By Hayley McNulty – Entertainment Editor

The thriller “Unfriended” was released into theaters on April 17 and instantly attracted viewers with its technology-driven plotline.

One year after their friend’s passing after an embarrassing video was posted online, six friends are cyberstalked for hours by an anonymous user trying to figure out who posted the video.

When the friends (Blaire, Adam, Mitch, Jess, Ken, and Val) notice a Skype user listening in on their video call on the one-year anniversary of childhood friend Laura Barn’s death, they immediately recognize it to be Laura’s old user. Assuming that the account was cruelly hacked, they attempt to rid them of their call to no avail.

After several cryptic Facebook messages from Laura’s account are received, the friends assume that it was Val who hacked the accounts- but after it was clear it was a third party that could toil with their computers, it was too late for the friends.

One by one, the friends disappear off of the call, and it is clear that the anonymous user is behind their deaths.

The remaining four friends are forced to play Never Have I Ever, and the user threatens to kill whoever loses. The game reveals secrets about the friends that turned them against each other; soon, the four are completely at odds with each other.

When there are only two left, the user asks the final and most important question; who posted the video of Laura Barns only a year ago?

The movie is confined entirely to the desktop of protagonist Blaire, where we can see which pages she visits and what spooky unintended windows an outside source opens. We can see the other friends through the Skype window, as well as when Blair talks privately with Mitch about the happenings through Apple’s Messages app.

Soon, it is clear that to the friends, there is nowhere to hide- even unsent messages are seen and replied to by the anonymous user.

As the movie plays out, viewers see that producers have thought of everything to make the movie complete, down to a pirated copy of a “Saturday Night Live” episode causing the downloaded Trojan horse removal software to lag when trying to get rid of the user, to the at times loud hum of Blair’s computer’s hard drive. Even unnecessarily loud notification sounds are a nice touch to made the audience especially on-edge.

An inventive way to portray a story, “Unfriended” was a spooky watch that was well-thought out and very entertaining.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars