I Thought I’d Just Lost My Phone — Turns Out It Made Me a Murder Target (Movie Rec: Unlocked)
Intro
Picture this: in our modern world, you accidentally lose your phone, and just as you’re feeling lucky that someone found it, you find yourself dropped right into the middle of a terrifying murder case. “Unlocked” tells exactly that kind of story, and the plot is so realistic it’s genuinely creepy. If “The Strangers 1” was so real it made my scalp tingle, then this film takes the definition of realism even further. At one point I actually felt like someone was watching my every move through the screen, and that he’d even sneaked a peek at which movie I’m going to recommend next…
Welcome to our Friday Movie Night! You know who else knows which film I’m recommending next? You do! Just click the personal site link below and you’ll see all the articles I’ve finished writing but haven’t posted to Dcard yet (because over there I have to keep up a daily update schedule). So if you can’t wait and want to dive into more articles, you’re welcome to click the link below. It gives me the means to keep writing the next piece. With your support, I don’t have to worry about where my next meal is coming from, and I can keep bringing everyone quality content! Pretty please.
https://mydondon.net/category/entertainment
Lee Na-mi is a junior employee at a startup. Day to day, she handles marketing for the company, often running all sorts of ad campaigns on social media. At the same time, she gets along great with her coworkers, and in her free time after work she and her colleagues or friends often visit fun, interesting spots all around Korea. One day, this ordinary office worker accidentally loses her phone on the bus home after a party, and only realizes the next morning that it’s gone.
Trailer and Netflix info for “Unlocked”
“Unlocked” official trailer:
“Unlocked” on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/tw/title/81640988
Plot summary
… … … (spoiler line) … … …
In that moment she of course frantically searches for her phone, and luckily it gets picked up by another woman. That woman is happy to arrange a time to meet and hand the phone back to her in person. But on the afternoon of the handoff, just as she’s about to head to the meeting spot, the company phone rings. It’s the stranger who found her phone, saying she accidentally dropped and broke it, but not to worry, she’s already taken it to the phone repair shop to get it fixed and even paid for it herself, so all Na-mi has to do is go pick it up.
Even though our heroine is a little suspicious, in the end she decides to head over to that legendary repair shop alone. When she arrives, the repair guy tells her he needs her phone’s passcode in order to fix it. Naturally, she ends up giving the repairman the passcode, and just like that, the phone is fixed.
But that’s exactly when all the creepy stuff is about to begin. As it turns out, that phone repairman has been a super sophisticated serial killer this whole time. And not only that, if your phone falls into his hands, your life isn’t far from ending either…
… … … (spoiler line) … … …
My thoughts on “Unlocked”
While watching this film, I personally felt a ton of connection to it. I still remember that just about one or two months ago, I’d sent my own phone in for repair. So after finishing this movie, I kept feeling uneasy, as if my phone were Lee Na-mi’s phone. It really hits way too close to the kind of thing that could happen in real life.
On top of that, I have to specifically point out one thing: the film’s narrative perspective is incredibly on point. Whether it’s the camerawork or the information given to the audience, overall it’s all super well done. Like most movies in recent years, it leans toward presenting things through livestreams, vlogs, or online chats, much like another film I’ll introduce later, “Unfriended 2: Dark Web,” which also has internet and phone elements woven into it.
That said, this film actually does some optimizing for the folks who watch movies on their phones (which is sometimes me). For instance, when it shows the phone screen, it blows it up as large as possible; otherwise, the font size on the phone is always big, big, big. That’s a small but important detail I didn’t notice at first, and it lets us read the text on screen with ease. Also, the characters don’t chat with people in real life while they’re talking on the phone, so there’s no information overload. Otherwise you’d have to listen to the lead talking to other people, read the subtitles, AND watch for changes on the screen all at once. That would be way too exhausting; nobody can multitask like that.
The camerawork is a definite plus too, without needing anything extra. Whether it’s the first-person vlog angle or the more traditional fixed-shot perspective, it’s all done really well and feels very familiar and approachable.
The way the plot is set up is also commendable (oh, and a heads up, there are some minor spoilers with a bit of plot content ahead). For someone like me who’s a bit of a plot perfectionist, a good work should “say one thing and do another.” In other words, at first it convinces you to believe a “truth” that you think is real, and then in the end it shatters the view you started with. As it happens, every part of this film is exactly to my taste!
Alright, thanks everyone for reading! If you enjoyed my review, you might enjoy my other articles too, so feel free to check them out below. If you want to see more, you’re welcome to hit follow. We’ve been stuck around 500 for a little while now, huh, isn’t it about time for a follow, haha.
My personal site, with everything neatly sorted into categories: https://mydondon.net/