Unfriended: Dark Web (2018)

Directed by: Stephen Susco | 92 minutes | crime, horror | Actors: Colin Woodell, Stephanie Nogueras, Betty Gabriel, Rebecca Rittenhouse, Andrew Lees, Connor Del Rio, Savira Windyani, Douglas Tait, Bryan Adrian, Chelsea Alden, Alexa Mansour, Rob Welsh, Alexander Ward, Kurt Carley, Chuck Lines

Young Matias buys a new laptop that turns out to be stolen. Worse, the device has even been used for shady practices in the recent past. Matias finds hidden documents showing videos of murdered women. He eventually ends up on the dark web and asks for help from friends, who are drawn into an increasingly dangerous situation. What follows is a sinister cat-and-mouse game where Matias must fight against menacing forces and invisible opponents.

We may not realize it when we surf the web on a daily basis, but the sites we can find through search engines are only a small fraction of the immense Internet. There is also the dark web, a ‘hidden’ part of the internet that is only accessible with special software (Tor, Freenet) that provides the user with anonymity. The dark web is often used for things that can’t stand the daylight. Think, for example, of viewing and distributing child pornography or concluding illegal commercial transactions.

‘Unfriended: Dark Web’ translates the sordid side of the dark web into a film that combines crime and horror elements. Just like in ‘Unfriended’ we sit glued to a computer screen for an hour and a half, watching the vicissitudes of a couple of American millennials. The paranormal approach of ‘Unfriended’ gives way in ‘Unfriended: Dark Web’ to a focus on the horrors of the man-made digital underworld.

Unfortunately, at first sight this potentially promising premise is not turned into a compelling or blood-curdling suspense film. Although director Stephen Susco occasionally comes up with interesting finds and scares, ‘Unfriended: Dark Web’ rarely gets really exciting or scary. This is mainly due to the cardboard, rather stupid and sometimes even slightly cartoonish-looking characters. For example, main character Matias seems to be allergic to logical thinking. Even when he starts to smell danger, he happily continues to open new and encrypted computer programs. Plus, he ignores a host of ostentatious warning signs (the ominous screen names of his digital stalkers, an internet user’s strange and morbid request to drill a girl’s skull) that would be obvious red flags to anyone with any common sense.

Moreover, many situations and events seem mainly made up to propel the plot forward instead of arising from character development or natural human behavior. The visual concept of ‘computer screens in screens’ works sparsely: on the one hand it makes you part of the chaos and devastation that the main characters feel, but it does become a bit irritating in the long run.

Despite some nice moments ‘Unfriended: Dark Web’ is a rather disappointing exercise across the board. The main protagonists are so uninteresting and naive that it’s hard for a viewer to care much about their fortunes. In addition, many plot developments are very far-fetched. Quite nice to watch once if you have little to do, but not a film that will stay with you for a long time.