“Nerve” is a surprisingly unsettling film that successfully manages to give a plausible depiction of the potential dangers of the internet and people wanting fame at any cost. I was genuinely impressed with how well this movie seemed to actually understand how the internet works.

Vee (Emma Roberts “We’re The Millers”, “Wild Child”) is a somewhat shy teen that gets immersed in a seedy online game where ‘players’ must complete dares set by anonymous ‘watchers’. The dares start off relatively harmless but become increasingly dangerous yet Vee finds herself addicted to the game. It may have terrible consequences not just for her but for wider society as more and more people log in to watch.

Emma Roberts does a really good job and she’s very believable in the role. The irony is of course that she starts doing the dares as a means of showing that she won’t be told what to do by her friends but ends up being manipulated by the online community. Dave Franco (“21 Jump Street”) plays Ian, another “Nerve” player that gets partnered with Vee for many of the dares. He’s okay but nothing special. The other characters are okay but it’s really Emma Roberts that steals the show.

“Nerve” may end up being pretty dated in several years in terms of the technology it shows but its ideas perfectly capture a lot of the genuine risks of the internet. We get to see what people think they can get away with because they are anonymous, we see hacking of social media profiles and bank accounts and we see teens desperate to get as much approval from strangers as they possibly can. “Nerve” is not a flawless movie by any stretch of the imagination but it is a very entertaining thriller about technology. I can imagine a lot of people finding it really disturbing so watch it if you dare.