Unfriended Trailer analysis

'Unfriended’ is a found footage supernatural horror movie which highlights the power of social media through the use of the character Laura Barns.

Firstly, Tododov’s narrative theory is presented in the trailer since a non-diegetic sound of a piano is playing in the background whilst there is a montage of different clips such as an elderly couple dancing, students graduating and a man skydiving, furthermore marking the equilibrium and also revealing to the audience how social media creates a platform for people to upload and share their moments online. However, there is a paradigm shift when the non-diegetic sound instantly stops as soon as the audience is introduced to a character called Laura Barns. Laura is a young women who appears to be at a party, drunk whilst exposing her female assets on camera, but unfortunately the person behind the camera uploads

the video, creating an online rage towards Laura. This makes the audience feel vulnerable towards Laura due to the fact that Laura has no control over the video leading to the moment of disequilibrium.

Another video of Laura is posted online, three days later, but this time, the video shows and explicit footage of Laura shooting herself therefore linking to Barthes enigma code. This theory allows the audience to construct their own ideas based on what they want to believe in through questions. For example, the audience are now aware of the video footage of Laura which has leaked around social media, overall raising questions such as which party did Laura attend on the night the video was taken? Why did nobody stop the person from recording Laura? Was it intentional to embarrass Laura? And the most obvious question: Who recorded the two videos of Laura?. In addition to this, when the audience is introduced to six of Laura’s friends, they appear to be unfazed by her death, which raises another question; Why are Laura’s friends acting casual despite the fact that she died one year ago?.

The group of friends are all active on a the network Skype, but start to become worried when an ‘unknown’ user wants to join the chat. Laura Barns Facebook account also becomes active again however, more questions are raised when the person behind her account asks ‘who posted the video?’ meaning that there is one answer, Laura is haunting her friends via social media.

This creates the disequilibrium to the trailer because as soon as Laura says ‘Tell me who posted the video… or someone dies’, from a Levi Straw perspective, this instantly forms a binary opposition between the physical and spiritual world due to the fact that the only power the group of friends have is honesty. On the other hand, Laura begins to challenge the group of friends by playing a game called ‘Lights Out’ and as soon as this text appears to the users, their lights instantly turn off, furthermore revealing to the audience how Laura is more powerful. Also, the game ‘Lights out’ links to Barthes theory of Postructuralism due to the fact that the audience feels a sense of jouissance when Laura makes the victims become vulnerable towards her, therefore causing the victims to feel weak and make the audience come closer to the truth. On the other hand, the truth, or from Todorov’s perspective ,the new equilibrium, is not presented in the trailer because the truth will reveal the ending meaning that the audience will no longer be challenged anymore.

Overall, the ‘Unfriended’ trailer challenges the codes and conventions of modernism and follows Louis Althusser theory of interpolation. This is because there are many cases of locations and people being haunted by a spirit which has been presented through different type of films such as documentaries, horror and has even been presented through media products such as articles however, the ‘Unfriended’ trailer challenges this due to the fact that the trailer has created a new genre of horror by moving away from the Postructuralist idea presented in horror movies since the victims are not haunted physically but via social media.