Unfriended: Dark Web
Universal Pictures | Release Date: July 20, 2018 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
53
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 26 Critic Reviews
Positive:
11
Mixed:
10
Negative:
5
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
ConsequenceRandall ColburnMar 10, 2018
It is impressive, though, the way the movie works to incorporate new online phenomenons, from Bitcoin to swatting. The latter bit, especially, resonates as one of the film’s most unsettling elements, if only because it feels so depressingly possible. Truly, it’s surprising just how soul-crushing Dark Web becomes after luring us in with so many intriguing mysteries, but, hey, this is the internet we’re talking about. Read full review
80
The New York TimesGlenn KennyJul 19, 2018
What’s striking in this movie, apart from an ostentatiously glitchy screen distortion that occurs whenever a denizen of the “dark web” appears on one of the screens within screens, is how credibly its extreme trolling plays. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzJul 19, 2018
Nasty in its narrative and nifty in its aesthetic, Stephen Susco’s new film is a solid argument against doing anything remotely illicit online. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Jul 19, 2018
It’s a patently ludicrous story. The storytelling, though, remains clever and grippingly singular, again finding creative ways to progress the narrative without cheating the locked-vantage format. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineHenry StewartJul 14, 2018
The film is preposterously conceived, but writer-director Stephen Susco so tightly, excitingly executes it that you hardly notice. Read full review
70
Vanity FairK. Austin CollinsJul 19, 2018
The pleasure and terror of Dark Web is, as it turns out, its unpredictability. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMatthew MonagleJul 18, 2018
Now, four years later, Blumhouse Productions has released an anthology sequel that follows in its footsteps. The kicker? It’s even better than the first. Read full review
67
The PlaylistKimber MyersJul 16, 2018
This horror film lacks the freshness of its predecessor, but its bleak view on humanity and technology, as well as some truly unsettling ideas and visuals, still set it apart from most of its fellow studio genre fare. Read full review
67
IndieWireEric KohnMar 10, 2018
The script lacks bite, save some wry meta-commentary on the movie’s existence (including a passing reference to “horror transmedia”). Nevertheless, Susco follows the well-worn path of using the horror/thriller genre to explore the eerie ambiguities of modern times. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJul 20, 2018
Dark Web is a sequel only in that it mimics its predecessor’s style. The story and characters are new and, because the supernatural element has been eliminated, the movie adds a dash more suspense to go along with a heap of misanthropic nihilism. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneKatie WalshJul 19, 2018
Perhaps it's no fun because it's just too real. There's never a moment of wondering what is going on. Read full review
60
The TelegraphTim RobeyAug 9, 2018
It’s impressive how many layered twists Dark Web inflicts after its simple start, suggesting the tendrils of a conspiracy proliferating so quickly and steathily there’s no undoing them. Read full review
60
The GuardianBenjamin LeeJul 19, 2018
Even if some of the late-stage plotting seems sloppy and increasingly preposterous, there’s a callousness to the brutal last act that, together with the far patchier, yet similarly hard-edged First Purge, feels like a definite product of the time we’re in, as war on terror-era torture porn did in the mid-2000s. Read full review
60
VarietyAmy NicholsonMar 15, 2018
"Dark Web” skates by on saturated nastiness, one terrific kill, and the audience’s engagement in seeing if the filmmakers can pull off the stunt. Barely, but it’s fun to watch them try. Read full review
55
The VergeKaitlyn TiffanyMar 15, 2018
Unfriended: Dark Web has enough snark, shock, and disregard for anyone’s emotional comfort to briefly confuse viewers into thinking it’s pulled off something worthwhile. But when it’s done, it’s easy to walk outside feeling like you’ve spent 90 minutes doing nothing at all. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleDavid LewisJul 20, 2018
At the end of the day, it's all just a nihilistic trifle, yet before the final sign-off, we can't help but think twice about what else is lurking on the internet. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)Emily YoshidaJul 20, 2018
In Dark Web, the threat is wholly of this world, which makes the sequel feel as though it comes from another universe entirely. It is scary, but it isn’t much fun. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreJul 19, 2018
It’s a wonder the horror masters at Blumhouse didn’t send him back for one last rewrite over this ending. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangJul 19, 2018
An initially clever exercise winds up feeling like the wrong kind of hackwork. Read full review
50
Village VoiceApril WolfeJul 18, 2018
For all its inventive and impressive technique, the film lacks fun; a lot of folks, myself included, need very little reminding that the Internet is a threat and that terrible men are actively out there abducting and terrorizing girls and women for lulz. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeJul 18, 2018
The protagonists here aren't as insufferable as those in the first Unfriended, but Susco's plot gets harder to buy by the minute; as a first-time director, he doesn't get much out of his cast; and boy, does this Screenlife gimmick grow thin quickly. Read full review
30
We Got This CoveredMatt DonatoJul 19, 2018
Unfriended: Dark Web takes all the most engaging and horrifying techno-horror qualities from Unfriended and wipes the cache disappointingly clean. Read full review
30
TheWrapElizabeth WeitzmanJul 18, 2018
For the most part, writer-director Stephen Susco (“The Grudge”) sees the Internet as a gimmick, a way to get some attractive, disposable protagonists from Point A to Point B. (Point A is “alive,” so…). Read full review
30
Film Journal InternationalRebecca PahleJul 12, 2018
Unfriended: Dark Web doesn’t deserve your faves or your retweets. Instead, it’s a regrettably stupid horror sequel that was better left in the drafts folder. Read full review
25
RogerEbert.comSimon AbramsJul 20, 2018
The biggest difference between the two films is that "Unfriended" is dynamic and cruel while Unfriended: Dark Web is unbelievably stupid and sadistic. Neither movie is especially smart or incisive about the Way We Live Now, but they don't really have to be. Read full review
22
IGNWilliam BibbianiJul 16, 2018
The scares are ridiculous, the plot makes no sense, and you’ll probably spend the whole running time wishing someone would spill a drink on their keyboard and erase the movie's hard drive. Read full review
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