Sometimes I wonder how it is I can eat my words so often and still not get either tired or disgusted by the taste. (I call this process “Kinder-Ei-ing”: When I took a class trip to Germany and Austria in middle school, I was introduced to the Kinder surprise eggs (we referred to them as Kinder Ei, “Ei” meaning “egg” auf Deutsch) and proceeded to eat so many of them over the course of those two weeks that I can’t physically eat them anymore. Since then, the situation has only happened once more, involving chicken taquitos from high school. Fun facts.) A little while ago, I mentioned on this site’s Facebook page that I was actually looking forward to the Unfriended sequel after seeing the trailer. Why do I do things like that?
Alright, so Dark Web isn’t all that bad, really. In actuality, it’s a massive step up from the original, which was just a seeming millennium of obnoxious idiots saying and doing terrible things and yelling all the while. I hated every second of that piece of garbage, lemme tell ya. This time out, the characters aren’t nearly as annoying, the story is mostly fine (more on that in a moment), and I didn’t leave the theatre in a foggy haze of rage. It’s still not great by any means, but I’ll take any improvement I can get at this point, ya dig?
So here’s the basic premise: a guy happens upon a laptop and brings it home. During a Skyped game night with friends, he stumbles on some dark content on the hard drive, leading to the Skype call getting hacked and hijacked by a shadowy force. You can imagine some shenanigans stemming from this, yes? Indeed they do, kids, indeed they do. (I should note, however, that I don’t believe the poster’s picture ever really happens in the film. Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.) Just like last time, everything unfolds before us from the perspective of the man’s laptop screen, with plenty of programs and videos and whatnot jumping into view as he does things on the computer.
But there are some fundamental changes to this format pretty quickly. First, there are time cuts now. The first film was pretty much in real time, but this time there are a few quick edits every now and again, mostly during downtime, like the initial rounds of Cards Against Humanity the characters play (is this a thing the young’ns still play?). These cuts don’t make much of a difference, but they begin the puncturing of the framing conceit. It’s further undermined by the occasional bit of voicework from behind our point of view: much like the ending of the first, there is indeed a world outside of the screen, but here we get snippets during the main action, usually when the system or programs crash. There’s also some non-diegetic background music, further weakening the framing gimmick. Now, there is a bit at the very end that also continues this trend, but I’m not gonna hold that bit against the film, as the same sort of thing happened at the end of the first.
Much like the first, this film also dabbles in jump scare tactics for its thrills. Any excuse, any opportunity is jumped upon, complete with a requisite loud noise or even a non-diegetic sound sting. The jump scares aren’t all that plentiful, mostly due to the sparse cast, but that is the main thrust of horror here, sadly. The foley work and sound editing are decidedly uneven, with many sound effects forced way too high in the mix, especially considering the fact that we’re supposed to be hearing them on webcam-based microphones (I doubt any of the characters are rocking a quality XLR or anything, call me crazy). And then there’s the distortion issue. Just like the first film, the footage digitally tears and distorts when the characters meet their respective fates. Unlike the first, though, as the trailer attests (so no need for a full spoiler warning), the danger stems not from a ghost, but from people. So why the distortion? I think it’s meant to be some sort of active cloaking or camouflage or something like that, but it’s not entirely clear. Combined with some magical screen editing (like disappearing messages shaking as they’re deleted), a feeling of dorky impossibility pervades much of the computer-based shenangians, not a positive trait for a film set entirely around computers. Most of the rest of my issues are minor, like why the protagonist, Matias, has such a juvenile e-mail address (do people still make goobery addresses anymore?)and the improper pronunciation of Charon (despite a pronunciation key right in front of them and someone correcting the pronunciation of Styx).
But I said “most” there. Like I said before, the idea of the plot is fine, potentially really good. But the handling of things just doesn’t do the concept justice. Things have a very static feel to them, weakening any sense of fright or suspense or dread. As such, many of the deaths are more funny than scary, mostly because they’re portrayed so straightforwardly and lifelessly (pun intended). The main romantic subplot is actually well-founded, but it’s emotionality is out of place in this narrative, especially when the relationship begins to be co-opted by the malefactors. And the ultimate reasoning for all of the action is a slight kiss-off, as if the filmmakers saw Megan Is Missing and Nerve and thought the combination of the two would be great. I have no idea why, then, this was made as part of the Unfriended franchise, considering the characters all stay friends throughout and the action isn’t propelled by their intra-friendship dickery, aside from the cost-effectiveness of the frame (see as the upcoming thriller Searching with John Cho).
Still, the film’s got some legs, and the basic foundation of the plot helps move things along without becoming annoying or overly trite. The acting is much better here, with much less obnoxious histrionics (although some of Rebecca Rittenhouse’s Skype-box reactions are way too static and flat to really work, and Connor del Rio comes awfully close to being genuinely caustically annoying). First-time director Stephen Susco, likely best known for penning the first two American Grudge films and Texas Chainsaw 3D, handles the situation rather well, and with a bit of seasoning could have pulled things off with more success. His script, showcasing some of the questionable bits of his aforementioned prior works (“Get ’em, cuz!” springs to mind…), never fully unravels like the first film’s did, helping to keep the modicum of suspense alive until the end.
So, is it any good, all told? Yeah, actually, it is. It’s got some major issues, to be sure, but overall I didn’t hate this experience, and I think there are enough improvements and good ideas to keep things from fully flagging. A direct sequel is hinted at at the end (sort of), so there’s hope that this particular franchise, something I never thought I’d get into, can continue to grow, expand, and improve into the future. So, a solid-enough premise and some baked-in hope: more than I could have expected from this sequel. Right on.
Allusions of Grandeur 