"Containing an abundance of visual gimmickry, this modern horror fable never out stays its welcome"

This sinister cyber revenge thriller explores the potentially fatal consequences of the cruel modern phenomenon that is anonymous online bullying. With constant social media sharing being in the DNA of every modern teenager, Unfriended highlights the ease in which your personal mistakes can be instantaneously viewed on the World Wide Web for all to see.

Using the bemoaned found footage genre as its central crux, the conventional plot unfolds in ‘real time’ on a stylish laptop screen which frequently switches between layered windows of Skype, IM, Youtube and Spotify.

Focusing on the devastating viral horrors that forever lurk on the internet, Unfriended follows a small group of obnoxious Skype chatting adolescents whose classmate committed suicide after a humiliating drunken video surfaced online one year earlier. When an unknown user suddenly interferes with the teens’ evening group chat, the Skype call from hell quickly ensues, forcing the bunch of high school friends to unwillingly reveal their shameful dark secrets to one another.

Containing an abundance of visual gimmickry, this modern horror fable never out stays its welcome, delivering a goose bump inducing tale for an internet addicted generation.

Whilst last year’s The Den and Open Windows explored different yet equally grim web fears, director Levan Gabriadze is not afraid of hammering home the ugly truth when it comes to the cowardly use of username anonymity and the trail of destruction that these keyboard warriors leave on a daily basis.

Editors Parker Laramie and Andrew Wesman give Unfriended (formerly named Cybernatural) a frustratingly realistic atmosphere with frozen webcam pixels left, right and centre along with ugly sound glitches that will have you grinding your teeth in sheer irritation. This brutal vilification of online terrorisation is sure to make you think at least once about becoming an out and out technophobe.