Unfriended (MTV/Universal)

El Diablo Blanco

https://youtu.be/Q72LWqCx3pc

Haven't spotted a thread for this yet - anybody seen it?

Saw this over the weekend, and was very pleasantly surprised. An extremely immersive and inventive thriller, and well-written, I felt. The acting, across the board, was very solid, and the pace is brisk throughout.

For me, personally, I thought this was more cohesive and effective than the recent, critically-lauded It Follows.

Unfriended, I felt, only made one misstep and, unfortunately, that happened to be the ending, which reeked of studio interference. Pure speculation on my part, but it just didn't gel with the tone and feel of the rest of the film. I would've much rathered

that Blair were left alive to face the music for her actions, rather than have a silly, clichéd teen slasher climax

.

Surprised to see MTV behind this - maybe there's hope, so, for the upcoming Scream TV series...

Fysh

I saw this last night and was very impressed - it works as both a found-footage (sort of) film and a "technology" film, yet despite the entire film being essentially watching someone's laptop screen it manages to be gripping throughout.

I agree re: the one misstep - felt a bit lazy to me too. But everything before it was great - from the way that we see Blaire typing several possible responses before settling on one to send, to the infrequent but very funny humour (particularly when introduced

through well-chosen but inappropriate music

), to the inventiveness of various segments and the occasional use of interrupted video feeds to encourage the viewer's mind/imagination to fill in the gaps (

the deaths involving the blender and the hair-straightener were both toe-curling, particularly the former since "character has hand put into blender" has been seen many times, but "character tries to pull hand out of blender, smashes blender and then has throat rammed onto still-spinning blades" is definitely a new one

). Plus, it doesn't hang around beyond its welcome or waste its ending trying to set up a crappy sequel. 80 odd minutes of well-made film, thank you and goodnight.

Liam McPoyle

Have heard from a couple of people whose opinions I value when it comes to horror, one of which is a massive fan of the FF genre, that this is rubbish.

FF movies should have died a death a long time ago IMO.

Fysh

Business Cat wrote: »

Have heard from a couple of people whose opinions I value when it comes to horror, one of which is a massive fan of the FF genre, that this is rubbish.

FF movies should have died a death a long time ago IMO.

It's not properly a found footage movie, but it has similarities to it.

It's just a narrative technique like any other. It can be used well or badly, which is down to the creative team behind the film. I think Donald Clarke's review for the IT does a good job of describing its merits.

I can see it not being for everyone, but the crowd I watched this with yesterday seemed to enjoy it pretty well. Horses for course and all that.

Greenmachine

Not seen it yet. Not one herself will come to with me. Scary movie not for herself, will have to get one of the lads in to catch this one.

Mr E

Very clever movie, and one of the most occupied horror screenings I've ever been at (we nearly didn't get a seat).

Didn't like the last minute or so, but the other 79 were so good, I didn't really mind. I wonder if there will be an alternative ending on the retail release?

The editing was very clever too - it was almost like a single take (even though it couldn't have been). Good continuity too (any clocks were consistent within the timeline of the 80 minutes).

Well worth watching on a big screen, particularly since a lot of the early dialogue is typed.

ancapailldorcha

I really liked this. Meant to start a thread when i got home but I forgot. What sets it apart is the fact that the entire story is told through a computer screen complete with desktop, clock, icons, etc as has been noted.

yerwanthere123

Watched this tonight. Whilst I think the idea for the movie was great, I don't think the execution was very good. I feel the scope for character development was pretty small given they were behind a computer screen at all times, and I didn't think it was that scary. The ending felt a little lazy as well. I'd watch it again, but only at a push. 5.5/10

PeterTheEighth

Watched this yesterday, and just came on here to see if anybody liked it. This movie has been pretty much binned as "yet another found footage cliché", but I thought it was really clever.

ziedth

I thought it was excellent to be honest. I grew very weary of the found footage style of films but I thought this was a very good idea. Although Modern family did the same thing so I'd be interested to see who came up with it first.

Pretty well acted all in all, seemingly they filmed it in one house with the actors in a room each which I found funny.

I'd recommend it

PeterTheEighth

ziedth wrote: »

I thought it was excellent to be honest. I grew very weary of the found footage style of films but I thought this was a very good idea.

I acquired a number of horror films that were listed as the best horror movies of 2015 and 2014 and I really was surprised to find out how many of them were "found footage". I thought that it would have been considered just a gimmick at this stage.

Pretty well acted all in all, seemingly they filmed it in one house with the actors in a room each which I found funny.

I thought it was really well acted. Especially the girl who played Blaire, who was actually a beauty queen at one time. But she's a fine actress. That's gas about them filming it in the one house.

The only thing I would have suggested for the film was a better resolution. The "Never have I ever" part was very clever and it really was working well until that point. But having them all slaughtered by some invisible monster was just a bit too simple.

Footoo

You might want to put spoiler tags around that tbf.