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"Unfriended," out in U.S. theaters on Friday, follows six
high school students gathering on the video conferencing
platform Skype on the anniversary of the suicide of a fellow
student, who killed herself after an embarrassing video of her
was posted online.
Filmed entirely as if the events are unfolding on a computer
screen, a mysterious entity joins the group's Skype conversation
and begins to coerce secrets out of each friend, before exacting
gory revenge one by one, as the others watch in horror.
The film can feel close to home for real-life cyberbullying
stories that have led to serious consequences, especially within
a close-knit community of high school. It also highlights online
trolls, carelessly posting insults from the safety net of being
anonymous and behind a computer screen.
"It's a very serious topic, a relatable drama dressed as a
horror movie," said producer Timur Bekmambetov. "We're using
horror movie language, but the story is about one of the biggest
problems on the Internet."
"Unfriended," released by Comcast Corp's Universal Pictures, was
an experimental project, made for less than $1 million. It was
filmed in a six-bedroom house in Los Angeles, where each room
housed one of the main actors, all connected through the
Internet as they were filmed.
"It's really effective to serving how authentic this is," said
executive producer Jason Blum, whose Blumhouse Productions,
known for horror movies such as "Paranormal Activity" and "The
Purge," joined 'Unfriended' last August.
"People don't go to movies for political messages, they go to
rallies. But if there's a social message tucked into them, all
the better," he added.
Bekmambetov believes the way in which 'Unfriended' is filmed, a
method he calls 'screenshot movie,' will become more prevalent
in filmmaking as the world becomes more digital.
"It was very important for me to make this movie for theatrical
release, because it's a statement that this type of filmmaking
is the future," Bekmambetov said.
"We're spending more and more time living in the virtual world,
and it means we should tell stories about our behavior and how
we communicate. We talk differently in real life when we're
chatting, we're not reacting the same way - we are different."
(Reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy; editing by Patricia Reaney)
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