Set in Fresno, California, Unfriended is told through a laptop screencast of high school student Blaire Lily (Shelley Hennig), one year after her childhood friend Laura Barns (Heather Sossaman), a victim of cyberbullying, had committed suicide after an embarrassing video of her was uploaded to YouTube. Blaire is contacted over Skype by her boyfriend Mitch Roussel (Moses Jacob Storm) and later joined by three of their friends: Jess Felton (Renee Olstead), Ken Smith (Jacob Wysocki), and Adam Sewell (Will Peltz), as well as a faceless account named "billie227", who claims to be Laura.
The group make several unsuccessful attempts to get rid of the user. Later they suspect that another girl, Val Rommel (Courtney Halverson), whom they all despise, is pranking them. When she is invited to the chat, Jess's Facebook is suddenly updated with photos of Val drinking and smoking at a party. Jess, who proclaims her innocence, attempts to delete the photos, but they continue to reappear. After finally deleting them, the photos are mysteriously posted by Adam's account. After being threatened multiple times by Laura , Val eventually calls 911 to report online abuse and signs off.
After finding out that the user's account is Laura's, Blaire gets an email from her which includes a link to the Instagram website, showing a photo of a message Laura sent Val a year earlier, begging her to remove the embarrassing video. Val cruelly rejected the plea and told her to kill herself. When multiple Instagram users criticize Val, she is suddenly brought back into the chat. Val is seen silently standing motionless in her bathroom, next to an open bottle of bleach. Concerned, when Blaire calls Val to check on her, Val's phone is seen vibrating across her counter. Suddenly, her laptop is abruptly knocked to the ground. The police arrive and shout out police codes. The group try to work out what happened to Val using those codes, and her death is eventually labeled a suicide. Though it is not explicitly stated,it is implied that Val was forced to drink the bottle of bleach.
After Ken briefly gets the account out of the chat, Adam tries to call the police, but is met by a voice telling him to not hang up. Laura resurfaces as a camera view that is revealed to be in Ken's room. Ken is seen being attacked by an unseen force, then shredding his hand in an active blender, before killing himself by breaking the blender then using the blades to slice his throat.
Laura forces the four remaining friends to play Never Have I Ever, threatening to end the loser's life. Through this game, she reveals dark secrets that put the friends at odds with each other. Adam becomes enraged and uses the game to force Blaire to reveal that she is no longer a virgin, having had sex with him twice. Mitch retaliates by forcing Adam to reveal that he gave a girl roofies at a party, had sex with her while she was unconscious and then forced her to get an abortion when he found out that she was pregnant. Blaire and Adam then receive messages from their printer, but refuse to reveal what their messages say. Mitch, angry that Blaire and Adam are apparently sending "secret messages", threatens to log off, to which Laura responds that if he does, he will die. Eventually, Blaire shows her note: "If you reveal this note, Adam will die." Adam immediately shoots himself in the face as his screen shows his note: "If you reveal this note, Blaire will die."
Laura demands to know who defaced her grave. After Jess refuses to admit she was the one who vandalized it, Laura turns all the lights off in her house. As Jess hides in her bathroom, Blaire goes on Chatroulette and successfully gets someone to call the police. Suddenly, Jess' video feed disconnects and for a few seconds, she is seen screaming at an unseen force that is seemingly possessing her. Seconds after, she is shown choking to death on an electric hair straightener, that was activated. Blaire receives a Facebook notification from Jess's account and it is an image of Jess during her death, immortalised into an Internet meme by Laura.
Laura then demands to know who uploaded the video of her. After Laura privately messages Blaire on Facebook, asking who posted the video, Blaire admits that it was Mitch who uploaded it. Mitch suddenly dies when he stabs himself in the eye, leaving Blaire alone in the chat room.
As Blaire breaks down crying, Laura thanks her for her help, but tells her that she must confess to one more thing. Blaire tries to placate Laura by showing her past photos of when the two were friends. Laura uploads the humiliating video of her on Blaire's Facebook account, but in this version, Blaire is revealed to be the cameraman who is laughing at Laura's misfortune. The video is flooded with hate comments blaming Blaire for Laura's death. Blaire, in a state of shock, sits silently just as billie227 signs off followed by her bedroom door creaking open. Silhouetted hands appear out of nowhere and they suddenly close Blaire's laptop (as the film switches to a first-person view). Laura's vengeful ghost suddenly appears as Blaire unleashes one final scream.
That is What Happened ....,4 Star,
View more about Unfriended reviews
