Unfriended is one of those films that really should not have been made. Tragically, Leo Gabriadze’s 2014 teen horror flick was, and it’s now immortalised as a film that could have easily been a groundbreaking experiment in new media offered by the digital age, but never quite got there. Told through the “lens” of a computer screen, Unfriended unfolds in real time, as characters face retribution for the cyberbullying they’ve committed. The film strives for a sort of realism, however this just makes it all the more frustrating. Occasionally, one notices that the voices of the characters have mysteriously faded away into the background while they type. Or the fact that the laptop that serves as our window into the world of the film seems neither to be charging nor draining its battery. Gabriadze does at least use music somewhat creatively - Blaire¹ occasionally plays music on Spotify which acts in a non-diegetic-yet- actually-diegetic fashion. Similarly, the concept of a film told through a computer screen is actually quite interesting. Sadly, Unfriended relies on cheap shocks, and ultimately fails as a horror film. The real horror is the film itself, and after watching I was left with only one thought. “Why?”