RAW REVIEW: FRIEND REQUEST

One of the biggest shocks to me last year was the surprising greatness of Levan Gabriadze's Unfriended, a social media savvy horror flick that delivered a fresh take on familiar genre tropes.
Simon Verhoeven's latest effort, Friend Request attempts a similar feat, combining multiple subgenres into one teen friendly tale.
After I was fortunate enough to receive an invitation to a screening hosted by the good folks behind London's annual Film4 FrightFest, I eagerly headed to the new venue for this year's fest, the West 12 Vue in Shepherd's Bush (which looks like a superb choice for this summers premier UK horror event).
Was this a Friend Request I'd want to accept? Or would I soon be logging off?
Read on...

Friend Request (2016)

 

Dir: Simon Verhoeven
Starring: Alycia Debnam Carey, Liesl Ahlers, Brit Morgan, Brooke Markham, William Moseley, Connor Paolo, Sean Marquette, Shashawnee Hall, Nicholas Pauling

SPEEDY SYNOPSIS: I'll try not to spoil too much here but continue at your own risk.

Laura (Carey) is a pretty, popular college student with a handsome medical student boyfriend, Tyler (Moseley), who seems to have life made. After drawing the attention of reclusive, artistic oddball Marina (Ahlers), she receives a social media friend request from her fellow student.
However, the intensity of Marina's infatuation causes Laura and her friends, including goodtime girl Olivia (Morgan), sensitive Isabel (Markham), loudmouthed funnyman Gus (Marquette) and lovestruck geek Kobe (Paolo) to grow wary of this clearly disturbed girl.

The situation eventually builds to a violent disagreement, following which Laura unfriends the desperately clingy Marina... who commits suicide, filming the whole thing on her webcam as she does so.
Consumed by guilt, Laura struggles to make sense of events, especially when she continues to receive updates from the dead girl's account. However, Marina's is not the last death close to Laura... and as she loses those she holds dearest Laura finds herself in a race against time to discover the horrifying truth.

THE BEST BITS (mild spoiler warning): With Friend Request, director Simon Verhoeven succeeds in creating a visually stunning, competent teen-friendly horror.
While it does not hit the heady heights of last year's Unfriended, it manages to combine a number of seemingly disparate subgenres, including pyschological stalker thrillers, J-Horror-esque techno hauntings and even good oldfashioned witchcraft, into one polished horror tale.
The shiny cast are every bit as easy on the eye as Verhoeven's slick visuals (even if a couple are clearly too old to portray college students), with the impressive Carey a real standout as a sympathetic lead. She reminds me a lot of Taissa Farmiga and I hope she stick with the genre for a while. She has the makings of an excellent scream queen. 

I also loved the work of the likeable Sean Marquette in a strong supporting role. His character, Gus, delivers some much needed levity during the film’s darker moments, as do character actors Shashawnee Hall (who horror fans may recognise from Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street) and Nicholas Pauling as a pair of comical police detectives who deliver all the movie's greatest lines.

At the other end of the scale, the very talented Ahlers and Connor Paolo deliver in their edgier parts.
Ahlers, channeling The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo's Noomi Rapace, is excellent, not overplaying a role that could easily have devolved into a cartoonish weirdo. She's at the heart of some of the more subtle unnerving moments and I shall keep an eye out for her in the future.

The wonderful flourishes of including her flash animations in the film ensures that it remains striking, all while ratcheting up the weird and unsettling tone.
As well as the visual side of things (enhanced no end by the skilled cinematography of Jo Heim), Verhoeven shows real flair as a horror storyteller. He crafts some sterling scares (bar a couple of mistimed jump attempts) and manages to do justice to each element of the story (written by Verhoeven along with collaborators Matthew Ballen and Philip Koch). As I wrote earlier, this is a storyline that combines several different threads and ideas, yet it never feels disjointed, instead organically incorporating each element into a simple, understandable plotline.
As well as the more obvious horrors (the black wasp motif, the grisly deaths and deeply disturbing imagery of Marina's haunting artwork, such as two mutilated young boys), there are several small details that rattle the nerves.
Laura's growing desperation and helplessness as she struggles to clear her name and protect the people she loves is palpable, while the slow loss of popularity (cleverly portrayed as a gradually dwindling 'Friend Count' onscreen) and friends is certainly sure to haunt youngsters watching the film.
Special praise must also go to the superb score by Gary Go, comprising of several moody techno infused tracks that don't just fit, but truly enhance the events occuring onscreen.

This is just one more stylish component in a film that really does ooze class in its production values.

THE WORST BITS (mild spoiler warning): One of the biggest problems with Friend Request is the focus on the film's Facebook-substitute (sure, it doesn't actually say that it is Facebook but the fonts, colourscheme, terminology and basic layout make it pretty clear where the inspiration lies) already feels dated. Teens have moved on from Mark Zuckerberg's creation some time ago, and its inclusion here feels a lot like an attempt by studio execs to relate to youngsters they've since lost touch with.

Another bugbear proves the number of rather lascivious times in which the camera seems to focus on Carey’s (admittedly shapely) behind. It feels gratuitous and more than a little bit lecherous. She's a talented actress, there's need to focus on her anatomy's assets to hold the attention.
What's more, as accomplished and proficient as Friend Request proves as a film-making exercise, it lacks that extra spark and moment of true brilliance to propel it into must-see territory, especially during its rather hackneyed conclusion. The film sort of fizzles out and the actual conclusion doesn't really make much sense in context to all the revelations of the plot prior to that point.
It's not that the film is bad, per se, so much as it doesn't do enough to distinguish itself as truly exceptional.

THE VERDICT: Despite some small flaws Friend Request is a fun and well-made film that looks to serve as a very strong introduction to some exciting young talents. It's visually stunning, gives us some decent frights and (a rarity among genre flicks), some characters who are actually worth caring about.
It's a proper popcorn crowd pleaser and is well worth your time. I for one look forward to seeing much more from the individuals involved. Check it out.

Friend Request is released in UK cinemas this week. Film4 FrightFest will be taking place in West 12 Vue on 25th-29th August. Visit the festival's web site here for more information.

If you haven’t already, do please check out and Like the Hickey’s House of Horrors Facebook page, which you can find here. It gives you a nice quick link to any new posts on this blog, plus regular news updates from around the web. I check the Internet so you don’t have to! Alternatively, follow me on twitter: The House @HickeysHorrors

Until next time, I hope you enjoyed your stay. 

HICKEY'S TOP 20 HORROR FILMS OF 2015 – PART 2

The first part of my look at the best genre flicks of the past 12 months included fantastic films such as Bone Tomahawk, Krampus and The Hallow. Those are some pretty damn good films, but this second crop contains a selection that I feel is even stronger.

Ready?

Well, plough on!

TOP 20 HORROR FILMS OF 2015 — PART 2

10: THE FINAL GIRLS




Worthy of mentioning in the same breath as Cabin in the Woods, Scream and Behind the Mask: The Rise of Lesley Vernon, Todd Strauss-Schulson's The Final Girls is a brilliant deconstruction of genre tropes. With plenty of laughs and a surprisingly moving amount of heart, this is a great homage to the heyday of slasher movies.
Read my review here.


9: DEATHGASM





Jason Lei Howden's splatterific love letter to metal played out like a gloriously gory hybrid of Spinal Tap and The Evil Dead, directed by a young Peter Jackson. Deathgasm makes for an absolutely awesome fun viewing-experience and is a sure-fire, stonewall cult classic.
Read my review here.


8: WE ARE STILL HERE





Any film that pays homage to Lucio Fulci's bloodily barking Gates of Hell trilogy gets a thumbs up from me. Combining a quiet and personal haunted house film with spectacularly violent kills and starring Scream Queen great Barbara Crampton, Ted Geoghegan’s We Are Still Here was a tremendous find.
Read my review here.


7: UNFRIENDED






It had a terrible name, boasted a cast of irritating shiny teens and a concept that couldn't possibly work – the whole film unfolds in realtime on a computer desktop – yet somehow Unfriended overcame all of that to secure a place on this list. Extremely clever and surprisingly dark and creepy, this is a perfect example of stellar high concept executed flawlessly.
Read my review here.


6: CREEP





A Found Footage (sort of) movie with a cast of two, Patrick Brice's Creep foregoes blood and guts and a metronomic bodycount for deeply personal scares. When Brice's Aaron is hired to document a day in the life of Mark Duplass's Josef we are treated to one of the most unnerving and creepy genre performances in a long, long time plus a legitimately unsettling ending.
Expect a review soon...


5: MAGGIE





Arnold Schwarzenegger and Abigail Breslin make for another fantastic central pairing in the surprisingly moving Maggie. A bittersweet look at mortality and the relationship between father and daughter, it's deep, depressing, complex and, at times, utterly beautiful. See it.
Read my review here.


4: IT FOLLOWS





Another film with a central theme of mortality and ageing, It Follows was EASILY the most hyped genre film of the year after it blew audiences away at the Cannes Film Festival. Ok, maybe it wasn't this year's The Babadook (despite what plenty of critics wrote) but Robert David Mitchell's film was a fantastically rich and entertaining film that offers plenty to enjoy to horror fans and 'serious' film watchers alike.
Read my review here.

3: SPRING





I'll be honest, I only watched Spring this week because I'd heard such great things about it and was about to compile this list. I’m so glad I did.
A beautifully shot Euro-romance, that just so happens to be a creature feature and body-horror shocker too, Justin Benson and Aaron Scott Moorhead’s movie is unique, original and one of those films that I know I’m going to be recommending to people for years to come. Absolutely fantastic.
Expect a review very soon...

2: THESE FINAL HOURS






The best film I saw at Film4’s FrightFest this year, in my review of this Antipodean Apocalyptic movie, I called it: ‘A beautiful, heart-breaking but ultimately hopeful tour de force, it is one of the finest movies I've seen in a long, long time’ and ‘an absolute must-see’. Two months on I stand by that. A character driven work of deeply personal horror, Zak Hilditch’s film is near flawless. If there’s one thing I hope my work as a reviewer achieves, it’s bringing These Final Hours to the attention of more genre fans.
Read my review here.

1: CRIMSON PEAK





Guillermo del Toro. Jessica Chastain. Tom Hiddlestone.
Gothic Victorian ghost story.
When I first heard about Universal and Legendary’s hugely ambitious ghost story (or is it a story with a ghost?) my mouth started watering. The film did not disappoint. Forget about the lackluster box office performance, Crimson Peak is a joy to watch. It’s sumptuous, atmospheric and exquisitely crafted with a host of incredible performances and some genuinely frightening spectres on display. An utter masterpiece.
Read my review here.

But it's not been a 12 months without letdowns. Allow me to present the most heinous of those...

DISAPPOINTMENT OF THE YEAR: PARANORMAL ACTIVITY: GHOST DIMENSION





I’m a big fan of the low-fi chills of the Paranormal Activity franchise. Even when audiences started to turn on the series upon the release of Paranormal Activity 4 and the criminally underrated The Marked Ones, I remained a staunch defender of the films. So I was excited to see the ‘final chapter’ of the saga. 

I wish I hadn’t bothered. 

None of the characters we’ve come to care about, godawful CG and 3D, and perhaps worst of all, NO SCARES WHATSOEVER. I’d say the series finished with a whimper rather than a bang, but the total non-ending to the film that leaves every single plot thread dangling even makes a mockery of that. 

A film so terrible I almost begrudge wasting any more time on it by writing a review. Maybe for the DVD release...

Anything you disagree with? Anything you think should be higher? What do you want to see in my top 10?
Let me know below!

If you haven’t already, do please check out and like the Hickey’s House of Horrors Facebook page, which you can find here. It gives you a nice quick link to any new posts on this blog, plus regular news updates from around the web. I check the Internet so you don’t have to! Alternatively, follow me on twitter: The House@HickeysHorrors






Until next time, I hope you enjoyed your stay.

RAW REVIEW: UNFRIENDED

I'll be honest, when I first saw the title and promo material for Unfriended (previously known as Cybernatural), I was dubious. It looked like yet another cookie-cutter PG-horror starring achingly hip teen TV stars who spew jarring faux-Whedonesque pop culture references at an alarming rate, while a soundtrack chosen by committee pumps out all the 'coolest' songs in the chart right now, which only serves to date the film terribly in just 18 months. Oh, and did I mention the online gimmick that has plenty of potential to either become ridiculously convenient or just a monumental waste of time?

OK, maybe that should have read 'very dubious'.

But then the unthinkable happened — the first reviews came out from festivals and they were good. Like, excellent, in fact.

Could it be true?

This week I sat down to a screening of the movie intrigued as to what I might witness. Could this be a bonafide horror hit? Or was my initial reaction right after all?

Read on...

UNFRIENDED (2015)

Dir: Leo Gabriadze

Starring: Shelley Hennig, Moses Jacob Storm, Will Peltz, Courtney Halverston, Renee Olstead, Jacob Mysocki, Heather Sossaman

SPEEDY SYNOPSIS: I'll try not to spoil too much here but continue at your own risk.

One evening Blaire (Hennig) sits down for a group Skype chat with her doting boyfriend Mitch (Storm). As things take a turn for the raunchier they are joined by their gang of online friends, including hotheaded bad boy Adam (Peltz), sharp tongued bitch Val (Halverston), dim but fun Jess (Olstead) and zany techno-nerd Ken (Mysocki).

As the trendy young things discuss the events of their lives the group chat is crashed by an unknown intruder.

Confusion turns to horror after the interloper, billie227, is revealed to be using the account of one Laura Barns (Sossaman) an old acquaintance of the group who committed a very public suicide one year ago, after a humiliating video was circulated showing her drunk at a party.

Now this 'vengeful spirit' aims to get to the bottom of the plot that led to her messy, lonely death... and she plans to punish and ruin each of those she holds accountable.

THE BEST BITS (mild spoiler warning): For those who don't know, Unfriended is built around a key gimmick — the entire film unfolds on one character's computer desktop.

It's a risky concept, but it is wonderfully executed. The film uses the resource of browser windows to perfection, dropping YouTube videos in to give us some flashback moments, while web page visits help serve an expository purpose as the events continue in real time. The format allows us a glimpse at a sort of internal monologue as we see half-typed Facebook and iMessage communications that are written and rewritten as Blaire (Hennig) second guesses herself and her relationships with the other characters. Hell, even the cool soundtrack makes sense as the background music is coming from her iTunes or Spotify accounts.

Yes, this is a gimmick, but it's one that is very well done and its cleverness is worthy of praise. Congratulations must go to the man behind the concept, Timur Bekmambetov (yes, the brains behind the Night Watch flicks) and also to director Gabriadze for the way in which he ran with it.

Of course, an innovative storytelling method is not enough to carry a film if the story itself is not sufficient. Luckily the tale, crafted by TV's Sleepy Hollow writer Nelson Greaves, is pretty cool, an old-fashioned, supernatural revenge-thriller wrapped up in a modern-day, social-media parcel. With cyberbullying and online trolling a hot topic now it also touches on the sort of stories that could be taken straight from news headlines. Furthermore, parallels are neatly drawn between the undead and otherworldy spirits and the fact that once something reaches the web it never dies, living on indefinitely in the nethersphere. It's a valid point, and one that is more than a little unnerving.

The plot is pretty simple but compelling, with enough substance to keep the audience hooked for the duration of its runtime. This is thanks in no small part to the characters. The leads are given nice arcs and each character has moments in which they shine. The story hangs around Blaire — it's her laptop screen we are viewing after all and the private messages she sends give us a deeper insight into her thoughts and fears. Hennig brings her to life wonderfully, she has a sweet, good-girl quality about her that perfectly suits the role. Equally, Storm, as her love interest and nice-guy boyfriend is excellent, the private messages between the two helping to flesh out their relationship and his exchanges with her and best buddy Adam are some of the highlights of the film. It is Adam's more unstable personality that acts as a catalyst for some of the finest scenes in the film, particularly the 'Never Have I Ever' sequence late on.
In a film with some surprisingly gory and unpleasant deaths I think it is a testimony to the character work that some of the most devastating moments come when billie221 forces the group to start to reveal some deep dark secrets, tearing relationships apart in the process as the friends turn on themselves.
What some viewers may not realise is that the natural nature of the interactions between these characters comes down to the fact that a lot of each performance was improvved — and each cast member performed their role a few times in a single take. This information added a tonne of respect for the cast who not only nailed their roles, but did so with a whole new level of pressure. I'm not just talking about the aforementioned Hennig and Storm (both of whom will undoubtedly have very bright futures), but also the impressively high-octane Peltz and fast-talking funny man Mysocki, whose work as a standup comedian served as ideal preparation for the improvisational side. Furthermore the other leading ladies account for themselves admirably — Halverston is suitably hard-edged while Olstead could well make for a fantastic scream queen if she sticks with the genre. Fine work, ladies.
Their work helps ratchet up the tension in a suspenseful and creepy flick (one moment involving a static image and ringing phone is highly unsettling) with some proper horror cred. Earlier I mentioned some surprising and shocking death scenes and they really do deliver. The nightmarish blender scene stands out, but it isn't the only one to cause onlookers to squirm. One of the most upsetting is actually the grainy playground footage of Laura Barns' suicide. It works because it is frighteningly realistic, especially in a world where horrifying videos such as these exist (see Budd Dwyer — actually, on second thoughts, don't).
The gruesomely realistic effects work is just one area in which the thoroughly effective creative process brings this world to life. The film totally feels like it is happening on one laptop in a very real world. I was impressed to hear that each of the cast members filmed their sequences in different rooms in a single house, as production designer Heidi Koleto and art director Brooks Fairley do a tremendous job at making the sets distinctive from one another, while cinematographer Adam Sidman ensures that the film always looks great, while not betraying or cheating with the limitations imposed by the movie's premise. A truly sparkling achievement in filmmaking.

THE WORST BITS (mild spoiler warning): While Unfriended totally exceeded my expectations, some of my initial reservations did still crop up.
In a teen horror (which this is, albeit a very, very good one), the inherent unlikeability of most High Schoolers is always a barrier to enjoyment. Unfortunately here, as the film unfolds these characters become decidedly less sympathetic. The characters have some pretty terrible secrets. The 'Never Have I Ever' sequence, while excellently delivered, effectively eliminates a huge amount of empathy towards those whose dark secrets are laid bare. Of course, nobody deserves the horrors that billie221 subjects these characters to, but it does certainly shift the sympathy far more towards the deceased Laura Barns.
The fact that several of the characters state, in one form or another, that 'she had it coming', is utterly reprehensible and a perfect example of the way in which their actions can cause the viewer to turn on the very individuals that we are meant to be rooting for.
Speaking of morally dubious, the scene in which the otherwise likeable Mitch 'jokingly' seduces Blair into undressing by threatening her with a large hunting knife, is more than a little alarming. It borders on a rape fantasy and would perhaps have been best excised. I understand it was included for some hefty foreshadowing (ditto Ken's blender making an early appearance) but it still made for some uncomfortable viewing.
On a final character note, some were definitely given significantly shorter shrift and less rounding out than others. Obviously, as a direct result of the 10 Little Indians-style, one-by-one death scenes some are going to get less screen time, but those that get the least are reduced to very basic character stereotypes. Luckily the cast all do brilliant work with what they were given so it isn't too bad of a problem.
Finally, the static nature of a computer screen does drain some of the dynamism of the film a couple of times. For example, there is time spent just watching text slowly appear on screen as messages are typed. This fulfils a vital role in fleshing out the characters, but sadly it does pull us away from the action. Equally, the various glitching and buffering moments really are a pain at times. While they are used to heighten the tension during some key moments, leaving us in suspense as we wait to see what fate has befallen Blaire and her friends, at others it just serves as a huge annoyance. Perhaps less could have contributed more here.

THE VERDICT: While it isn't a perfect movie, Unfriended is far better than I believed it had any right to be. More than anything, as an experiment in a new filmmaking and storytelling technique it is brave, innovative (although not the first film to attempt to use browser windows for this purpose, both The Den and Open Windows take a similar approach, albeit less full-on and well executed as here) and, ultimately, a tremendous, intelligent success. Even without the timely anti-cyberbullying message, the fantastic performances and top-notch horror moments, the sheer cleverness of the movie would be enough to make me recommend it to you all. They just make the recommendation that much stronger. See it.

If the film hasn't put you off the whole social media thing, you can visit the Unfriended facebook page here. Feel free to give it a Like while you're there too.

If you haven’t already, do please check out and like the Hickey’s House of Horrors Facebook page, which you can find here. It gives you a nice quick link to any new posts on this blog, plus regular news updates from around the web. I check the Internet so you don’t have to! Alternatively, follow me on twitter: The House@HickeysHorrors

Until next time, I hope you enjoyed your stay.