One of my kids is really into horror movies, and even though I’m not, I offered to go see Unfriended with him this morning. I selected this movie because there wasn’t any nudity in it, and the premise was actually very interesting. The main hook of the movie, that makes it unique, is that your perspective, as the viewer, is of one of the character’s computer desktops. The only thing you ever see in the movie is what she sees. If she brings up Chrome to search Google, that’s what you see. If she types an instant message to her boyfriend, that’s what you see. The main “camera” work is all done from the perspective of webcams in a group Skype chat with her friends. This is a really cool storytelling device and I think it worked well for the most part in this movie.

First off, before I go too much further… ***SPOILERS AHEAD*** I WILL spoil the plot of this movie if you keep reading. You’ve been warned.

The unique aspect of the desktop-only view certainly added suspense. You only could see what the Skype webcams could see. If someone didn’t move their camera, you couldn’t see anything else. They also did a great job in post production mimicking the digital distortion and lag that occurs when people chat over webcams. At times people’s camera’s would freeze, or you’d see artifacts on the screen. Overall, the effect was very well done and made for a compelling viewing experience.

My only complaint about it was that it really was just like watching someone at their computer. Every click, every word that was typed and erased, all of it was extremely realistic. Think about the last time you were watching someone over their shoulder as they worked a computer. There are moments of frustration as you want them to click somewhere different than they should, or boredom as they do something mundane. It’s a nice storytelling device, and I think there will be other movies that try this technique. But I think that other movies will also learn from Unfriended and do it better.

Despite my little nitpick about the mechanic of the movie, my biggest complaint was the story. The premise is that a year ago a high school girl, named Laura, was cyber bullied when someone posted a video of her online that showed her passed out drunk and completely embarrassed her. The bullying got so bad that she committed suicide. The movie starts on the anniversary of Laura killing herself. As the friends all Skype with each other, another entity joins their chat with no video, and they can’t hang up on it. Quickly it is revealed that it is the dead girl coming back to haunt them. The movie then devolves into a basic revenge plot with the friends slowing dying because of their role in Laura’s suicide.

It’s not that this is a re-hashed plot that bugs me, but that it’s handled so poorly and without much creativity. By midway through the movie it is revealed that the mysterious entity is REALLY in fact Laura’s ghost come back to haunt them. This ghost has the power to take over people’s computers and even houses, so lights will go out, and computers will start playing videos and music at random. This ghost also has the ability to force people to kill themselves. This is the biggest part of the plot that bugged me.

All of the characters die at the end, and it’s by their own hand. But that’s the problem, because the ghost FORCES them to kill themselves it’s not really suicide, it’s just a different type of murder. I felt like this whole aspect of the plot could have been much more interesting if they didn’t take the real ghost angle. Imagine if it wasn’t really a ghost that was killing them. What if it was another person, like Laura’s mom or dad. Or maybe Laura could have faked her suicide and came back to get revenge. That would have been way more compelling than just giving in to a supernatural explanation.

Also, if the characters had CHOSE to commit suicide, instead of magically being forced to, it would have been much more interesting. Imagine if the ghost had revealed everyone’s secrets by posting them on social media, and one by one the characters all became so embarrassed that they felt that ending their lives was the only choice. If each character had devolved into a state of hopelessness it would have really made the deaths mean more. As it stands, each of the characters were very one-dimensional and I could have cared less about them when they died. Especially since they were just killed by the ghost. By the end of the movie I pretty much didn’t care what happened to any of these people, and since I knew they were each going to die, there wasn’t much point in investing in them.

Even though I’m not a horror fan I found Unfriended to be somewhat compelling, or at least compelling enough to get me into the theater. Yet, the lack of any real depth in the story left me wanting. The unique perspective of the computer desktop was very cool and unique, but it needed a better story around it, as it wasn’t enough to carry the weight of boring characters and a stone simple plot.

Might be worth a Netflix viewing, but I wouldn’t bother wasting theater prices on this one.