User Reviews

Okay so I'm going to talk about this as both a subject and a movie. First as a movie, the title says it all: it's about Taylor who constantly gets harassed online, pushing her toward suicide. When rescued from her attempt, she is forced to confront reality, the person who helped make things worse for her, recover, and bring attention to online bullying when everyone else is unable to help the situation.

I would like to cover the cons before I cover the good stuff: Cons: The situations can occasionally feel shoehorned. I applaud it for tackling as many issues about cyber bullying as possible, but sometimes it causes the situation to feel messy. While the main characters are okay, it's the bullies: Lindsey and her friends who have absolutely no personality except they're cruel. Yes bullies can be cruel, and it's inexcusable, but they have personalities too. I would have liked to see some motivation, or trouble going on for them, leading them to be jerks rather than being jerks for the sake of being jerks. And the ending makes things look like it was too easily solved, which really bothered me. I know we like to see things easily solved, but that's not always how life works. And I don't mean how the friends work things out, but when Taylor and the whole school confront Lindsey and her friends (the real bullies). It was possibly the most cliched ending I had ever seen in a movie that's suppose to be taken seriously.

Pros: Like I said in the cons section, this movie makes an effort to show the effects cyber bullying has on a person and community. It also shows that anyone of any age who uses the internet needs to be careful what they post, especially when it comes to talking about other people. Some moments are made up, but they're centered around the realities of cyber bullying.

What the movie tries to remind us is that while it is fun to talk on the computer, we should not forget that on the other side of the conversation is a person who has vulnerable feelings. Insulting them online is just as bad (possibly worse) as doing it in person. Even if it's meant to be a "joke", it doesn't always work that way. This is one of the reasons I've asked everyone on this page to not insult each other just because you don't agree with someone else's movie reviews. Words are not as tamed as we think they are; we are the ones who need to tame our choice of words. (btw, that "Sticks and Stones...........but names will never hurt me" rhyme is a lie)

I don't know if I 100% recommend this movie, mainly because the ending bothers me too much. If you want to learn more about the effects of cyber bullying, I recommend looking up Megan Meier's story more (heck, this movie was loosely based off her real life story) just keep tissues nearby when you do. Or if you went through cyber bullying (or bullying in general) post about it. How did you get through it? The next generation is going to look to you for inspiration on how to fight bullying online, in person, or anywhere.

This movie shows a problem that really exists - girls abuse each other on Internet social media. They think they can say and do anything they want and nobody will punish them. But this movie is very similar to another (slightly older) movie: "Odd Girl Out". Probably some movie producer watched "Odd Girl Out" and had a "brilliant" idea that he can produce the same movie and call it "Cyberbully". "Odd Girl Out" movie is better, the whole story fits together better, and the girls perform better. Also the mother of the victim girl is more supportive in "Odd Girl Out" movie - It's important to show that parents should support a child in such case as much as they can. So if you are about to watch "Cyberbully" I encourage you to watch "Odd Girl Out" instead.

Honestly, if I hadn't seen the trailers, I would've thought this was a black comedy. Lines delivery is usually overemotional or under-emotional (with the latter frequently coming from Taylor/Emily), the plot is ridiculous and hard to take seriously, and the conflict is thoroughly unrealistic.

Let's start with the acting and cinematography. As mentioned earlier, no one involved seems to have realized this was a bad movie not to take seriously, and as a result the acting is comically over-the-top in several scenes. Kelly Rowan truly takes the cake, though, as her every other line is generic advice about computer safety, said perfectly seriously, without a trace of irony.

Emily Osment, meanwhile, has two facial expressions throughout: crying and being dully surprised by the latest "twist" the plot has taken. The other performances range from "average" to "clearly didn't care" (although the gay kid seemed to have some ability, he didn't have much to work with.) The cinematography was okay, but the jiggle cam around the beginning was irritating.

Next, the plot. I'll say this: cyberbullying, as with all other kinds of bullying, is a serious issue that causes severe emotional pain to all kinds of kids. I don't think it should be swept under the rug; wherever it is happening, there should be someone to prevent it. With that in mind, this movie's plot and premise were, to put it bluntly, laughable.

Why did her brother and his friends cause the initial hacking? Never explained. Why didn't she just make a new profile? Never explained. Why did her friend pretend to be someone else later on? Explained, but never elaborated to the point where it made sense. Why was the entire school so invested in what Taylor was dealing with? Never explained. Why did Lindsay hate Taylor so much? Never explained.

I could go on, but I think I've made my point. Too much of this movie's conflict made no sense, because the antagonists had no clear motive. Taylor had no discernible flaws, so she wasn't relatable and Lindsay had no reason to hate her. Moreover, the bullies were people she didn't know who were inexplicably invested in her life. Her friend's reason to pretend to be a boy who was interested in her (Taylor) was allegedly that she wanted to protect Taylor from another boy who was interested in her. The boy in question had done nothing to make her suspect he was a bad guy. Why did she assume the worst and bully her friend to the point of a suicide attempt? (Trigger warning) Suicidal feelings don't come on that suddenly. They build up slowly and gradually, and are not often caused by a single traumatic event. You might say all the bullying triggered it and so it was gradual. Was this shown at any point? Since it wasn't, I have no reason to believe her feelings were gradual. On a lighter note, why couldn't she get the cap off? She's 17 and grew up in a developed country. Her over-dramatic shouts just made me giggle and remark that I didn't care what happened to these people.

The computer stuff was clearly not done by anyone who's interacted with a real teenager. "Cliquesters?" Really? Also, I'm supposed to buy that guys use this site? What's wrong with Facebook? The typing was done very grammatically correctly, with plenty of correct punctuation.

So much was funny to me in this movie. Most of Kelly Rowan's dialog. The "I can't get the cap off" scene. The little brother's terrible acting.

Here's the thing about a movie with a message: the plot shouldn't be incidental to that message. If it is, it's difficult to take seriously because everything is building up to the moral, and whether I agree with it or not, if the plot is silly I will not take that message seriously. It should--to paraphrase Mark Twain--make me hate the bad characters and love the good ones. I didn't care about anybody. And that is the kiss of death for any work of fiction.

Reading some of these comments, some of the things that people don't understand about the film ARE explained in the movie, but vaguely. I had to watch the movie a few times before I fully understood why certain characters did what they did (ex: Samantha making the fake profile, why Lindsay hates Taylor). However, even though I admit the "I can't get the cap off" scene was a goof (I understand that it's ABC Family, but still if she would've actually swallowed pills it would've been much more powerful), as a victim of cyberbullying myself, I understand how quickly bullying online can spiral out of control and can completely destroy a person. I think the message was pretty good, and if the movie made a few improvements, it would've easily been a knockout.

Side Note: I LOVED Kelly Rowan and Emily Osment's performance, they certainly made the best of a mediocre script!

The fact that people are giving this movie a negative review because the plot is unrealistic need to pay attention to the words at the end of the movie. It states that non of this would have been possible without the work of tina Meier and (I can't remember what) but they bring up Megan meiers name.

Megan meiers was a 13 year old girl who was friended on myspace by a fake profile named Josh Evans. He told her how perfect she was and lured her to tell him her secrets. He then turned on her and released all the secrets to the people on myspace and called her a fat ugly slut and that the world was better off without her. (to put it short) Megan then hung herself in her closet. It was later found out that the fake profile was created by her ex best friends mother in order to make her pay for falling out with her daughter.

The movie is based on a true story, with changes obviously made to make it still appropriate. They're not gonna have then main killer actually commit suicide. Look it up. The entire story may seem unrealistic to you, but to the meier family, it's reality. Do your research before you criticize.

Teen girl Taylor Hillridge gets a a laptop for her birthday and signs up on a social networking site. She starts to feel alone as her friends ostracize her and she falls victim to cyberbullying.

So, upper-line, I didn't have the highest expectations. This was a film for kids, to send the kids a message, and do it efficiently enough so the adults can get something out of it too. But with the unrealistic scenes to the whiny, teenage-produced power, the film falls short in lots of ways. No one would go to drastic measures, such as suicide, just by being called a slut. The whole scene with the father attorney was just cringe-worthy. And the antics of the high-schoolers were just died down just so the film could be viewed by kids. Well kids need to know the REAL truth, that this stuff happens but in a whole other way. The film tries hard to do this, but never succeeds... Other than the horrendous attempts at trying to get the message through (which honestly never fully gets through) the acting was really great! Emily Osment was cast well, and if the whole movie wasn't so adult-proof, she could've gave it her best. Other than her, the rest does good as well, some being cringe-worthy though. For a directing, the filmmakers do great at constructing a film, but overall they fail on the whole MESSAGE and the whole POINT. So the movie was good in it's own way, but bad when it's viewed at another way...

So, bottom-line, the movie wasn't too great. There's more films like this that don't try to die down the material and also show the message, but Cyberbully fails. But in a light note, the acting and directing both team up with the message to show that this stuff happens... But much worse. I recommend if you know what your in for, but not expecting a break-through. In fact, if your expecting TV-movie quality (which is EXACTLY what it is) go see it, because maybe you'll have different views. 6/10.

I was skeptical to watch this movie from the very start, but my friend convinced me that the film was great and had a really good message. Judging from the film's summary and the fact that it was one of those "made for TV" movies, I already had a feeling this movie was going to be bad, but I forced myself to sit through it. To me, the whole film consisted of a back and forth of the main character, Taylor, being miserable at school and being miserable at home. Her mother gave her a laptop for her birthday and says she trusts her not to go on any websites she knows she wouldn't approve of. So naturally, she makes an account on the Facebook knock-off site, Cliquesters. The social networking site seems strange enough considering the suggestive assortment of questions needed to answer in order to create an account. Not to mention the fact that about thirty seconds after Taylor makes an account, she gets a friend request from the movie's pathetic "love interest". A day or so after her account has been created, Taylor logs on to find her account has been hacked. Her status has been changed to make her sound like some cheap prostitute. The strangest part of this is that the hacker turns out to be Taylor's younger brother and his friends, which leads to a plot hole because it's never explained why her brother felt the need to hack his sister's account in the first place. From this point on in the film, Taylor's life turns into an angsty teen nightmare... at least I'm sure that's what the film's producers were going for. All you need to know about what happens next is that the most popular girl in Taylor's school is posting obnoxious things online about Taylor, tons of other people join in and bully her too, and Taylor is having an overly dramatic breakdown every other scene. Also, one of Taylor's best friends creates a fake account pretending to be a boy from another school, and eventually uses that account to bully Taylor, too. That ends up creating another plot hole, because even though Taylor's best friend explains why she did it, the explanation is so weak that it still doesn't make much sense. SPOILER: In the end, some strange video is made about Taylor with some girl pretending to be her as some kind of pregnant prostitute from what I can tell. This video spontaneously pushes Taylor off the edge, causing her to post her own video stating her confusion about why she's being bullied and how it's affecting her. She then proceeds to try and overdose on pills. Luckily, her betraying best friend sees the video that Taylor had posted and rushes to Taylor's house only to find her in the bathroom having some bizarre breakdown and trouble opening a pills jar. To be honest, I started laughing at this scene. It was incredibly over the top, not to mention the odd fact that a seventeen year old is having trouble opening a jar. She's rushed to a hospital, starts going group therapy, and eventually returns to school after being absent for a little more than a week. She and her best friend end up confronting the outrageously stereotypical "popular girl" that had been bullying Taylor online. Taylor's mother also helps get a law passed against cyberbullying. When the movie ended, I sat there thinking three things. One: everyone in that movie was as pale as a vampire. Two: being a teenager myself, I didn't think that movie accurately portrayed real life situations. Three: my friend was wrong, this movie was horrible. So would I recommend this movie? No. Underneath all the over the top drama is an overall good message, but if you really want to get more information about cyberbullying, I would start looking elsewhere.

Out of boredom, I watched this movie with my friend over Christmas vacation. It was about as good as I had expected, which wasn't very good.

First of all, our heroine is a seventeen-year-old girl named Taylor Hillridge (played by Osment) who doesn't exactly seem like the kind of person who'd be a victim of vicious bullying. She lives in a gorgeous house, she's attractive and socially adequate in her behavior, and although her parents are divorced, she seems to have a stable home life. Now, if you're going to make a movie about bullying, please create a character who would actually be a candidate for the receiving end of harassment, not one who seems to have everything going for her. That being said, the movie starts with Taylor receiving a laptop for her birthday.Her mother says that she trusts her with her new laptop, but forbids her to go on inappropriate websites. So naturally, she and her friends decide to create accounts on some crappy Facebook knockoff called "Cliquesters." And of course, she sees a comment on a picture of her, written by the school's resident alpha bitch, Lindsay.The comment includes insults such as "Lardo" and "Dogface," names that you'd expect to hear in a fourth grade classroom and not in a high school setting. If you want to create a realistic movie aimed at teenagers, you should probably make sure you know how real teenagers interact. This movie fails almost completely in that aspect.

Moving on, we're soon introduced to Scott, the stereotypical high school jock and Taylor's predictable love interest. And for someone who has such an important role in the plot, he barely gets any real character development. For the convenience of the plot, Scott asks Taylor to the upcoming dance, to which she says yes. Taylor's friend Samantha dislikes the fact that Taylor has a crush on Scott, wanting to "protect" her from a bad hook-up with him in case they eventually get together. The two get in a fight, which leads to Taylor getting kicked out of Samantha's car. Samantha then creates a fake profile on Cliquesters in which she poses as a guy from another school, a plot event so transparent that anybody could figure out what was going on. She friends Taylor with the fake account, and Taylor unknowingly accepts the request while her bestie Samantha is sitting right next to her. Good friend, right?

Then, for some unexplained reason, Taylor's younger brother Eric decides to hack into his sister's account with the help of his friends and posts a defamatory message on her profile. The message reads something along the lines of "Someone should come and spank me." I honestly laughed at this part. But then, in a completely unrealistic fashion, everyone in the school starts to turn on Taylor, posting statuses about her being a slut. Are we supposed to believe that every student in the entire high school is absorbed in the actions of a seemingly average girl? This idea seemed extremely far-fetched. Also, being called a slut is a completely normal thing to expect in high school, and it's nothing to go into a nervous breakdown about. But naturally, even Taylor's friends get caught in the antics of the school and decide that they shouldn't hang around her anymore. Again, Taylor seems to have hit the jackpot with her choice of friends.

After what seems like a week, Taylor is completely distraught over a few untrue comments about her sex life. Everything else in her life seems to be going completely fine, but apparently this is enough to set Taylor off the edge. Ironically, Taylor can't get enough of looking for comments about her on the website, even thought they upset her. And after she reads them, she pouts and slams her laptop closed in a huff as if she wasn't expecting to find them. Okay then...? Anyway, as a "cry for help," she posts a video declaring that she's done with life and decides to commit suicide. Her bestie Samantha sees the video, frantically calls Taylor's mom about it while she's at work, and rushes over to her house. Both Samantha and Ms. Hillridge rush into the house and into the bathroom, and conveniently stop Taylor right before she manages to take a bottle full of pills. Because a seventeen-year-old girl would naturally have issues opening a child-proof lid, amiright?

Taylor is admitted into a mental hospital and is also recommended into group therapy with other bullying victims. And after about another week, she seems perfectly fine again. Let me just say that someone who's truly depressed never "gets over it" in a week. As someone who ACTUALLY suffers from depression because of bullying, this was a slap in the face. Meanwhile, Taylor's mom seeks to pass a law against cyberbullying. Because instead of teaching your daughter coping skills, you should just outlaw those big fat meanies on Pseudo-Facebook.

In the end, it turns out to be the fairytale "all is well" ending. Taylor forgives her bestie Samantha for almost causing her to commit suicide, which is a terrible lesson for anyone to learn. If someone is an outright ass to you to the point that you consider killing yourself, they're not worth your time. Also, in the classic afterschool special fashion, everyone begins to tell Lindsay off, causing her to run out of the cafeteria in embarrassment. Harassing the bully for harassment? What a great lesson!

In the end, this movie painted bullying and depression as something frivolous and trivial, instead of actual highlighting the importance of protecting teens from online harassment. Despite good intentions, the writers of this movie did more harm than good in a mish-mash of unrealistic situations and unintentional comedy.

After reading through multiple reviews, I agreed and disagreed with a lot that was said. While I will admit the plot did seem a bit overdone, I will not say that cyber-bullying is not to be taken seriously. I've read that "a pretty blonde like that would not be bullied", and things like that. But in all reality, bullying is not judgmental. It will not only limit itself to those people that are categorized as "ugly" or "weird". Bullying can happen to ANYONE, from any background, and should not be taken lightly no matter what. Words can hurt, regardless of who you are.

I also saw numerous complaints that there were plot holes, such as there "never being a reason for the brother to hack his little sister's profile", but I felt the reasoning for it was self-explanatory. He was jealous because his sister was given a laptop and he wanted the freedom to do what he wanted on the internet unsupervised. He probably did it as "revenge", feeling that was his best option to exact his envy. Of course he did not know what would happen from it, but he's her little brother. Little brothers are generally annoying and try to, well, annoy you (not true in all cases, mind you).

I also saw people complain there was no reason for Lindsay's hatred for Taylor, but as stated in the beginning of the movie, Taylor made a comment and Lindsay took it as Taylor calling her a "whore". Lindsay was obviously a popular girl, and probably very feared due to her father being an attorney, so no one tried to go against her opinions.

There were numerous other statements about the Scott ordeal. The reason Samantha tried to protect her is because she didn't want what happened to her to happen to Taylor also. There was no clarification on whether her statements about Scott were true, however.

Now that I've gotten those quirks from other reviewers out, I'd like to give a review myself.

I was not going to watch this movie, but when I saw Emily Osment casted for the main character, I decided to give it a try. I personally feel Emily did a great job with conveying emotions in the film, though some of her supporting actors could have been a bit better. Scott, for instance, I feel was a loose character. Going from big-shot popular Jock to liking her, back to "I'm Mr. Too-Good-For-You", was very confusing. It was like the writer did not know what type of character he wanted Scott to be.

The message rang loud and clear in this film, and it's a very good message at that. It did not feel rushed, but it also did not drag out.

I usually expect less from ABC Family movies (sorry ABC!), but this did not let me down. It's definitely worth a watch though if you really want to form an opinion of it.

Frankly, that was the fastest dive into depression I've ever seen. It's insulting to people who actually deal with depression and take the opinion to kill themselves serious, unlike this movie. Did she think a bottle of Tylenol was actually going to work? It was pathetic and just... I can't even find words. Almost stopped watching here except it had taken on the Train Wreck quality, I couldn't stop looking I wanted to see how bad it could go.

This reminds me of the book "13 Reasons Why". They try and make you feel for the person but does such a poor job of it the character just come across as a stupid little girl... oh wait... And if someone makes a fake account they probably don't have many people added as friends, "Jane Doe has 2 friends!, This MUST be the woman of my dreams! Nothing wrong here!" Yes Cyber Bullying is an issue but if you are going to fall apart over being called a "slut" I dare you to make an account on 4Chan, or even Youtube.

It's a wonder her laptop didn't break since her response is usually to slam it and than run away crying... every time... Even from an empty room, to hug trees. This movie shouldn't have been made, and it looks like after she tired to off herself ABC just dug deep into the cliché bucket. They probably even gave up on it. The last 5 minutes was pure trash. I mean really? If Lindsey had a brain instead of a really creepy smile she would have ripped them apart. Conclusion? The trolls will have fun with this one.

WARNING MAY HAVE SPOILERS!

To start off, reading some of the reviews it looks like people are not seeing the point to this movie. To have the protagonist a middle class blond girl does not take away from the movie because she is not a typical target, but rather it shows that anyone can be a victim of cyber bullying or bullying in general. I like how they chose this type of protagonist not only because it can be anyone, but because it isn't stereotypical like other movies about bullying that are viewed. This movie, with the lead roll given to Emily, has done an amazing job portraying her character. Not only did she put emotion and depth but she made the viewers at home feel for her and want to make a change I'm sure.

Plot: The plot was practically general but then again it wasn't. You have a typical teenagers, going through school. While the movie does leave certain questions unanswered( ex. Why does Lyndsay bully Taylor? Is there some sort of past?) those answers don't take away from the movie. By showing that even your friends can turn on you and bully you, it gives children the protection that they need to chose who their friends should be.

I would rate this movie a 9 out of 10 because it shows the lengths a child can go to if they are bullied enough. Taylor went so far as to think suicide was the answer, she was so distraught that she did not know how to apprehend the situation. And yes some may say the words "nasty" and "ugly" are not good enough words to make people generally think that way, but you have no idea the mental defense children have. Some have a backbone that no words hurt them and then you have some where the smallest words can hurt like a knife. Sticks and stones people. I recommend parents showing this to their children, because it gives them values and makes them understand that a bully is no more than a person and that you can stand up to them. And if you are the bully, it helps you to take a step back and realize that the words and actions that you say or do to a person really can hurt and make a negative influence on that person's life. This movie makes you want to make a difference, and as a person who has seen bullying, one definitely needs to be made.

I'm gonna make it short, because other Reviewers said pretty much everything what i wanted to mention. The only thing i couldn't read out, is a critic on the characters in the movie.

Simple... I didn't like it. Maybe instead of using a blond pretty girl as the main character, they should have placed a better example of a victim: Foreigner, black, handicapped, ugly, depressed, lower class, loner, thin, fat. They are usually the victims in real life and not blond and good looking with friends and cheer. Most of them don't have a connection to their parents and live in their own world, dealing with their own depressions and disappointments. Thus this makes the movie very unrealistic. For a normal teenager probably entertaining, for the bully more like a joke and for the victim not helpful. Especially them might get quiet insecure due the movie, because they usually have NO friends to talk about problems, they get NO support from school or parents or they lack selfconfidence. That makes them feel again disadvantaged to the girl in the movie.

As well i have a feeling the script took only an hour. A blond 17-years old girl, that is pretty, surrounded by friends and grew up in a stable relationship with her mother...is not capable to resolve a simple problem as this one. Yes, i consider it a simple problem, because there been mass of simple solutions to resolve it better way. You don't need much brain for it either.

The movie would have been more interesting, outstanding and REALISTIC without a happy end. Because most of times it doesn't end this way. This movie is just another high school drama.

PS: Sorry for my English, not my mother tongue.