Here’s an accomplishment, a PG-13 movie became darker than its R-rated counterpart. That’s Unfriended: Dark Web (not Game Night as listed on IMDb as of the SXSW premiere) in a nutshell. It takes the same concept using a laptop screen as the story’s canvas, dials back the violence but still comes out being more nihilistic and demented than the original.
Whether that’s good is a judgment call. If the first entry of the surprise franchise was too dark and depressing for you, the latest round of friends frantically solving a mystery over Skype won’t bring any happy memories.
That said, from the writer of the first two American adaptations of The Grudge, Stephen Susco largely impresses with his directorial debut. He bathes in the film’s increasing dark turns with an unflinching eye, demanding at the very least, intrigue. If you hate the film by the time the credits roll, it’s a success for creating some violent reaction even if the ending doesn’t feel completely earned; that’s kind of the point.
Whereas the first Unfriended was a grueling test of friendship for a group of high schoolers with trust issues, Dark Web takes aim at a slightly older crew who become unwittingly involved in a dark web conspiracy after Mattias (Colin Woodell) buys a compromised laptop.
While he frantically tries to repair his relationship with his deaf girlfriend Amaya (Stephanie Nogueras) through Facebook messages and video chats, his friends are running their game night on Skype. But the new laptop Mattias got to help speed up the new program he’s writing to better communicate with Amaya begins to crash every few minutes, leading him to discover his new computer is full of mysterious videos from hacked webcams and a dark web chat program.
A non-stop sleuthing thriller then unravels as a cyber puppet master takes control of game night, threatening to kill Amaya if the laptop isn’t turned over to him. Not only does the computer hold thousands of private videos but also access to millions of dollars in Bitcoin.
The deeper the game progresses, the more reality begins to blur and send everyone into a panic. Call the police? Take the laptop to this hacker equivalent to Jigsaw but without a motive for justice?
Thanks to the well-executed concept, keeping the whole story on Mattias’ screen and committed ensemble, Dark Web largely succeeds the more depraved it becomes. Everyone gets at least one scene to shine on their own, with the highlight coming from Rebecca Rittenhouse in the closing acts.
Characters are picked off one by one, creating moral dilemmas filled with trolley problems (which honestly, The Good Place did better in its second season) and other thought experiments to torment not only the characters but turning the audience into an unwitting protagonist.
Dark Web likely won’t convert anyone that doesn’t care for the original. For those that liked the first entry, it will still be polarizing considering how much it reinvents itself. At the very least, it should make you reconsider how you protect your Internet-driven life.
