Film Review: FRIEND REQUEST (2016)

Social media will never be the same in the horror film FRIEND REQUEST (2016) that sees popular college student Laura (Alycia Debnam-Carey) confront her greatest fear when she “unfriends” someone on a networking site. Laura has a good life.  She’s successful in school.  She has a great boyfriend. She has lots of friends.  She also has a stalker by the name of Marina (Liesl Ahlers) whom she unwittingly friends on a networking site thinking that the girl just needs a friend.  When Marina, who is an artist with dark and gothic overtones, starts to squeeze herself into Laura’s life Laura tries to end her friendship.  Marina doesn’t take being unfriended lightly and ends up committing suicide by filming it on her laptop and putting on social media for everyone to see.  Thinking that she may have been a reason for Marina’s suicide, Laura’s guilt and life gets weird as her friends start to die around her and videos of their deaths are posted on her social media site.

Everything get worse when there is no way for her to delete the death videos nor shut down her site.  It seems that someone or something is taking over her personae online.  She gets blamed for the death videos; the cops think she has something more to do with the cases than she is saying; and it seems as though Marina is still manipulating her from beyond the grave.  Now she must figure out what is going on before all of her friends die leaving her the only one left with a connection to Marina.

Although the production values are good, the film lacks suspense or any sense of horror.  There is nothing in this film that you haven’t seen done better in other films.  It’s actually hard to believe that the film is Rated “R” as it contains very little gore, sex, or even profanity and is way too tame for the typical horror fan.  If not for Debnam-Carey the whole film would be completely forgettable as it is good to see her in something other than the hit TV series Fear the Walking Dead.

Film Review: HOLLOW (2011)

Myths and legends and folklore converge in the “found footage” horror film Hollow (2011) from the UK.  Four friends on holiday decide to explore the local legend of a haunted and remote area in which couples have committed suicide and hung themselves at an old tree.   While searching for the truth about the legend, the four friends discover unknown truths about themselves as well as uncover a deep and dark presence that may lie at the heart of the legend.

Like many other found footage films this film spends much of the first two-thirds delving into the characters of the four friends.   Played by Emily Plumtree, Sam Stockman, Jessica Ellerby, and Matt Stockoe the four friends are actually very interesting and come off as genuine friends.  The first part of the film is very well done but at times spends too much time establishing character and too little time on the actual meat of the story.  It is only at the two-thirds mark that the story finally picks up but then the film de-evolves into standard “found footage” film fare by having the characters run around in low lighting situations in which they repeat themselves far too often and very little happens.  Most of the plot comes within the last fifteen minutes but by this time the film comes off as unoriginal and boring despite the amped up paranormal moments.

The film is written by Matthew Holt and directed by Michael Axelgaard.  Like I said, the first two-thirds is actually quite good and you forget that you’re watching a found footage film but by the time the film starts to ramp up for that final third the extreme shaky cam and low lighting and extreme close ups all rear their ugly head too frequently and it takes you out of the film.  It is my opinion that the film would’ve been stronger if told in a more conventional manner and the found footage aesthetic would’ve been dropped.  The found footage style is becoming all too familiar and a show of a low budget production but this is one of those films that could’ve done with a little more traditional storytelling methods which would’ve made the whole film much more effective.  Instead, the whole film just comes off as a mediocre found footage film that will leave you wishing that it had been better.