What Everyone Expected: A lame attempt to update the horror genre by creating a new trend of movies sure to be set entirely on laptops, mobile phones, iPads and any other social networking device you can think of. The title is terrible (though still better than the original one, "Cybernatural") and the trailers did an especially wretched job of making the movie look nothing more than a generic, hilariously self-serious horror dud. What It Was: Somehow, one of the year's best horror films so far. It's fair to say that Unfriended isn't the scariest film you're likely to see this year, but it commits unexpectedly strongly to its "the entire movie takes place on a laptop" gimmick, rather than using CGI to mess with basic tech logic and insult the very audience it's pandering to. Also, there weren't many expectations in terms of the performances, given that the cast is largely full of unknowns, but for the most part the acting is at least solid, and in some cases genuinely great. It's snappily paced, to the point, wildly inventive and darkly funny all at once. A sequel was always going to be greenlit once this film made 46x its budget at the box office, but at least horror fans will always have this gem to covet. Expect to see more similar (and likely inferior) efforts coming down the pike soon enough.
Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes).
General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.
