FRIEND REQUEST
Germany, 2016, 93 minutes, Colour.
Alycia Debnam -Carey, William Moseley, Connot Paolo, Brit Morgan, Brooke Markham, Sean Marquette, Liesl Ahlers, Shashawnee Hall.
Directed by Simon Verhoeven.
Friend Request takes us into the world of social media. This is a film for a young adult audience, the characters being in their early years at college. Most of them seem to be addicted to social media, being online, posting photos, getting messages…
The film is an international production, the director coming from Germany (making the Men in the City series). Location photography was done in South Africa with the mysterious lonely girl being the only South African principal performer. The leading lady is from Australia. The leading man is from England. The rest of the cast are Americans – and the setting is an American city.
The material is fairly familiar. Everybody is online and there is a mysterious presence there, a young girl in a hood who appears in the campus dining room. The leading lady, Laura, befriends her, slightly, and the mysterious young woman becomes very dependent. What she places online, photos, artwork, video clips, is particularly sinister. She intrudes on the young girl, especially resentful about not being invited to the birthday party with Laura and friends.
The consequences are that the young woman hangs herself, sets herself on fire in front of the computer camera. Laura is upset, although her friends are fairly callous, except her boyfriend, Tyler, who supports her. There is also a computer nerd, Coby, who helps Laura investigate.
As might be expected, the various friends are killed off in sometimes spectacularly violent ways. Laura persuades Coby to track down the origins of some of the mysterious woman’s pictures, leading to a factory, leading to more deaths – including Laura’s mother. Suddenly, the leading man is also killed.
The point made is that Laura will not be killed off because the mysterious woman wanted her to be lonely, meaning that all her friends and relations will be killed. However, there is a pessimistic ending where the spirit of the dead woman takes over Laura, she is dressed in black and in a hood, looking enviously at the ordinary students in the dining room.
1. The target audience? Audiences who can identify with the characters? The dependence on social media? Posting photos, messages? Communications? Mysterious use and sinister use of the Internet?
2. Filmed in South Africa, the international cast and German director, the American city locations, lecture rooms, dining room, apartments? Restaurants? The countryside, the sinister factory, the country roads? The musical score?
3. The title, the social media reference? Laura and her increasing number of friends? Marina becoming a friend? Laura and friending her?
4. Laura, the central character, attractive, in a relationship with Tyler? Studies? The range of friends, online? The lectures and her not paying attention? Her seeing Mari Na, talking with her, walking with her, Mari Na dependent on her, watching the dread uploads, drawings, pictures of Mari Na, the video clip and its sinister aspects? The effect on Laura? Her dreams, looking in the mirror? Her friends? Mari Na not being invited to the birthday party – celebration, online, Mari Na’s reaction?
5. Mari Na, mysterious, in black, in the dining room, talking with Laura? Walking? Wanting to go to the birthday party? Rejected? Hanging herself, setting herself on fire, the images online? Her still seeming to be alive?
6. Tyler, friendship, work? The relationship with Laura? Is jealousy of Cobe? Cobe, the nerd, interpreting the message is online? Laura and her roommates? The callous attitude towards Mari Na?
7. The beginning of disasters? Gustavo, his friendship, the computer, the corridor, the elevator and his death? His girlfriend, her shock, in hospital, denouncing Laura?
8. Laura and the number of friends online rapidly decreasing?
9. Olivia, in the apartment, the attack, the lacerations, hospital? Her becoming violent and escaping?
10. Coby, his work, Tyler’s jealousy, Laura driving with him, his reactions, stabbing Laura, at the factory, his killing Tyler? His death?
11. Laura, transformation into the sinister presence, alone, the hood, in the dining room? Completely lonely? The cycle beginning again?
