The new trailer for "Unfriended" brings horror closer to the desktop; it's "The Ring" updated to a generation of Skype calls and selfies.
The new "Unfriended" trailer may hit closer to home for the current generation of audiences. The new movie exploits social media and conference calls as the playing field for terror; the premise is inexpensive and crazy it just might work, as "Paranormal Activity," "The Blair Witch Project," and "VHS" have proven.
"Unfriended" (formerly known as "Cybernatural") is a "who-did-it" thriller, revolving a group of teenagers in a Skype call with a ghost from their past. The movie capitalizes on the obsession for social media, and sets the stage in a medium the Internet generation is all too familiar with.
The trailer teases the consequences of cyber bullying, which in many cases in real life ends up in suicide for the victim. "Unfriended" unfolds a year after Laura Barns' (played by Heather Sossaman) documented suicide, following an uploaded, humiliating video of her was uploaded online.
The victim's schoolmates are in the middle of a Skype call when a seventh caller steps in to terrorize all of them.
Found footage films proved successful, if not cult hits in the past, with the "Paranormal Activity" movies the most recent of these. There's even a scene in "Paranormal Activity 4" where one character carries a MacBook around the room to keep up with an online chat, which sets up a terrifying premise for anyone who's ever alone in a room with laptop on hand.
The entire movie plays out from one person's screen, Blaire's (played by Shelley Hennig of "Teen Wolf"), the events supposedly occurring in a continuous shot.
The "Unfriended" trailer released to positive audience reviews, with release date set on April 17, written by Nelson Greaves, and directed by Levan Gabriadze, starring Sossaman, Hennig, Jacob Wysocki of "Terri," Will Peltz of "Men, Women and Children," and Renee Olstead of "The Secret Life of the American Teenager" (screenrant.com).
