Unfriended is a new horror flick shot completely from the perspective of a single computer screen during an 82 minute Skype video chat (with the additional appearance of YouTube, Facebook, ChatRoulette, Spotify, and other software and services). It’s the one one year anniversary of the suicide a friend and the various teens on the call are freaking out over a mysterious someone who keeps text chatting with them, claiming to be that dead friend.

The camera never once leaves the screen and, to the credit of the film makers, the movie does a very credible job of emulating how people use their computers and social media. Very few examples of ignorant or convenient-to-the-script computer use (probably the worse thing is that the user never uses keyboard shortcuts for copy/paste but that was done so we could see their actions). So that much works… even if it is a gimmick.

But since it has the DNA of a found-footage film, it still has the simple problem of why these dummies don’t, you know, turn off their computers. The film does give some semi-credible excuses but ultimately I didn’t buy why nobody just logged off and threw their laptops in a swimming pool.

Cyberbullying is a theme of the movie and it might do a decent job of tsk-tsking teeanagers. Maybe. Maybe not.

I’m more curious to know how this ghost got so good at hacking computers and gmail (apparently, if you are dead and really mad, you can remove the forward button from an e-mail you mysteriously sent. BOO, y’all!). I imagine this ghost comes from the same ghosting school as the spook from Sinister who had to spend some time setting up reel-to-reel 8mm home movies.

But, seriously, is Unfriended a good movie? Yeah, it’s all right. For most of its running time, the gimmick of watching a screen (and the Skype video chatters) works reasonably well. I can’t say I was every scared but I wasn’t bored. But then there’s the inevitable freakout where everyone starts yelling at each other and being awful people that really got on my last nerve. I wanted them to shut up, log off, and just go to bed. Ugh.

Score: 76