Facetime transparent in this post-iPhone movie? I can't keep up with what you kids do.

OK, that is out -- Old Man View. Sure, the movie is clever but do kids actually just hang out in video chat? Sure, its 2014 but weren't phones the focal point back then? Sure, there are the technical challenges of presenting an entire movie through a phone screen, but do kids actually ever just hang out in front of their laptop screens? Cybering (what is the current 2018 term for cyber-sex?) I can believe but general social chatting? Well, whatever the reality of the situation, that is where the kids are when a mysterious third party shows up, one they cannot kick from the chat, one that slowly unravels their lives.

This group was at the centre of a social media lynching that posted a video of a un/popular girl who crapped her pants at a party. In response, the girl shot herself. Now, a year later, it appears she is back and (the real horror here) hacking their social media accounts. Over the course of the movie, the ghost in the machine reveals details of how each participated in the cyber-bullying of the girl, from posting videos to leading "kill yourself" tirades in anonymous comments to just generally messing with her. But not just that, as the spirit reveals that each and every one of them is just a soulless bully even against each other. And to backup the bullying, the spirit has the ability to force them to commit suicide in gruesome manners.

Its all rather well done, quick and frenetic, jumping from app to Facebook to personal chat. There was a bit of stick handling done, as the conversation of the others seems to quiet down (i.e. they don't do anything) while we focus on conversation private to two, but beyond that, it all was displayed really well. It still amused me that a ghost, revenge spirit or whatever became tech savvy enough to play with software, removing buttons and hacking accounts. The afterlife has some good malware.

In the end, there is no Final Girl. All the kids are horrible, to each other and to others. All the kids deserve to die. Deserve to die? Ghost girl is obviously as bad as they were, if that's where her revenge takes her.