Unfriended: Dark Web Review

                                                   Unfriended: Dark Web (2018)

IMDb genre: Horror
Director: Stephen Susco
Writer: Stephen Susco
Starring: Betty Gabriel, Rebecca Rittenhouse, Colin Woodell
IMDb summary: A teen comes into possession of a new laptop and soon discovers that the previous owner is not only watching him, but will also do anything to get it back.

Let's start this review by saying I'm well aware of all the hate Blumhouse gets and, while they don't always hit the mark, I am a fan. 

I enjoyed the first Unfriended movie (which came out in 2014 somehow, I'm getting old!) but it was more of a typical silly teen slasher; it was entertaining and I liked the gimmick of it all being on a computer but to be honest I didn't really think about it a lot afterwards. However, cut to four years later and they really pulled it out of the bag. A change in writer/director has clearly made an impact but the smartest change was to really make use of the computer gimmick with dark web chatrooms, hidden sinister files etc instead of a supernatural theme. This means it's not overly scary at the time but it stays with you, it's one of those that could happen so you can't quite fully dismiss it. There's still several tense moments though, have no doubt.

The acting this time round, after Get Out we always knew Betty Gabriel would knock any other film out the park but the only one that didn't work for me was Connor Del Rio's AJ but I think that was more in the writing as he was just an annoying character! Representation is important in movies and this movie features a deaf woman and a lesbian couple that aren't treated any differently and I really liked that.

The deaths are enjoyable and inventive but I do think the film would have benefited from a little more gore in those scenes.

I don't want to give anything a way but I do think the ending seemed rushed and was particularly unfair on one character (I will come back to edit this when the film's been available longer to explain more what I mean.)

So, I'd definitely recommend this one, if for no other reason than there's an English character talking about Craigslist with a different pronunciation to everyone else & I appreciated that!

General Opinion:
   

Scare Factor:

More tense than scary but definitely gives you something to think about.

Gore:

The little bit of gore we do get isn't very good, could have done with less cutting away at the critical moment.

Clowns:

Not funny throughout but there's some funny interactions during the set-up.

Unfriended: Dark Web is currently in selected UK cinemas.