Horror Movie Talk

Unfriended: Dark Web is the sequel to the 2014 movie, Unfriended, and if you saw the first movie you might be bracing for impact – don’t. Dark Web is a great deal more enjoyable than the first movie, and only ports over the computer screen viewing format of Unfriended.

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There isn’t much else that ties this sequel to its predecessor, which is a good thing. Frankly, I’m not too sure why they chose to keep the series going instead of just starting over, but there you have it.

Having seen the first movie, I was ready for a big letdown walking into the theater on the opening weekend. The setup and lead-in to Dark Web let me dangle and confirmed my worst fears, this was going to be a rehashing of the original. The acting and script seemed corny, and the movie relied mostly on the strange and slightly jarring format of watching someone use a computer.

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Stephen Susco, the same man that brought us the classic, The Grudge, brings us this, and I can’t say that this is quite as iconic.

If you are familiar with this format, it’s just as mentioned – watching someone use a computer. Imagine standing behind someone who is using a computer and watching their mouse drag slowly across the screen.

Maybe the cursor sits for a little bit on a button or circles around a piece of dialog to emphasize it’s importance. This describes almost the entire movie. At first, it’s very distracting, it later becomes pretty easy to follow and is executed well.

I could see the format being confusing enough to my parents for them to turn this movie off immediately.

My Rating

6/10

Spoilers: The Rundown

It starts with Matias, the protagonist, trying to login to a computer that he took from a cyber-café that he works at.

The action starts with a group of friends meeting online over Skype for a long-distance game night. The protagonist, Mat and his deaf girlfriend, Amaya have several asides that point to relationship tension over his neglecting to learn sign language. While the game night ensues, Mat begins getting strange and alarming messages from a Facebook account that claims he stole the laptop he is using.

Eventually, Mat finds some alarming videos on his stolen computer, videos that nod at things like rape, human trafficking, and human torture. He does his best not to get sucked into this world but ends up being entrapped by the owner of the computer and told that if he doesn’t keep up his end of a twisted bargain he, his girlfriend, and all his friends on Skype will be killed.

Stuff happens, and it ramps into a sort of Final Destination style kill-fest with a pretty decent twist.

To cap it all off, Unfriended: Dark Web was released to theaters with two different endings. There is no easy way to find out which theater has which ending, but I would suggest asking the employees which one they got – it could work!

How Unfriended: Dark Web Stacks Up

Once the action starts to kick in, and you realize that the antagonist in this movie is a real person who is willing to do horrible things to people in real life and not a supernatural killer like in the first movie, it really comes into its own.

The acting pulled a fast one on me in the beginning, making me think that this was going to be a poorly acted, generic and forgettable horror movie, but all the actors gave an admirable performance when called upon to be believable.

If continuity errors bother you tremendously, there will be plenty of spots in Unfriended: Dark Web that will niggle you. My suggestion would be to go in, suspend your disbelief, and have a good time.

As far as I can tell, they were shooting for a PG-13 rating while making this but the darker concepts of human trafficking and torture, while not substantially present, were enough to push it to an R. It’s a light R.

This is a fun movie that surprised me in a good way; I think you should see it.

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This found footage movie focuses on one of Ireland’s Magdalene Laundries, which you would think would provide enough basis for solid terror to be spooky on its own. As it turns out, The Devil’s Doorway is not terribly spooky, it’s not even spoopy, it just kind of is.

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This movie focuses on two priests who are sent to investigate some reports of miracles that were made by those that inhabit this particular Magdalene Laundry, and they end up finding a demonically impregnated young woman who is imprisoned by some pretty questionable nuns.

I was excited for this movie because usually, Catholic horror movies capitalize on all the weirdest in a long line of weird stuff that Catholicism offers us. You have everything from officially recognized possession, to ancient architecture, to clergy that has something terrible or perverse to hide. This movie touch on all these aspects, and still manages to be pretty forgettable.

As mentioned above, this is a found footage movie, but they put their flavor on it by setting it in 1960. I have no idea how large the film camera that Father John (played by Ciaran Flynn) carries around must be, but it can’t be small, and for that, I applaud his efforts.

If you aren’t a fan of found footage, this has all the things that you dislike the most about the format, lots of jiggly-running, plenty of out of focus shots, and lots of panning around looking for something that isn’t there. It even adds what I call “the strobe effect.” The strobe effect involves the light that is attached to the camera (and is often the only source of light) very reliably going out for about one out of every ten seconds for a good portion of this movie.

If you like the found footage format, the only thing that might bother you about this is the aforementioned, “strobe effect.” It’s clear that director Aislinn Clarke cared about this movie, it just didn’t translate very well.

My Rating

4/10

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Spoilers: The Rundown

Father Thomas (Lalor Roddy) and Father John (Ciaran Flynn) are dispatched to a Magdalene Laundry by the Vatican to investigate some purported miracles. They are met by a steely Mother Superior ( Helena Bereen) who is not thrilled about being investigated by the Vatican.

As the older Father Thomas and younger Father John talk, we learn that Father Thomas has essentially lost his faith in God. He has investigated many miracles for the church and has always found the culprit to be a person of faith. Similarly, he mentions that the worst evils perpetrated on earth are done by man.

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We meet Kathleen (Lauren Coe) who is imprisoned in the bowels of the laundry and chained to the walls. Kathleen is a pregnant virgin who seems to be the polar opposite of the Mother Mary. As we wade through the plethora of jump-scares, Kathleen eventually gives birth. I’m going to be honest, I don’t think I saw the baby, and I didn’t even know there was one.

Jump-scares bring us into a system of tunnels below the laundry, where more jump-scares lead us on a demon-baby chase. Stuff happens, and the end is pretty underwhelming.

How The Devil’s Doorway Stacks Up

This movie misses plenty of opportunities as it progresses. The setting is great – the subject matter is hard to mess up – the acting is pretty darn good. It’s forgettable and has some annoying tendencies. The strobe effect soon became the focal point of my annoyance as I waited for the next reliable light’s out moment. The jump-scares were fast and furious. The audio was terrible, and I mean terrible.

Check Out Our Child’s Play 2019 Review!

The Devil’s Doorway is great for those who have a good time with jump scares. Other than that, it fails despite having a lot going for it.

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