‘Like. Comment. Kill.’
Friend Request – aka Unfriend – is a 2016 English-language German supernatural horror film directed by Simon Verhoeven from a screenplay co-written with Matthew Ballen and Philip Koch.
The film was released on 7 January 2016 in Germany by Warner Bros. Pictures, and will be released in the US by Freestyle Releasing. It serves as a German version of the 2014 American horror film Unfriended, produced by Blumhouse.
Main cast:
Alycia Debnam-Carey, William Moseley, Connor Paolo, Brit Morgan, Brooke Markham, Sean Marquette and Liesl Ahlers.
Plot:
Laura is one of the most popular students in college and enjoys her life and family. She is active on social networks and especially likes sharing things about herself with over 800 of her friends on Facebook.
One day, Laura receives a friend request from “Marina”, a girl she barely knows, but nevertheless accepts it and begins a relationship with the lonely girl online and outdoors. However, when Laura shares a picture of herself at her birthday dinner, the jealous and confused Marina angrily confronts Laura at college publicly before she is stopped by security and taken away, vowing revenge on Laura.
That night, Marina commits suicide via a live webcam video she sends to Laura due to the fact that Laura unfriended her off her Facebook page. Soon after, Laura finds herself stalked by Marina’s demonic spirit and threatening to make her “lonely” after taking over her Facebook page in order to remain friends… forever!
Reviews:
“Emoticons, iPhones and iPads are used to gimmicky effect in a horror which, despite its digital theme, feels distinctly dial-up … Unfortunately, atmosphere comes second to a succession of mutilated faces appearing on touchscreens, laptops and mobiles, all accompanied by gigantic booms on the soundtrack.” Daily Record
” … some of the imagery is nice, some of the deaths satisfyingly grisly. Marina’s artwork provides a few eerie animations which would have worked better in a more stylistic film than this, but they still breathe a bit of life into an otherwise fairly generic and loud jump-scare strewn mess. It will probably appeal to a younger crowd (at the wizened old age of twenty-two, I was definitely the oldest in the room when I saw it this week, and the teens in front of me were squealing plenty).” Samantha McLaren, Scream magazine
“Friend Request is less of a horror film and more a collection of tropes and clichés sellotaped and stitched together to create a Frankenstein’s monster of bad ideas you’ve seen done better in other films.” Tom Percival, Unilad
Filming locations:
Cape Town, South Africa
Trailer:
International trailer:
