Another sequel. Necessary? Nope. Then again, this is a premise that could go on forever, so don’t expect this to be the last in the Unfriended series.
Unfriended: Dark Web sees a complete transformation from the previous film in regards to casting and general premise. Of course, the fact that this is a Skype chat gone wrong remains the same, but this time it’s all a little more rooted in reality. Lead character Matias (Colin Woodell) accidentally stumbles upon the dark web when he boots up a new (previously owned) laptop. Things get really dark when Matias figures out what the last owner did for a living, and he and his friends quickly become caught up in some seriously bad stuff.
This takes even longer than the first one to really get going, which actually seems pretty impossible. At least the main characters are relatively less annoying, so that’s a good start; something that could not be said for the prior movie. Plus there’s a definite step up in terms of acting prowess here too, but don’t think for one second that it’s anything extraordinary – these actors are simply just not as bad as they were in Unfriended.
The premise for this sequel is undoubtedly superior here too. Demonic online mystical killers just aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, but this one more more of a classic slasher style storyline, and therefore more chilling because technically it could actually happen in some respects. It’s unlikely, sure. But it could happen if you tried hard enough.
Despite that, this film is not scary in the slightest yet again. Can you really call this a horror movie? There’s not exactly another genre it fits into, but definitely not your classic definition of “horror”. If anything, it’s more of a warning about the growing dangers of technology than a true fright-fest.
Regardless of how frightening it is (or isn’t), it’s impossible to look away even when the pacing is off. Nothing happens for 25 minutes or so, and the rest of the action is so scattered it feels like there’s really little pay off in the end.
Is Dark Web better than the first film? Yes. But only slightly.
Unfriended: Dark Web is available to stream on Netflix in the UK.
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Overall Enjoyability Rating: (to clarify, this is probably a 2.4 out of 5.)
The Quayside Review 