New Horror Unfriended Getting A Sequel

Social media-based horror movie ‘Unfriended’ hasn’t even touched down on British shores just yet, but it looks like studio Universal and production company Blumhouse have designs on making a franchise out of it.

Bloody Disgusting report that ‘Unfriended’ writer Nelson Greaves is already at work on a follow-up script.

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Based on what little we’ve seen - i.e. the trailer - ‘Unfriended’ (originally entitled ‘Cybernatural’) would appear to feature some supernatural shocks occurring on the internet, as a group of high school friends on an online video conference call are attacked one-by-one by an unknown assailant, on the one year anniversary of a cyberbullied classmate’s suicide.

Since opening in the US mid-April, ‘Unfriended’ has reportedly grossed around $25 million. While this may not seem like blockbuster figures, it’s precisely the sort of horror hit Blumhouse specialises in.

Producer Jason Blum and his company are also behind such franchises as ‘Paranormal Activity,’ ‘Insidious’ and ‘The Purge,’ and adhere to a strict policy of keeping budgets low - allegedly no more than $5 million - to ensure highest possible profit margins.

This approach reportedly gave the original ‘Paranormal Activity’ the highest budget-to-profit ratio in box office history, as the film initially made for only $15,000 (not counting marketing and post-production) wound up grossing over $193 million worldwide.

The budget for ‘Unfriended’ is said to have been around $1 million, and we would expect any sequel to be budgeted similarly, so there’s no doubt much the same low-risk, high-return approach at play here.

We can but hope the film itself proves as unique and tense as the trailer suggests, although we might note the critical response has been somewhat mixed; for reference, ‘Unfriended’ has a 60% rating on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of writing.

We’ll see for ourselves whether a sequel is worth getting excited about when ‘Unfriended’ opens in UK cinemas on 1 May.

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Picture Credit: Universal