User reviews

A true guilty pleasure: characters are one-dimensional, performances are bad, dialogue is stupid, and plot is full of conveniences. However, it's so committed to its premise that the scares really benefit. Also, I admire its cynicism and darkness...(SPOILERS) the bad guys don't just win, they thrive. Despite disliking the first, I'm now actually hoping for a third.

The first movie, Unfriended wasn't good at all, I didn't find it scary and felt it should have been labeled a thriller instead of Horror. The first did have good graphics and concept but the execution was meh. Dark Web however is much more effective and though I didn't find it scary like a horror movie, I do think it's a great thriller. The storyline and acting was much better and more effective than the first.

I've seen the original so I had an idea what the plot would be like, the maybe first half hour of the movie was a bit boring because the guy was just logging into his accounts, and sending messages but eventually once he opens his group chat of friends it get much entertaining and intense very fast, and there was some jump scares I wasn't expecting. I also watched this movie at 1AM which was a good idea of me, I would say to just watch this movie yourself because nobody's opinion is gonna be the same.

I went into it expecting it to be like the first, which was complete and utter pathetic garbage. But interestingly, this one was better, not amazing, but definitely not as bad as its trashy predecessor. But how is it better? I'd like to say first that while I am saying certain aspects are better, its still not a perfect film. So one of the problems with the first was that it was just plain old boring, the story simply wasn't interesting. But the story in this one was at least a little bit more engaging. Another problem with the first one was that the camera use off putting, too many big faces, but thankfully this one expands on the first's cinematography and did make it watchable. Of course there will be people who won't watch it because of how bad the first one is, but take it from this horror movie veteran, it was passable. While I didn't like it as much as other horror gems of the last few years, I didn't walk out of the theater like I expected I would.

It makes no sense that hackers are god-like appearing everywhere and whenever they want. Glitchings making them invisible are also too annoying and not scary at all. Besides many things, this was the most irritating point for me throughout the movie.

This is one of those movies where I decided not to read the reviews before watching, and boy, I'm so glad I did. I thought it was creative, relevant, and well done. I was surprised to see all the negative reviews and they would have probably dissuaded me from watching it. So I urge you to stop reading here, go watch it and judge for yourself.

At least this one was a not a corny movie about some "haunted" facebook account killing of teenagers.

Yes, it was not very believable but it was kind of plausible come to think of it. The idea of the movie was actually good but the execution lacked a bit. There were some questionable decisions presented in the movie that happened "in real life" that would actually be very hard or impossible to pull off but if you put that aside the overall movie experience was not that bad at all.

I don't consider this a horror film because it was not scary and it basically lacked any jump-scares but it was actually a decent thriller in my opinion.

Gave up half way through. You just watch a bunch of nobs fancying around on a computer until you wish the killer would come and finish them off and save your sanity. The fact you hate every one of the characters before the 'horror' element comes in, means you have absolutely no sympathy for them. Honestly, just awful.

Considering that the original movie was a huge commercial success and made back 65 times it's budget I wasn't shocked to hear a sequel was being made, I didn't expect it to be so much better though.

Don't get me wrong I think the first film had some great ideas and I like the cpu screen method of filming but it was lacking in a lot of areas and my final score for it was a very disappointing 4/10.

This sequel goes in a new direction altogether. It maintains the same appearance but the supernatural element is out the window for a more modern stylish smart approach and it works wonders.

Yet another group of 20 somethings are sat in front of their cpu's skyping away not realising their night is about to take a very dark turn.

A sleek clever little film I walked away from this considerably happier than I expected to. It's unpredictible, looks great and the cast do a solid job at stressing just how much the situation is spiralling out of their control.

Absolutely well worth a watch even if you didn't like the first movie, this is a very different creature and makes me now want this franchise to really blossom.

The Good:

Looks great

Really quite clever

The Bad:

All the video and audio distortions get annoying

I think it could have used a bit of additional time

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Han shot first!

Someone shrunk Gal Gadot

I watched the first Unfriended from 2014 yesterday. I did enjoy that one so decided to watch this sequel the next day, expecting the same layout, the same building up, and that's exactly what happened. It was entertaining again even though sometimes a bit far fetched. I'm from the older generation, the one that doesn't care that much about new technologies, but yes I owe a computer. This movie is again easier to watch for the younger generation. For me it's sometimes going a bit too fast but still I managed to follow. Let's just their clicking on links and stuff would take me the whole day instead of a couple seconds for them. Interesting story again, good suspense building, better than you could expect from a low budget movie, because a low buget it is. All you see are computer screens, not immediately high budget I would say. Decent acting so no complaints there. A worthy sequel.

What a waste of time. So ridiciculous it defies description but I will try. The premise makes no sense...that some dark web psychos "hope" someone takes the laptop left in lost and found at a cyber cafe? Then targets them? And elude every conceivable law enforcement method? No. Just no. And I have a massive HD screen...yet the "texts" etc were virtually unreadable - ludicrous from start to finish. Skip this mess.

Do i even have to write why it's too cringey? Come on...

Check The Scene on YT/SceneInformation if you want to watch a more realistic OG version of this.

Edit: lol at downvotes. Must be producers lol.

BRIEF REWIND:

I rented Unfriended through Redbox and saw it with a date, and I'll give it kudos that we did not turn it off and even talked about it afterward. I can't in all good faith call it a good film, but it was the first of its kind that I had seen and I merely tolerated it. Unfortunately it fell into a lot of issues that start and end with the characters/actors, and the teeny-bopper horror elements that leave you laughing and eye-rolling almost as if they intentionally wrote and directed it that way made it extremely mediocre, forgettable, and worst of all passable. What seemed like it was serving its style as nothing more than a cheap gimmick, I easily would only rate it a 4/10, but I was on board as I watched it and it did not turn me away from seeing a sequel.

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PRESENT DAY:

I didn't know anything about this sequel going into it, never mind the fact that I didn't even know it was a film until yesterday evening. But when the pre-screening invite fell into my lap, I bit the bullet and hoped for the best even though I planned for the worst. Needless to say, this was a pleasant surprise. Before I go on, I'm also going to strongly advise that you avoid the trailer at all costs for four reasons:

1) It spoils a lot of events (though leaves out the main overall plot of the film, which was nice). 2) It misinforms the audience of what kind of film it is (treats it like a pure horror when it is more of a thriller/suspense flick). 3) It edits a lot of items on the screencast that do not occur in a similar way in the actual movie, even down to colors and sound effects that are used. 4) It makes it look really bad.

I saw the trailer AFTER seeing the film by the way, and I'm glad that I did. I would have passed up this pre-screening if I saw that horrible trailer, and I would've felt like I've seen the entire film if so as well (yes, it does reveal several plot points).

I totally understand why this film has the 'Unfriended' tag: it's a found footage screencasting film where an anonymous user intrudes a Skype group chat, and torments them as a result of their mishaps bestowed onto said user. This is where the premise similarities end, though. This isn't only not a story continuation of the first film in any way (you can watch this without watching that and you won't lose a single beat), but this also does not have a supernatural element, and although Facebook may be one of the applications in the film it has nothing to do with unfriending somebody through it. Granted, I understand the name can take on multiple meanings in which case I can easily find one for it through this film, and if it just had the title The Dark Web, people would hark on it for being "too similar to Unfriended," so they were stuck. This can either help or hurt the film because I know a lot of people who won't see this on the name alone, but you may be mistaken by passing it up.

As I said before, this isn't bogged down with anything supernatural. That's not to say it's the most realistic thing in the world either, but if you suspend enough disbelief you can feel that it has a lot more grounding to it. This is the first plus. There's nothing wrong with supernatural horror flicks, but the first film holds a strong stigma around Facebook that it just couldn't be taken seriously. At least they did it better than Friend Request, but that's still not saying much. This circumvents that completely. Everything involved is through the power of individuals, all of which seem to be very computer-savvy, but making that decision won me over significantly more. I'd say it teeters more toward the suspense/thriller genre than it does the horror genre, and for this that can only be a good thing. Just don't expect anything scary so to speak, though there are a couple of disturbing ideas that only strengthened the film's mystique.

This also had some clever writing. Compared to the original, it's just nice to know that there was some actual thought into telling this story and not just throwing it out the window. The way the plot develops may leave you very curious as to how some items are slowly discovered, and some small nuggets (as well as character traits) throughout the film play a larger part by the time the credits roll in a fascinating way. Can't say I didn't like how things went down, but what's interesting to me is that halfway through watching it you could have predicted a million ways they should have done the back-end, and even if you ultimately feel they didn't go the route you may want it's still ahead of the other film on potential and wonder alone.

Unfriended: Dark Web grabbed me pretty fast with the relationship between two of the central characters. I cared enough about the situation to be concerned for their well-being. I can't necessarily say the same for the other characters. One was a little annoying but you grew into the personality, two were kind of bland (but one outshined the other both with acting and backstory), one was wasted entirely to the point that I wanted more from that one than any of the others, and one was compelling but served the plot exposition and advancement so well you could nearly call out "Deus ex machina!" at times, as that character also has no development. Everything in the Skype chat kind of worked out though because the "main" character (the screen we're watching all the time) mutes them or goes to different windows for long times on end when the others didn't need to serve a larger purpose for said moment. Neither the film nor the characters were that funny either, but the film didn't try to be funny too often either; wasn't laughing with them, but thankfully I also wasn't ever really laughing AT them. The first film had laughable characters that were unlikable to the point that I couldn't wait to watch them be killed.

Those who read my reviews know that I like to be vague so you can enjoy the film for yourself without still really knowing anything about this film, so that is where I'll leave you regarding content. Most of what I mentioned was the good stuff, and some of the lesser things in the film for me lie in parts that would probably spoil too much. I have some other small quibbles like off-screen characters type and respond unrealistically fast, though I understand they need to keep the pace up at the same time. Even still, I'd say they still make some decisions in the sequel that make me think they didn't learn everything from making the original, but they definitely self-corrected so much, probably more so than going from Annabelle to Creation or from Ouija to Origin of Evil. I also found the halfway point to allow it to go into multiple directions, and although the route they chose wasn't my absolute favorite I'm not about to sit here and petition that a rewrite be in order either.

This film also did one more thing for me: it made me realize that the found footage screencasting sub-genre is one that can actually work and be used more and more. It is very inexpensive and tailors perfectly to our generation around the social media realm. I thought it was far too gimmicky in the first film, but then I saw the film Searching and found how it could be used correctly... and just a short two weeks later I can clearly say that in the right hands there is enough creativity there to do more and more things. That being said, I liked Searching more as a film but I can't say that I would have liked it as much as I do if I saw it AFTER seeing Dark Web. I think the novelty of the filming style meshed so well with the story and really grabbed me, and this was entertaining enough overall that I didn't care I was seeing this style again. I think seeing it in the other order might exhaust me to see Searching second. So, here goes: I recommend you see both films, but if possible I recommend you see Searching first to get the best bang for your buck. Unfortunately it releases in a few weeks while this releases just next week.

Do as you must, but ultimately I suggest you give this one a crack and you may leave as surprised as I was.

Have not seen the first 'Unfriended' in a while but remember not being hugely enamoured by it, though a re-watch is in order. Decided to see 'Unfriended: Dark Web' because the advertising was cool and creepy, the idea really intrigued (even if it is not the most innovative of ones) and it was also part of my quest to see as many 2018 films as possible.

'Unfriended: Dark Web' has problems and is more an uneven film than a great one, but it has more than enough good points to make it an above average watch. Going by vague recollection of the first 'Unfriended', 'Unfriended: Dark Web' is darker and bleaker than that film, with a scarier view of humanity and technology and less of the supernatural element, and all the better for it. If anybody asks if the film works well as a standalone, the answer would be yes it does and that it does is more than a good thing.

Am not usually a fan of the type of camera work used in 'Unfriended: Dark Web', which tends to be overused and abused. To my surprise though, it added to the unsettlement and was used cleverly and intelligently, an essential part of the storytelling even and reflective of how screen dominates lives. The lighting and setting are also hauntingly effective. The writing for the first two thirds provokes though and does a nice job exploring such a relevant topic and the dangers of it, perhaps not saying anything much new but effective in making its point without bashing it around the head of the viewer and doing it with realism.

The direction fares credibly in keeping the intrigue and suspense going, the horrors depicted are done so well, very truthful (part of why it's so unsettling) and very easy to relate to. The story is deliberate but has a lot of suspense, chills and shocks, the beginning establishes the characters well which makes the slow pacing at the start justified and the character relationships well drawn.

In terms of acting, 'Unfriended: Dark Web' is variable, there is a sense of fright and urgency but there is a tendency to overact, particularly when the character writing becomes less focused and instead more frustrating. That's one of the film's biggest faults, the characters making decisions far too quickly and most of the decision making is just so face-palmingly stupid and implausible.

Faring worst is the last act, which quite badly undoes everything so promising and well done about the first two thirds. It becomes both rushed, in story structure, how characters act and not properly tying up everything, and dull, when the atmosphere does lose lustre. It also gets ridiculous to a mind-numbing degree and sense goes completely out of the window. A shame.

Overall, does a lot well but it's also problematic, so a worthwhile and effective but frustrating and uneven effort. 6/10 Bethany Cox

This is SO much better than the first. I wasn't even going to watch it because the first was so bad, but I finally did. I don't normally care for this type of movie and the handhelds. They just seem cheesy to me, but this was actually pretty entertaining. There were many tense moments.

If you've opted to see this, you'll get what you're looking for and then some. It's pretty horrifying in its real world implications and it keeps you engrossed start to finish. Disturbing, jarring, if you want to forget about literally anything else in the world for 92 minutes, watch it. You'll get what you came for and won't be disappointed.

Certainly better than the first film and with a much more interesting plot, it manages to put suspense in many cases and is a good horror film even if some things especially the final parts I would have done differently

To be honest, I didn't know what to expect. I didn't know it existed until I was surfing through movies trying to find something to watch. Pretty interesting storyline, creepy because.... its the dark web. I cant say anything more without spoiling it. Give it a try. I liked it better than part 1

I find this pretty ok but the plot seems to go too fast. It's not really scary and frightening . The trailer seems appealing but I was let down , as the ending scene is a little confusing

I was actually rooting for the mysterious hackers in this movie because the main characters were so ridiculously vacuous, self-obsessed and just plain annoying.