Social media outlets like Facebook are supposed to bring people together, but anyone who has an online account nowadays knows that isn’t always the case, and it especially isn’t true for a college student named Marina (Liesl Ahlers) in Friend Request, a new horror film featuring witchcraft, disturbing visions, and face-eating wasps. But perhaps the most haunting thing of all is the number lurking under the friends tab on Marina’s page: “0.”
Marina’s classmate Laura (Fear The Walking Dead’s Alycia Debnam-Carey) has an opposite online life. Her social media friends are in the healthy 800+ range, but more importantly, she enjoys spending time with a tight-knit group of pals in real life, including the tech-savvy Kobe (Stake Land’s Connor Paolo) and her boyfriend, Tyler (William Moseley).
Admiring Marina’s dark fantasy digital artwork, Laura becomes friends with her reclusive classmate online, but as that dreaded “0” is...
Marina’s classmate Laura (Fear The Walking Dead’s Alycia Debnam-Carey) has an opposite online life. Her social media friends are in the healthy 800+ range, but more importantly, she enjoys spending time with a tight-knit group of pals in real life, including the tech-savvy Kobe (Stake Land’s Connor Paolo) and her boyfriend, Tyler (William Moseley).
Admiring Marina’s dark fantasy digital artwork, Laura becomes friends with her reclusive classmate online, but as that dreaded “0” is...
- 9/22/2017
- by Derek Anderson
- DailyDead
MaryAnn’s quick take… We’ve literally just seen this, in 2015’s Unfriended. Tedious wannabe scarefest misses the true horrors of Facebook and cultivates a personality-free blandness. I’m “biast” (pro): nothing
I’m “biast” (con): not a big horror fan
(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)
If you’ve seen 2015’s Unfriended — about a bunch of high school students who are tormented online by the evil spirit of a classmate who was recently bullied into suicide — then you’ve already seen Friend Request, which is about a bunch of college students who are tormented online by the evil spirit of a classmate who recently committed suicide as the ultimate passive-aggressive response to being ignored. And in fact, this “new” movie has been languishing unreleased in the Us for a year and a half, perhaps to get more air between it and the earlier film.
I’m “biast” (con): not a big horror fan
(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)
If you’ve seen 2015’s Unfriended — about a bunch of high school students who are tormented online by the evil spirit of a classmate who was recently bullied into suicide — then you’ve already seen Friend Request, which is about a bunch of college students who are tormented online by the evil spirit of a classmate who recently committed suicide as the ultimate passive-aggressive response to being ignored. And in fact, this “new” movie has been languishing unreleased in the Us for a year and a half, perhaps to get more air between it and the earlier film.
- 9/19/2017
- by MaryAnn Johanson
- www.flickfilosopher.com
While today’s technology-laden world makes a lot of things easier, it also comes at a price. Things may be easier than ever before, allowing us to be more productive in ways we never imagined, but it can sometimes open up all sorts of unexpected dangers.
There have been all kinds of horror movies that use technology at its center. One Missed Call used the cell phone, Unfriended was a horror film that took place over an extensive Skype conversation, and now, Friend Request takes the idea of social media and mixes it with a dash of more traditional horror elements, including witchcraft. But is it enough to make this film anything more than another gimmick?
Based on the trailer, it’s difficult to say. At some points, the concepts seems pretty interesting, but at others, it comes across as more of a cringefest. This one also has an interesting release history.
There have been all kinds of horror movies that use technology at its center. One Missed Call used the cell phone, Unfriended was a horror film that took place over an extensive Skype conversation, and now, Friend Request takes the idea of social media and mixes it with a dash of more traditional horror elements, including witchcraft. But is it enough to make this film anything more than another gimmick?
Based on the trailer, it’s difficult to say. At some points, the concepts seems pretty interesting, but at others, it comes across as more of a cringefest. This one also has an interesting release history.
- 8/30/2017
- by Joseph Medina
- LRMonline.com
As society continues to further the threshold of technological advancement, horror cinema must adapt accordingly. More than any other genre, horror films mirror social phenomenons to exploit generational norms. Wireless carriers rarely drop service, smartphones can be tracked via Gps locators, handheld devices can research data on-the-spot – it’s getting harder and harder for on-screen killers to dupe victims these days. That’s why movies like Unfriended, The Den and Cam2Cam have ushered in a new cyber-terror scourge, something that Simon Verhoeven’s Friend Request looks to upgrade.
Alycia Debnam-Carey stars as Laura, a popular college co-ed with a healthy social following on Facebook (it’s never spoken, but it’s Facebook). Out of the blue one night, she receives a friend request from one of her loner classmates (Marina Mills, played by Liesl Ahlers). Laura initially sees no harm in befriending the quiet new student, and spends the...
Alycia Debnam-Carey stars as Laura, a popular college co-ed with a healthy social following on Facebook (it’s never spoken, but it’s Facebook). Out of the blue one night, she receives a friend request from one of her loner classmates (Marina Mills, played by Liesl Ahlers). Laura initially sees no harm in befriending the quiet new student, and spends the...
- 12/5/2016
- by Matt Donato
- We Got This Covered
Starring Alycia Debnam-Carey (The Walking Dead, The 100), William Moseley, Conor Paolo and Brit Morgan, new cyber-horror Friend Request comes from writer/director Simon Verhoeven (Men in the City) and co-writers Simon Koch (Picco) & Matthew Ballen; and tells the story of a college student who faces grave consequences when she unfriends on social media a mysterious female loner from her high school…
Enjoying college life as a popular student, Laura shares everything with her more than 800 friends on Facebook. But one day, after accepting a friend request from a social outcast named Marina, Laura’s life is cursed, and her closest friends begin dying cruel deaths. Before her time is up, Laura must solve the mystery behind Marina and her Facebook profile, in order to break the deadly spell.
Friend Request is released in UK cinemas on April 22nd.
Enjoying college life as a popular student, Laura shares everything with her more than 800 friends on Facebook. But one day, after accepting a friend request from a social outcast named Marina, Laura’s life is cursed, and her closest friends begin dying cruel deaths. Before her time is up, Laura must solve the mystery behind Marina and her Facebook profile, in order to break the deadly spell.
Friend Request is released in UK cinemas on April 22nd.
- 3/11/2016
- by Phil Wheat
- Nerdly
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