Happy Thanksgiving to all of you in the USA. Even though I don't really have any Thanksgiving plans, I'm still glad to have an extra couple of days off from work. I will hopefully be getting reviews done all weekend as long as I don't distract myself with other stuff. I'm even going to try to double up at some point, as I want to get a review in at my other blog as well. For now, at least, it was time to watch something streaming on Netflix. I settled on the movie Friend Request (2016) for this round. I actually watched a movie with the same title, thinking it was this film, so it is about time I caught up with it.
Laura (Alycia Debnam-Carey) is a popular college student. She is a pretty woman who likes to have fun at clubs with her friends. The more clubs she hits, she becomes more popular on social media. Her friend's list is quickly growing when she begins to notice Marina (Liesl Ahlers), another woman in one of her classes. Laura decides to try talking to Marina and accepts a friend request, becoming Marina's only online friend. While Laura seems to like Marina, even though she is a bit strange, Marina takes the friendship to an odd level. Constantly leaving online messages and commenting on every post that Laura makes. Marina invites herself to Laura's birthday party, which Laura lies about. Saying that it will just be a night out with her boyfriend, Marina learns differently once pictures start showing up on Laura's timeline. Marina confronts Laura and Laura decides that is the last straw. She unfriends Marina which leads to Marina killing herself. Now someone online is making damn sure that Laura pays the price and promises that Laura will feel as alone as Marina felt.
Friend Request was co-written by Matthew Ballen, Philip Koch, and Simon Verhoeven, who also directed. When this movie first came out I thought it had something to do with the movie Unfriended. It seemed to be the same type of movie, but I was wrong about it being a sequel or any other kind of relation to Unfriended. Friend Request is a movie from Germany and wanted to use the same name but went with the title it is known under now in order to avoid confusion. I ended up being kind of mixed about this movie. While I did enjoy my time with it, there were things about it that I didn't care for too much. Even though the story kind of puts lonely people in a bad light, I have never met one that will cling so badly so quickly, I still ended up likely the story. What I liked most about it was that the writers at least tried to make more than just a supernatural story. They could have gone deeper into what they were trying to set up with witchcraft and more detail would have been nice as well. For example, the use of wasps was a nice idea but they don't really explain it very well. One of the characters claims he did some research and wasps could be used by a witch to help protect them. Since the characters hit the internet for answers, I was hoping for an article instead of just us taking this character's word for it. I think there may have been a drawing or two but big deal. More detail went into the black mirror at least. I also liked that it took some old school digging to find out who Marina actually is. There wasn't much information on the net about here, surprisingly, so they had to find other ways of getting that information. Even armed with information, it came down to pure luck that Laura found what it was she was actually looking for. My biggest issue with Friend Request had to do with a character turning on Laura late in the story. At least one character gets the idea that since Marina wants Laura to feel as lonely as she did and is killing Laura's closest friends in order to do that, then this character will simply kill Laura. It wasn't the idea, which I thought was rather smart, or the fact that the character turned on one their friends. It was more a timing issue for me. They had a good idea how to stop Marina and were in the middle of doing so when Laura's friend decided it was time to turn on her. I could see this character doing this before any of this happening but not during it. To make things worse, they go with this plot point for a good while and things fall apart some because of that.
The effects are pretty good here. I don't want to say they are gory really but some of the makeup is. There aren't a lot of kills and while the effects look good for these kills, they aren't all that gory or bloody. The one that stood out to me the most was a burn victim. The makeup was done very well for that. The acting was also good. Alycia Debnam-Carey was good in the lead role and I enjoyed her acting. While her acting could have been a bit better in places, overall it was good. The whole cast had some issues as well but nothing major that stood out badly. Some of the others you kind find here are William Moseley, Connor Paolo, Brit Morgan, and Brooke Markham.
The ending of Friend Request was also an issue for me. If they had ended the film just a few minutes earlier before the last scene, I think it would have worked a whole lot better. The ending makes sense in a way, but I still feel it would have worked better without the last scene. I was a bit surprised at how low of an average score it gets on Letterboxd. Then again, I think the average scores there a generally lower than other such websites. Friend Request certainly isn't a great film but I didn't find it as bad as an average of two stars. Hopefully, Verhoeven's next film will be better than this one turned with the story. Anyway, if you haven't given this movie a short, you might consider doing so. I did enjoy my time with it even if I did struggle some with the last act.
3 out of 5 I've never tried any kind of magic
Laura (Alycia Debnam-Carey) is a popular college student. She is a pretty woman who likes to have fun at clubs with her friends. The more clubs she hits, she becomes more popular on social media. Her friend's list is quickly growing when she begins to notice Marina (Liesl Ahlers), another woman in one of her classes. Laura decides to try talking to Marina and accepts a friend request, becoming Marina's only online friend. While Laura seems to like Marina, even though she is a bit strange, Marina takes the friendship to an odd level. Constantly leaving online messages and commenting on every post that Laura makes. Marina invites herself to Laura's birthday party, which Laura lies about. Saying that it will just be a night out with her boyfriend, Marina learns differently once pictures start showing up on Laura's timeline. Marina confronts Laura and Laura decides that is the last straw. She unfriends Marina which leads to Marina killing herself. Now someone online is making damn sure that Laura pays the price and promises that Laura will feel as alone as Marina felt.
Friend Request was co-written by Matthew Ballen, Philip Koch, and Simon Verhoeven, who also directed. When this movie first came out I thought it had something to do with the movie Unfriended. It seemed to be the same type of movie, but I was wrong about it being a sequel or any other kind of relation to Unfriended. Friend Request is a movie from Germany and wanted to use the same name but went with the title it is known under now in order to avoid confusion. I ended up being kind of mixed about this movie. While I did enjoy my time with it, there were things about it that I didn't care for too much. Even though the story kind of puts lonely people in a bad light, I have never met one that will cling so badly so quickly, I still ended up likely the story. What I liked most about it was that the writers at least tried to make more than just a supernatural story. They could have gone deeper into what they were trying to set up with witchcraft and more detail would have been nice as well. For example, the use of wasps was a nice idea but they don't really explain it very well. One of the characters claims he did some research and wasps could be used by a witch to help protect them. Since the characters hit the internet for answers, I was hoping for an article instead of just us taking this character's word for it. I think there may have been a drawing or two but big deal. More detail went into the black mirror at least. I also liked that it took some old school digging to find out who Marina actually is. There wasn't much information on the net about here, surprisingly, so they had to find other ways of getting that information. Even armed with information, it came down to pure luck that Laura found what it was she was actually looking for. My biggest issue with Friend Request had to do with a character turning on Laura late in the story. At least one character gets the idea that since Marina wants Laura to feel as lonely as she did and is killing Laura's closest friends in order to do that, then this character will simply kill Laura. It wasn't the idea, which I thought was rather smart, or the fact that the character turned on one their friends. It was more a timing issue for me. They had a good idea how to stop Marina and were in the middle of doing so when Laura's friend decided it was time to turn on her. I could see this character doing this before any of this happening but not during it. To make things worse, they go with this plot point for a good while and things fall apart some because of that.
The effects are pretty good here. I don't want to say they are gory really but some of the makeup is. There aren't a lot of kills and while the effects look good for these kills, they aren't all that gory or bloody. The one that stood out to me the most was a burn victim. The makeup was done very well for that. The acting was also good. Alycia Debnam-Carey was good in the lead role and I enjoyed her acting. While her acting could have been a bit better in places, overall it was good. The whole cast had some issues as well but nothing major that stood out badly. Some of the others you kind find here are William Moseley, Connor Paolo, Brit Morgan, and Brooke Markham.
The ending of Friend Request was also an issue for me. If they had ended the film just a few minutes earlier before the last scene, I think it would have worked a whole lot better. The ending makes sense in a way, but I still feel it would have worked better without the last scene. I was a bit surprised at how low of an average score it gets on Letterboxd. Then again, I think the average scores there a generally lower than other such websites. Friend Request certainly isn't a great film but I didn't find it as bad as an average of two stars. Hopefully, Verhoeven's next film will be better than this one turned with the story. Anyway, if you haven't given this movie a short, you might consider doing so. I did enjoy my time with it even if I did struggle some with the last act.
3 out of 5 I've never tried any kind of magic
