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 swapped with a “1,” Marina becomes obsessed with her new “friend,” and when Laura doesn’t reciprocate those intense feelings (they just met and Marina already wants to be like sisters), Marina’s loneliness—and anger—consumes her, leading to a tragic act of self-inflicted violence that leaves Laura saddened and stunned. The nightmare is just beginning, though, as it turns out that Marina harbors some supernatural powers, and Laura and her friends become the targets of their classmate’s sinister spirit as she uses social media as a creepy conduit for witchcraft and bloodshed (who needs a Ouija board when you have something like the Facebook app?).
If you’re thinking that Friend Request is just another teen-centric jump scare fest, you might want to think again. Yes, it does have its share of “gotcha!” moments of spooky CG creations coming out of the shadows and characters getting their shriek on, but co-writer and director Simon Verhoeven has crafted a story that is never quite what you think it is, subverting your expectations just enough to keep you wondering what will happen next. And in this movie, what happens next is usually something very gruesome.
This is one horror film that really earns its R rating. With college kids at its center and social media as a driving force of the story, Friend Request could have easily played it safe with a PG-13 rating to make it more widely available to a younger audience, but I applaud Verhoeven and the studios behind the film (including Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures in the US—the same company that gave 47 Meters Down a much-deserved theatrical release) for not holding back with the gore and the language—both of which serve the story well without becoming overindulgent (in fact, one of the most harrowing scenes involving a character’s mother happens off camera, leaving your imagination to come up with something far worse than what could have been shown on screen).
In some teen-centered horror films with high body counts, the deaths themselves are humorous, with the untimely ends of unlikable characters serving as the comic relief. That’s not the case here. When Laura’s friends die, there’s nothing funny about it. These murders are brutal, messy acts of violence blended with psychological manipulation that would make Freddy Krueger proud. You feel their pain, and it’s hard to watch Laura’s once-happy band of friends literally get torn apart, especially since the chemistry between the actors is believable and infectiously joyful—you almost feel like a part of their easygoing group before Marina unleashes her malicious malware from beyond the grave.
The powers of friendship can’t save the film from a few flaws of its own, though. While its believable performances (especially Liesl Ahlers as the social outcast who shows an earnest heart before embracing her dark side) ground the story’s cyber phantom premise, you may find yourself rolling your eyes at some of the movie’s more over-the-top moments including witchcraft web code and a Facebook-esque graphic that appears next to Laura to show the number of her friends either rising or falling like she’s on the stock market. But by the time some of these elements come into play, I had already bought into the film’s story thanks to Verhoeven’s R-rated vision and a game cast (Paolo in particular dives in headfirst and instills a welcome humor and intensity to the ominous online proceedings). The characters somehow hacked their way right into my heart (even bypassing the firewall).
In an era when sequels, adaptations, and remakes (oh my!) rule the cinematic landscape, Friend Request offers something new for horror fans to add to their mental hard drives, including a formidable new foe. Co-writers Matthew Ballen, Philip Koch, and Verhoeven really do Marina justice by humanizing her backstory and exploring the mythology of her character, giving them a lot of terrifying tools to play with in scenes that feel like a mix of A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Blair Witch Project, and Candyman (although it’s wasps instead of bees that play a big part in this story). I only wish that the practical makeup effects for Marina were given a better showcase. Despite Ahlers receiving a full body cast and learning to walk on stilts for the role, the full demonic version of Marina doesn’t get nearly enough screen time, which is unfortunate because previously released images from the film reveal one of the creepier practical makeup creations of the year.
That being said, I still found Friend Request to be an altogether engaging horror film that kept me entertained and more than a little surprised throughout (there is one twist in particular that legitimately shocked me and could have sent my Junior Mints flying had I been holding them at the time). Friend Request doesn’t reinvent the horror wheel or even its Wikipedia page for that matter, but it’s the kind of uncompromising scary story that I’d like to see more of on the big screen. I would welcome a sequel with open arms… or even a prequel, if they want to switch the Facebook-esque website for Myspace next time.
Movie Score: 3.5/5
Raised on a steady diet of R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps books and Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Derek has been fascinated with fear since he first saw ForeverWare being used on an episode of Eerie, Indiana.
When he’s not writing about horror as the Senior News Reporter for Daily Dead, Derek can be found daydreaming about the Santa Carla Boardwalk from The Lost Boys or reading Stephen King and Brian Keene novels.
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