In this new day and age, it is rare for a teenager not to have a social media account, such as Twitter or Facebook. According to PEW Research Center, as of May 22, 2013, 95 percent of teens age 12-17 use the Internet, and 81 percent of them use social media networks. Unfriended, a supernatural horror film directed by Levan Gabriadze, explores the world of social media – and the consequences for putting certain material online – as a group of teenagers find themselves paying the price for posting an inappropriate video online.
The official trailer, which was recently released on January 13, began a worldwide craze on the movie among millions of social media users. Many, after viewing the trailer, vowed never to use Skype again, or, at least for a while.
The basic plot of the film is centered on high school student Laura Barns, who, a year earlier, had committed suicide as a result of the amount of ridicule she received over an embarrassing video of her from a party.
Six of her classmates were terrible in their treatment of her, especially because they were unpopular while Laura was one of the most popular girls in school. That same group of teens decided to get together and chat over Skype, but things take an unexpected turn as an uninvited seventh member logs into the Skype session under Laura’s old account.
Threatening to hurt the group if any of them log out or leave the conversation, the ultimate goal of the anonymous person is to find out who posted the infamous video of Laura. As the chat continues, the truth regarding the video begins to become apparent and other secrets are revealed as well.
One interesting aspect of the film is that the entire movie is shown from a computer screen, a “screen cap movie” as CollegeHumor’s Ricky Van Veen calls it.
Despite the obvious theme of supernatural horror, Unfriended shows a few other important concepts that viewers should hopefully pay attention to – bullying and watching out what you post online.
Everyone’s encountered a bully before at one point or another. Bullying can happen anywhere and under any context, but cyber bullying, which takes place online, is becoming more and more frequent in today’s society. Why? Because with the amount of Internet access teens have today and the number of teens who take advantage of it, it is extremely easy to say what you want to say to someone else behind a computer screen where no one will know your identity. With bullying an increasing problem with today’s youth, it is good for teenagers to see the effect of their actions by watching Laura’s own tragedy (which was based on a true story.)
Social media sites like Vine and YouTube make it exciting for people to post their own material and see how others react to it. However, the material you post online is not something to be taken lightly, as putting certain things can put you in risk, ruin your chances of getting a job, and can get taken too seriously and blown out of context. An example of this incident occurred when a University of Oklahoma freshman’s joke on assassinating President Bush caused a visit from the Secret Service.
Unfriended, starring Shelley Hennig and Renee Olstead, comes to theatres worldwide on April 17, 2015. Watch the trailer and decide for yourself if it will live up to its hype, and, in the meantime, be careful what you’re posting online.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q72LWqCx3pc