Unfriended

Unfriended is a 2014 American supernatural horror film that was directed by Levan Gabriadze & written by Nelson Greaves (who also produced the film along with Timur Bekmambetov).

The film first premiered on July 20, 2014 at the Fantasia Festival. On April 17, 2015, it was released in theaters.

Plot
One year ago, Laura Barns (Heather Sossaman) committed suicide after a humilating video was posted to the Internet without her consent.

One year later during an online chat, four friends are haunted by a mysterious, supernatural force that is using Laura's online account.

Cast

 * Shelley Hennig as Blaire Lily
 * Moses Jacob Storm as Mitch Roussel
 * Renee Olstead as Jess Felton
 * Will Peltz as Adam Sewell
 * Jacob Wysocki as Ken Smith
 * Courtney Halverson as Val Rommel
 * Heather Sossaman as Laura Barns
 * Mickey River as Dank Jimmy
 * Cal Barnes as Rando Pauls

Production
Levan Gabriadze was attracted to the project (which was then titled "Offline") as it focused on the theme of bullying.

He noted that the nature of bullying had changed since he was in school because the Internet allowed bullies to continue their actions even after school hours.

The film's title changed during shooting to "Cybernatural," but was later retitled to "Unfriended" for its theatrical release.

The production took 16 days including six 12-hour days of princiapl photography, three days of pick-ups and then a few more reshoots.

Release
"Unfriended" initially had its world premiere on July 20, 2014 at the Fantasia Festival and screened on the film festival circuit under the title of "Cybernatural."

A generally positive film festival reception and test screenings for the film prompted Universal Pictures to pick up the film rights with the intent to give it a wide theatrical release the following year.

The film's title was changed to "Unfriended" and the film was theatrically released on April 17, 2015.

On February 6, 2015, the film was screened at Playlist Live and premiered at SXSW on March 13, 2015.

Marketing
In July of 2014, a teaser trailer was released with scenes from the film. The teaser shows the original title of the film which at the time was "Cybernatural."

On January 12, 2015, the film's first official trailer with the title Unfriended was released.

Shortly after, on February 6, 2015, the film was screened at Playlist Live, a popular convention for internet celebrities from Vine and YouTube.

On March 13, 2015, the day of the film's official premiere at SXSW, scenes from the film were uploaded and a chat box appeared, where viewers could talk to Laura. Once she was finished talking, scenes appeared on the screen.

On February 13, 2015, a campaign was launched with Kik Messenger in which Kik users could have a chat conversation with Laura. This made use of automated responses and pre-scripted responses, while also driving users to a dedicated microsite.

On March 13, 2015, after the film's premiere at SXSW, an after-party was hosted by Blumhouse. Exclusive Never Have I Ever cards were released at SXSW later and a "NEVER HAVE I EVER" section was set up on the film's official website. "Unfriended"-themed photo booths were set up as well.

During production, official Facebook and Skype accounts were set up for the characters in the film and after the premiere at SXSW, people who attended were "friended" by the official Laura Barns Facebook account. There was also a Twitter account which tweeted attendees of the after-party.

Box Office
"Unfriended" has grossed $32,482,090 domestically and $26,554,845 in other countries, for a worldwide gross of $59,036,935 against a budget of $1 million.

In North America, the film opened simultaneously with Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 and Monkey Kingdom on April 17, 2015, across 2,739 theaters, earning $6.8 million on its opening day.

During its opening weekend, the movie earned $15.8 million, which was higher than its $12 million range projection, and finished in third place at the box office behind Furious 7 (which was $29.2 million) and "Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2" (which was $23.8 million).

It was the biggest debut for an original horror movie since The Conjuring in 2013.

Critical Reception
Unfriended has received mixed to positive reviews from critics.

Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a rating of 61%, based on 141 reviews, with an average rating of 6/10.

The site's critical consensus reads:

"Unfriended subverts found-footage horror cliches to deliver a surprisingly scary entry in the teen slasher genre with a technological twist."

On Metacritic, the film has a score of 59 out of 100, based on 30 critics, indicating mixed or average reviews.

The reception at the Fantasia Film Festival was mostly positive.

Common praise for the film centered upon its acting and visuals & Twitch Film commented that the film was an "interesting look at modern methods of communication and the ramifications of the new normal of always-on social interaction."

Variety commented that while the film was "exasperating" at points, they also felt that it was clever and innovative.

Dread Central also praised the film overall, but stated that they felt that the movie's one major flaw was "the fashion in which we are trafficked to each scare- through multi-screen clicking, copying, pasting and re-sizing, basically all-around multi-tasking. It can be trying to sit through and I liken it to sitting over someone's shoulder watching them web-surf... endlessly."

It was named "Most Innovative Film" at the Fantasia Film Festival and received a Special Mention for "Feature Film."

British film critic Mark Kermode gave the film a positive review, calling it a film which understands Skyping culture and cyber-bullying. He said, "Many people who've seen the trailer say, 'You're being stalked through the internet. Just log off.' The point is they can't because they're addicted."

While on one hand, he admitted that it was a "shrieky, teen-terrorized, slasher movie" and on the other hand, he said it was a film about how cyber-bullying only works if you cooperate with it.

Irish film critic Donald Clarke, writing for The Irish Times, gave the film a very positive review, describing it as "genuinely unsettling" and praising the filmmakers' "uncanny grasp of the complicated dynamics of contemporary interaction" and how they succeeded in "[retaining] a position on the moral high ground while bloody mayhem rages around their feet''".

In CinemaScore, polls conducted during the opening weekend, cinema audiences gave Unfriended an average grade of "C", on an A+ to F scale.