love scary movies. They beat out any action or romantic comedy movies any day.

I even enjoy the overly cheesy ones. As long as they make me jump a little bit, I will like them.

This was not the case with “Unfriended.”

While there were a decent amount of scenes that made me jump, it lacked a few essential items scary movies must have.

First, there was hardly any build up at all. Sure, the movie got freakier as it progressed, but it started too suddenly.

The ghost of Laura Barns, played by Heather Sossaman, started to show up almost immediately.

I would have liked to see the group of friends who were on
Skype talk about Laura and her death.

It was supposedly the one-year anniversary of her death and that would, under normal circumstances, create at least some discussion.

A discussion also would have given background information.

The only information that is given to us about Laura’s past is that she was friends with one of the other characters, Blaire, played by Shelley Hennig.

Other than that, the audience isn’t told how Laura knew the other characters.

It is necessary for scary movies to have a proper build up.

They’ll get really boring if they make you jump right off the bat.

Another element that was missing was basic plot points. The whole time I felt like I was missing something.

This goes beyond just basic suspense. Some movies will make you ask questions (think “Inception”) without giving specific answers and this is very entertaining only if done in the right way.

“Unfriended” just made me ask questions that shouldn’t have needed to be asked.

I just feel like there were so many gaps.

At one point, Ken Smith, played by Jacob Wysocki, found another camera in his room that was also recording him.

He walks over to the camera and has a look of fear and shock.

This made it seem like he was looking at something other than a camera, but the audience never gets to see exactly what he is looking at.

He could just be looking at a plain old camera, but the acting made it seem different.

The whole idea of a ghost attacking through social media is somewhat genius.

It makes scary movies more relatable to our generation. But I don’t think director Levan Gabriadze executed it well enough.

The acting was poor due to the directing.

It seems like Gabriadze spent all of his time on the visuals, which were pretty good, but utterly forgot to tell the actors how to act.

What makes a scary movie good is that it could potentially be true.

“Unfriended” could have been believable if there was research backing it. Blaire was looking at a website that talked about responding to messages sent by ghosts via technology.

This, however, didn’t really provide enough information that could add believability.

Overall, I feel like this was a waste of money. Save your money and your time by skipping this one.