Unfriended: Dark Web is the sequel to Unfriended from 2015. In this movie, a teenager obtains a laptop that was originally owned by someone who had apparently belonged to an evil online cult. The man eventually comes in contact with the teenager who now has the laptop and is willing to do whatever it takes to get it back from him.
I didn't see the original Unfriended because it simply wasn't for me despite being based around social media and whatnot. I also wasn't looking forward to this, but I decided to watch this regardless and give it a chance. All I can say is that it's something I deeply regret.
Let's start with the only genuinely good thing; the relationship between the main character and the love interest. The main character's girlfriend is deaf and the main character has to find a way to make their relationship work. As such, he creates an application that is supposed to help them with their communication. I found this pretty clever the more I thought about it, especially since there aren't a lot of movies that explore the complexities of a relationship like this.
Despite liking the relationship, I feel like it's not necessarily deserved because I found the main character extremely stupid and unlikable. It didn't take me that long for me to dislike him either. Around a half hour into the movie, he admits that he picked up the computer from a lost-and-found bin where he works. He didn't just leave the computer sitting in there to buy a new one? Just how desperate was this guy?! He has a job, so he must be making money, so why couldn't he have saved up money to buy a new and fresh computer? The plot wouldn't have happened if he didn't just leave the computer in the lost-and-found.
The other characters aren't necessarily much better. Aside from the villains, these are the types of characters to make hasty judgements without questioning anything. I know these are teenagers, but in some cases, they have no sense of judgement. Sometimes, they just don't listen, other times they are too manipulative, and in the worst case scenarios, they charge into situations blindly without giving a thought.
While watching this movie, I was at least going to give the villain's motivation some credit for being plausible. The villain wants his computer back so he wouldn't look shady if one of them were to have called the cops. From what we see in the first act of the film, the actions that he and his cult members have pulled are worthy of punishment. If it wasn't for a small twist in the last 10 minutes, I would've just said "that's a believable motivation." But no, as the movie ends, the villain's true motives fail to make any sense.
As for some of the smaller issues, I feel as though this movie fails to realize what it actually is. Despite it being marketed as a horror movie and a sequel to a horror movie, it's not very scary. At times, it seems to come off as a genre similar to a horror like a thriller or slasher movie with some of the deaths. Considering the fact that this is not supernatural unlike the first, it barely gives off the impression that it's a horror by offering nothing supernatural.
If you're a hardcore fan of the first movie, then you may end up liking this. As for me however, I currently think it's the worst movie of the year with it failing in many different areas.
2/10
