Friend Request is a film I’ve been curious about since noticing a cardboard cut out when exiting another film one evening at the theater. Initially this made me think of the 2014’s Unfriended. The unique thing about Unfriended is that the entire film took place through characters computer screens. So while the two films have a popular social media site in common, they are drastically different in terms of execution.
Friend Request opens on a classroom where a professor informs his classroom that a student has killed herself. Upon asking those in the room to report anything that might help authorities understand what occurred the camera pans to two friends, focusing on one of the most popular girls in school, Laura Woodson (Alycia Debnam-Carey). Moments later audiences are transported to two weeks earlier and we watch as she absentmindedly clicks on numerous confirms without truly acknowledging who she is friending online. In fact, Marina is the only person she examines even remotely in depth. Though I have to believe in hindsight she wishes she would have kept scrolling.
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