Taglines: Online, your memories last forever. But so do your mistakes.
Set in Fresno, California on April 12, 2014, Unfriended is told through a laptop screencast of high school student Blaire Lily (Shelley Hennig), one year after her childhood friend Laura Barns committed suicide. Laura was a victim of online abuse after a YouTube video depicted her intoxicated and passed out, covered in her own menstrual blood and feces.
Blaire briefly watches a recording of the suicide and the YouTube video before she is contacted over Skype by her boyfriend Mitch (Moses Jacob Storm). The couple promise to lose their virginity to each other at prom. They’re later joined by three of their friends: Jess Felton (Renee Olstead), Ken Smith (Jacob Wysocki), and Adam Sewell (Will Peltz), as well as an unnamed faceless account who claims to be Laura.
The team makes several unsuccessful attempts to get rid of the user. Laura’s Facebook account starts sending cryptic messages to the friends, which causes them to suspect that another girl, Val Rommel (Courtney Halverson), whom they all despise, is simply pranking them. When she joins the chat, Jess’ Facebook is suddenly updated with repulsive and compromising pictures of a drunk Val at a party. Jess, who claims she did not post them, tries to delete the photos but they continue to reappear.
After finally deleting them, the photos are mysteriously posted on Adam’s account. Text messages appear in the chat room, that insult each one in the group, leading to massive arguments between the friends. After being threatened multiple times by Laura, Val eventually calls 911 to report her online abuse, and signs off. Ken states that he did not like Laura because she was nothing but a bully.
Unfriended (originally released as Cybernatural) is a 2015 American found footage supernatural horror film directed by Russo-Georgian director Levan Gabriadze,[4][5][6] written by Nelson Greaves, and produced by Timur Bekmambetov, Jason Blum, and Greaves.
The film premiered at the Fantasia Festival on July 20, 2014, and at SXSW on March 13, 2015. It received a theatrical release on April 17, 2015. The film stars Shelley Hennig as one of several friends who find themselves terrorized online by an anonymous person. A variation on the found footage genre, the entire film is set in real-time on a character’s computer screen. The film received mixed to positive reviews from critics and has grossed over $45.5 million against a budget of $1 million, becoming a huge financial success.
Unfriended
Directed by: Levan Gabriadze
Starring: Heather Sossaman, Matthew Bohrer, Courtney Halverson, Will Peltz, Jacob Wysocki, Courtney Halverson, Heather Sossaman
Screenplay by: Nelson Greaves
Production Design by: Heidi Koleto
Cinematography by: Adam Sidman
Film Editing by: Parker Laramie, Andrew Wesman
Costume Design by: Veronika Belenikina
art Direction by: Brooks Fairley
MPAA Rating: R for violent content, pervasive language, some sexuality, and drug and alcohol use – all involving teens.
Studio: Universal Pictures
Release Date: April 17, 2015
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