Aahana Swrup
The 2014 horror film ‘Unfriended’ makes the most of its found-footage genre by charting the entire story in real-time through a computer screen. The story centers around Blaire and her friends, who hop on a group Skype call on the anniversary of their former classmate Laura Barns’ death by suicide. Unbeknownst to the others, each member harbors a secret of their own, all of which begins to come out once an anonymous person joins the call, seeking answers for Laura’s death. As the night progresses, things take a darker turn as the caller picks each member off one by one, bringing a horrifying reality to the other side of the screen. The narrative remains appropriately steeped in mystery and intrigue, only showing its cards at the most opportune moments to keep the viewers glued to their seats. Therefore, as the terror mounts and new revelations are made, the audience naturally finds themselves in for a fascinating conclusion. SPOILERS AHEAD!
Unfriended Plot Synopsis
On April 13, 2014, exactly a year after the death of Laura Barns, Blaire goes on a morbid trip down memory lane, clicking through videos and posts about her dead classmate. Laura had shot herself outside of the school after an embarrassing video of her circulated online, leading to mass cyberbullying. Even after a year, both the inciting video and the recording of her suicide can be found online. Eventually, a call from her boyfriend, Mitch—with whom Blaire is planning on having sex on prom night—derails her off the rabbit hole. Soon enough, the rest of their friends, Jess, Adam, and Ken, join the call for a virtual hangout. However, to the group’s surprise, an anonymous user, Billie227, also joins the call. Furthermore, Blaire and Mitch receive cryptic messages from Laura’s Facebook account.
Weirder still, no matter what anyone does, they can’t seem to be able to get rid of the anonymous Billie. As a result, Mitch does some sleuthing and finds a discussion board on Unexplainedforums about spirits reaching out from the dead and messaging people. As the myth goes, answering the dead leads to dangerous demises. As the situation’s weirdness increases, Blaire suspects another friend, Val, to be behind the prank, leading her to get added to the call. Nevertheless, Val’s addition brings up a new problem as she throws a fit about some incriminating photos of her posted from Jess’ account—one of Billie’s inexplicable tricks.
Soon enough, the group realizes that Billie227 is actually under Laura’s ID. On the heels of the revelation, the caller sends a message to Val that prompts her to get agitated and reach out to the police. Shortly afterward, the source of her distress reveals itself through an email Blaire receives. The email includes a screenshot of Val pushing Laura to kill herself after the girl attempts to convince her to take down the initial video. Afterward, Val joins the call again, sitting in front of the camera in eerie silence before some unseen force knocks her down—killing her on the spot.
The incident freaks everyone out and compels Ken—a tech whiz—to try and drive the anonymous caller away through antivirus programs. Although it gets rid of the caller for a second, they soon join again, this time from behind the clutter in Ken’s room. Before the teens know it, Ken becomes the caller’s next victim, dying an equally perplexing death. Thus, with only four of the original six left, the caller—whose identity as Laura’s spirit becomes increasingly evident—forces the group to play a game of “Never Have I Ever” with the caveat that the first one with all five fingers down dies.
Unfriended Ending: Why is Laura Haunting Blaire and Her Friends?
From Billie227’s initial appearance on the group’s Skype call, the anonymous user’s identity presents a cause for concern. Therefore, once Blaire and her friends realize the account belongs to Laura, the stakes rise even further. Laura’s death has been a proven and well-documented fact for the past entire year. After she got too drunk at a party and ended up passed out somewhere remote, someone made a video of her predicament showcasing how she had soiled her pants. As a result, once the person posted that video online, it brought widespread humiliation for the young girl, who started getting bullied by everyone on the internet.
As the night unfolds, Laura reveals through the group Skype call that Blaire and her friends also had a part to play in the same. From Val—who bluntly told the vulnerable girl to kill herself, to Ken, who maintains that Laura deserved what she got—the girl’s vengeful spirit has enough bones to pick with the group. For the same reason, on the anniversary of her suicide, Laura returns from the other side of her grave to torment her bullies. According to the Unexplainedforums, this instance of dead people cyber-haunting the living has happened a few times before. As such, Mitch learns that Laura’s supernatural spirit can possess her victims and drive them to their deaths.
Consequently, once the group is deep enough in the call, they have no choice but to play Laura’s game. As such, Laura uses the opportunity to air out Blaire and her friends’ dirty laundry—just as the poster did to her by leaking her humiliating video. Thus, the group’s reality emerges as they are forced to reveal their deepest, darkest secrets. In the chaos that follows, Adam quickly loses his cool and pushes Blaire to reveal she cheated on Mitch with him. Likewise, other secrets reveal themselves as well, such as Adam sexually assaulting one of his classmates, Mitch snitching on his friend, and Jess defacing Laura’s grave.
With each new revelation, it becomes more and more obvious that Blaire’s assertion that she and her friends are good people and only got caught up in Laura’s torment is nothing but a lie. Much like how they had been hiding behind anonymous screen names to leave nasty comments on the girl’s social media, they have also been hiding behind fake masks of niceties in real life. Ultimately, after Adam and Jess meet their ends, Laura reveals that she intends to glean who out of Blaire and Mitch leaked the initial humiliating video.
Who Leaked Laura’s Video?
From her first appearance on the Skype call, Laura maintains a single-minded focus on ruining the lives of the people who tormented her when she was alive. Several people, including most of the high school population, participated in Laura’s cyberbullying. Still, her vengeful spirit holds a particularly sore spot for Blaire and her friends. At first, one might be compelled to believe the same could be a coincidence. However, as Laura begins her game of unveiling the group’s secrets, it becomes evident that the dead girl is haunting these teens for a reason.
Multiple people from Blaire’s group personally wronged Laura—be it through their callous behavior toward her when she was suicidal or desecrating her grave in the aftermath. However, as it turns out, the most significant offense is even more unforgivable. While Blaire claims that she and her friends had nothing to do with the cyberbullying, she changes her tune once Laura asserts that she knows either Blaire or Mitch leaked her video online. From the start, Blaire has gathered through online forums that confessing is the only way to shake off such spirits.
Still, after her friends’ deaths, as Laura establishes that she wants a confession about the video, Blaire attempts to protect herself and Mitch. Nonetheless, once time starts ticking away, Blaire decides to throw her boyfriend under the bus and confesses to Laura in a private iMessage that Mitch posted the video. Consequently, Mitch dies a gruesome death. Even so, where the last woman standing may have expected the horrors to come to an end, a different reality awaits her.
Apparently, tricking the undead isn’t quite as easy as Blaire may want it to be. Laura knew from the start that it was actually Blaire who had recorded the video of her passing out in her own filth. In fact, the other girl took gleeful delight in catching her former friend in such a vulnerable position. For the same reason, she posted it online, knowing it would blow up. Even once the video’s impact reached Laura, violently upending her life, Blaire didn’t hold a guilty conscience and continued feeding the fire with her friends through mean comments. It was only after Laura took her own life that the situation’s gravity set in.
Thus, Blaire started distancing herself from Laura’s death, treating her memory with respect and acting sensitive toward it. Essentially, it was a cover to mask the malice that had pushed her to leak the video in the first place. Even after Laura comes back to haunt her, Blaire attempts to shed the blame by consistently saving face, even if at the cost of others’ lives. Consequently, she lies about Mitch leaking the video—knowing very well it would get him killed. In the end, with no one left by her side and no mask left to hide behind, Blaire’s reality comes out in the open under the scrutiny of Laura’s ghost.
Does Blaire Die?
The revelation that Blaire betrayed Laura and jumpstarted the series of events that led to her suicide remains increasingly disturbing once their past friendship is taken into account. Unlike the others, Blaire knew Laura even before high school. In fact, the former alludes to knowing about a traumatic childhood event that unfolded between the latter and her uncle. This directly implies that a close bond once persisted between the two girls to make place for such vulnerable confessions. For the same reason, Blaire’s betrayal remains that much more cutting.
Therefore, in the end, Laura reveals the extended cut of the initially posted video and unmasks Blaire’s reality to the internet. Still, her spirit craves a more tangible revenge. Allowing Blaire to live out her days under the public’s scrutiny and face their hatred would possibly be fair retribution. Nonetheless, Laura’s ghost is not interested in teaching lessons. Instead, she wants to make her tormentors pay in blood. As such, once she has unveiled Blaire’s true colors, Laura finally escapes the computer screen to kill the girl in person.
Although the film ends before Laura can kill Blaire, the implication of the latter’s fate hangs in the air. After all, Blaire’s narrative remains tied to her computer screen throughout the story. Thus, Laura essentially seals the other girl’s fate once she closes her laptop screen, establishing that the end of Blaire’s tale has arrived. Ultimately, Laura likely kills Blaire in an equally brutal way as her friends, finalizing her vengeful killing spree.
