Make no mistake, 'Unfriended' will become a pivotal, pioneering text that will undoubtedly act as a conglomerate for canonisation - for future tie-ins, off-spins, sequels, prequels and parodies; because it's exquisitely simplistic, economically viable (for budget and for product placement) and poignantly prevalent. Russian breakthrough director Levan Gabriadze retunes the found-footage martyrdom of Oren Peli's paranormal franchise in propelling the dilemmas of hyper-attention, an Orwell-esque defamation of privacy and the presiding psychoanalytical flaws within electronic communications and an information overloaded cyber-space. Circulating from a modern youth culture inundated under the surge of the worldwide web, 'Unfriended' connotes that its 'app-eal' should be regarded with 'app-rehension'.
Unobtrusively shot and edited into one long, static sequence, the film defies the cinematographic or compositional eloquence supposedly required in constructing a narrative. The viewer experiences the whole feature through a computer display- a macbook to be precise - to which aspects of accessibility and apps drive the development of the story. Search engines provide the viewer with donations of information, 'Youtube' provides back stories, downloaded music apps provide the (non-diegetic and diegetic) soundtrack, messenger provides character cognition and Skype provides conflict. 'Unfriended' cleverly makes use of the many capabilities of the 'SMART' computer in stitching together a story that is viewed as an emulation of live-action - a time without ellipsis - in hammering home a relevant newness, nowness and further stipulation unto the congruence of actuality.
In creating fear, the general premise partakes upon the formulaic front of the slasher. Six undeniably bothersome blockhead teens conspire upon a joint video-chat to be correspondently offed by the malevolent digital presence of a girl who committed suicide due to their ill-founded notions of self-popularity and bullying. It's essentially a next generation 'I know what you did last summer' revamped for those born in and around the noughties, with a technological tang. Whilst the plump synonymity with adolescent culture is undeniable, the creation of fear is somewhat hit or miss. Form and style, though wonderfully interconnected and intelligently made manifest through an alternative medium, require a certain receptive quality in order for the film to be at its most effective. Because the form and style are both in unison to the methodologies of the computerised, it stands to question as to whether the film requires a definite output in which to reach its full potential of intensity. In an age where technology is all but differentiated by other platforms of media and coalitions, 'Unfriended' harnesses one particular discourse of mediation yet is not (for all intensive purposes) presumed to be exhibited as such. To feel the imperative scares and effects (and after-effects) of the feature, it needs to be viewed on a computer (or even one made by Apple) - or else the entire corroboration can seem a bit of a gimmick for a 'film' that hardly sticks to the formal constituents of its proposed medium.
For all its nouveau and ingenuity, 'Unfriended' is an excellently crafted and grafted horror for the socio-contemporaneous in substantiating perversions in privacy and online morality. Reforming the moulds of possibility within verity filmmaking, the theme demands to be taken seriously and is not confined to just the adolescent portions of communities but for everyone who dabbles in the internet occult. On the other hand, it's a hypnotising viral marketing campaign disguised as a film...
Unobtrusively shot and edited into one long, static sequence, the film defies the cinematographic or compositional eloquence supposedly required in constructing a narrative. The viewer experiences the whole feature through a computer display- a macbook to be precise - to which aspects of accessibility and apps drive the development of the story. Search engines provide the viewer with donations of information, 'Youtube' provides back stories, downloaded music apps provide the (non-diegetic and diegetic) soundtrack, messenger provides character cognition and Skype provides conflict. 'Unfriended' cleverly makes use of the many capabilities of the 'SMART' computer in stitching together a story that is viewed as an emulation of live-action - a time without ellipsis - in hammering home a relevant newness, nowness and further stipulation unto the congruence of actuality.
In creating fear, the general premise partakes upon the formulaic front of the slasher. Six undeniably bothersome blockhead teens conspire upon a joint video-chat to be correspondently offed by the malevolent digital presence of a girl who committed suicide due to their ill-founded notions of self-popularity and bullying. It's essentially a next generation 'I know what you did last summer' revamped for those born in and around the noughties, with a technological tang. Whilst the plump synonymity with adolescent culture is undeniable, the creation of fear is somewhat hit or miss. Form and style, though wonderfully interconnected and intelligently made manifest through an alternative medium, require a certain receptive quality in order for the film to be at its most effective. Because the form and style are both in unison to the methodologies of the computerised, it stands to question as to whether the film requires a definite output in which to reach its full potential of intensity. In an age where technology is all but differentiated by other platforms of media and coalitions, 'Unfriended' harnesses one particular discourse of mediation yet is not (for all intensive purposes) presumed to be exhibited as such. To feel the imperative scares and effects (and after-effects) of the feature, it needs to be viewed on a computer (or even one made by Apple) - or else the entire corroboration can seem a bit of a gimmick for a 'film' that hardly sticks to the formal constituents of its proposed medium.
For all its nouveau and ingenuity, 'Unfriended' is an excellently crafted and grafted horror for the socio-contemporaneous in substantiating perversions in privacy and online morality. Reforming the moulds of possibility within verity filmmaking, the theme demands to be taken seriously and is not confined to just the adolescent portions of communities but for everyone who dabbles in the internet occult. On the other hand, it's a hypnotising viral marketing campaign disguised as a film...
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