Movie Information
Release Date: September 22, 2017
Director: Simon Verhoeven
Writer: Matthew Ballen, Philip Koch, Simon Verhoeven
Cast: Alycia Debnam-Carey, William Moseley, Connor Paolo, Brit Morgan, Brooke Markham, Sean Marquette, Liesl Ahlers, Shashawnee Hall, Susan Danford, Lee Raviv, Nicholas Pauling, David Butler, Julian Katz, Kiano Janse van Rensburg, Dorothy Ann Gould, Kimberieigh Stark, Wendy Acton Burnell, Julie Summers, Nevena Jablanovic, Jay Anstey, Matthew Ballen, Carolyn Forward, Owen De Jager, Bill Russell, Deirdre Wolhuter, Leon Clingman, Roxanne Kalie, Laurn Steyn
Genre: Horror, Thriller
MPAA Rating: R
Runtime: 92 minutes
Production Company: Wiedemann & Berg Filmproduktion, Seven Pictures, Two Oceans Production, Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures
Language: English
Country: Germany
Budget: 9.9 million (estimated)
When films like this are made, all I can think of is the amount of talent out there that constantly get ignored with real forms of art to entertain the masses. Friend Request has a great premise, and start that shows promise as a worthy horror film to remember. It takes social media as a large percentage of our lives to drive the film home for viewers. It’s a great way to get the audience connected with the story, making them feel like they could be victims too. The problem is the execution, and the writing between the characters that make Friend Request a laughable mess.
A sense of realism and proper social reactions to one another could be a simple task to complete within a script but apparently, it isn’t. In regards to the antagonist, instead of the film providing a young adult with issues in the real world, she was reduced down to a toddler who throws temper tantrums because she wasn’t invited to a party. For this to be the reason the reign of terror begins is a poor one, and even worse when the victims don’t come remotely close to deserving it.
With that stuffed into the film, it could at least contains neat kills. That is not the case either, with each being fandom, not following any rules that the film never bothered to create. It’s never clear where reality begins or ends within the movie, and I was bored trying to play the guessing game. The film did have a decent number of jump scares, but what came afterwards was often predictable.
The characters and some of the decisions weren’t the brightest, but there’s this one cop who ruins every scene he’s in. There wasn’t much going for the movie anyway, but he’s playing in manure with his dialogue like a bully to your senses. Friend Request is a horrible movie that I wouldn’t recommend to anyone, but that doesn’t mean it has no redeeming qualities for movie goers that enjoy horror films. I’m not that individual, so when a film has no payoff at the end, I was singing and dancing when it was over
