Given my tepid at best reaction to the original Unfriended (2014) and my overall disinterest in most found footage films, I went into Unfriended: Dark Web just hoping not to fall asleep. What I got instead was a fascinating reinterpretation of the home invasion conceit fueled by an intriguing premise that I hope more modern horror will tackle. Tapping into the same technology fueled paranoia of the dystopian breakout hit Black Mirror, Unfriended: Dark Web creates a compelling sense of unease that will leave you wanting to toss all of your devices and become a Luddite. But unlike the majority of the episodes in the Channel 4/Netflix stalwart, this Stephen Susko helmed production is situated squarely in the present. Whether it is the case of child porn appearing on the computer of a 16 year old after he accessed a Yahoo account or hackers taking control of personal computers’ recording and camera capabilities via malware, the casting of known technology as the gateway for the horror that descends upon 6 unsuspecting people in Dark Web works precisely because it is a fear based in reality.
Like its predecessor, the story is a relatively simply one. After swiping a laptop that has languished in the coffee house where he works, Matias (Colin Woodell) and his friends gather for a virtual game night only to discover that the laptop’s previous owner is a person for hire on the dark web who specializes in extreme torture. As the group goes through files depicting one atrocity after another, their shock turns to fear when they realize that opening the cache of hidden files has now given the killer remote access to all of their devices.
Anchored by effective performances, most notably by Get Out’s Betty Gabriel as Nari and The Originals’ Andrew Lees as Damon, the movie far exceeds its predecessor in suspense building and exceeds the gimmick that mired down the original. Interestingly, whether the movie ultimately works depends upon which version you see. In a somewhat head scratching move, Blumhouse released the movie with two endings that radically recast the events of the film. While this worked for a campier movie like Clue (1985), here it is a disaster since one ending fuels the audience’s suspension of disbelief and another shortchanges the narrative.
Spoilers Ahead
If this movie had been made a few years ago, the hacking abilities of the dark web dwellers would read as unbelievable but because we are in a time when even the American electoral system can be compromised by bands of shifty characters hiding behind their computer screens, the threats read as more believable than they might have previously. As such, the ending I saw—which reveals the events of the movie to be an elaborate game taking place on the dark web—reads as especially sinister given the cultural unease with the places technology is heading.
This ending is also effective for how it recasts audience expectation for home invasion horror. Although I’m not keen on found footage, I do find home invasion to be particularly terrifying, and so Dark Web worked for me because of how it both reflects and reinterprets the subgenre’s tropes. Like Funny Games (1997) and The Strangers (2008), a layer of chance permeates the unfolding events. Although we might at first ask whether Matias invited this horror into the lives of himself and his friends by stealing the laptop, the reveal that the laptop was purposely left and that the ultimate players would be selected by chance means that random bad luck—not punishment for transgression–is at play. Yet, the movie also deconstructs the very notion of home.
Because so much of our lives, from our personal relationships to the type of sandwiches we like to eat, plays out online, there is an argument to be made that the primal fear of a stranger gaining access to what is supposed to be a safe space inherent in home invasion movies should be extended to include those spaces in which our digital selves reside. In a sense, Unfriended: Dark Web is making the case that your virtual doppelganger is a potentially menacing figure: it can be manipulated without your consent and can create significant issues for your real self. Consider the way in which AJ’s (Connor Del Rio) profiles and computer are hacked to give the illusion that he is plotting a mass shooting or how everyone in the group is ultimately saddled with the kidnapping and torture of Erica Dunne (Alexa Mansour). In the end, it doesn’t matter who these people actually were but how their digital selves were presented.
It also bears noting that this movie does some interesting things with regard to disability. Like A Quiet Place (2018), hearing loss is leveraged in the movie as one of the ways in which a character is able to protect herself from an outside threat. Because Matias’ girlfriend Amaya (Stephanie Nogueras) is deaf, she is spared the same fate as her friends because she remains ignorant to the danger surrounding her. The movie makes a point in showing that Amaya’s decision not to join the game is the result of her boyfriend bailing on the sign language classes he promised to take in order to be able to communicate with her. Matias’ decision to not learn how to communicate with his girlfriend ultimately facilitates his death when he is left buried alive and unable to ask Amaya for help in a video call as she stands on the ground above him.
Unfriended: Dark Web is by no means a perfect movie but it is an interesting one, particularly in light of the conversations now taking place with regard to technology and safety. The movie’s other ending, in which Amaya is left to be tortured in a warehouse and Matias gets run over by a truck, not only opens up a host of plot holes but feels less satisfying because it reduces Amaya to just another doomed female and lets Matias off the hook for his ableist actions. If you get the ending I saw, you’re in for a surprisingly tense treat but if you get that other ending? I’d ask for my money back.
Unfriended: Dark Web is available to stream on Amazon:
