On the anniversary of the suicide of Laura Davies (Heather Sossaman), several of her friends receive dire threats from an unknown party who is stalking them one by one, resulting in more than one grisly demise. What's unique about Unfriended is that the viewer never sees anything but the computer screen on which the friends (and enemy) are emailing and visually communicating with one another. At first you can't imagine watching a whole movie this way, but once you get into the concept it works -- at least this once. The trouble with this stunt movie isn't the format so much as the fact that it should be scary, but aside from a couple of creepy moments, it isn't. Just when things are getting taut and suspenseful, there's a revelation of one character cheating on another that dissipates the tension for too long. Unfriended is a melange of computer hacking, Facebook, cyber stalking, bullying, and posting nasty videos on youtube, but the method chosen to deal with all this is fairly shallow, The actors, especially Shelley Hennig as Blair, are not bad, however, although this is not the type of movie to build a career on. Apparently we'll have to wait until Unfriended 2 to find out who the crazed maniac really is.
Verdict: Gets a couple of points for an interesting idea. **1/2.
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