VALDOSTA — You’d be hard pressed to find two horror movies more different in tone and aesthetic than “It Follows” and “Unfriended,” to the point where it’s hard to believe they were both released in the same year.  (Note: I’ll try to avoid heavy spoilers here, but we’re talking about horror movies. It’s safe to assume horrible things are going to happen).

The entirety of “Unfriended” plays out on the computer screen of Blaire Lily as she Skypes with her group of high school friends on the one-year anniversary of the suicide of a former classmate, Laura Barns.

This being a horror movie, the group of friends quickly find themselves haunted by Barns’ spirit.

Barns committed suicide after an embarrassing video of her was put online, which was quickly accompanied by a flood of cyber-bullying.

The viewer gets all this background through Lily’s screen as she pulls up the video in question, checks out the bullying comments, goes through her Facebook photos with Barns, plays sad songs on Spotify and searches paranormal websites for what to do with a possessive, revenge-fueled spirit.

“It Follows,” on the other hand, barely acknowledges technology exists.

The film follows college student Jay and her own group of friends.

After Jay hooks up with her boyfriend, Hugh, he gives her some horrifying news: he’s passed something on to her, a kind of curse.

The titular “It” can take the form of different people and it will never stop coming for Jay, slowly walking toward her no matter how far she might flee.

She can, however, have sex with someone else and pass the curse along.

There’s a conscious effort by the makers of “It Follows” to make the film as timeless as possible, as untethered to any time period.

Jay and her friends don’t have cellphones, computers or the Internet. The movies they watch are old, black-and-white horror films.

When they need to find Hugh, they hunt down an old high school yearbook instead of just Googling him.

Even the score is heavy on the synthesizers, wearing its John Carpenter influence on its sleeve.

The only thing that cements the film in modern times — beyond a few modern cars on the road — is an e-reader used by Jay’s friend, Yara, but even that is housed in a literal clamshell case, looking for the most part like a compact.

Each film explores a group of friends and their complicated friendship with vastly different results.

The main characters of “Unfriended” are basically horrible people. Horrible people who feel regret, maybe, but still horrible people. And while Barns is after revenge for the role each person played in her bullying and suicide — just who posted that embarrassing video, hmm? — they don’t treat each other any better than they treated her.

At one point, Barns threatens to kill whoever loses a game of Never Have I Ever, which quickly devolves into each person trying to throw everyone else under the bus as all the horrible secrets they keep from each other come to light.

The friends of “It Follows,” on the other hand, are overwhelmingly compassionate and loyal.

When Jay breaks the news to them that the specter of Death is following her wherever she goes and will never stop, they join her in trying to stop “It” even if they don’t believe and/or understand what’s going on: hosting sleepovers, guarding rooms, going on road trips, creating traps.

But the films are both similar in a few ways.

Both films continue the recent surge in relatively cheap horror films (“Unfriended’s” budget was $1 million; “It Follows” was $2 million) that turn a quick profit (“Unfriended” is produced by Blumhouse Productions, the production company behind “Sinister,” “Insidious,” “The Purge,” “Oculus,” etc.).

Neither film is afraid to tackle modern issues. “It Follows” is about — take your pick — STDs, hookup culture, AIDS and/or simply the plodding inevitably of death.

In its short 83 minutes, “Unfriended” delves into bullying — both cyber and otherwise — eating disorders, alcohol abuse and the alienating effect of technology, as the rapidly shrinking group of friends can only watch through camera windows on their screen as their friends are taken by Barns’ spirit.

If you’re looking for more scares, neither film is alone.

“Unfriended” continues the line of technology-dependent, found-footage films like “Paranomal Activity,” the “VHS” series, “Sacrament” and the Spanish “(Rec)” films.

“It Follows” picks up the realistic, in-camera effect, creeping dread of “The Babadook,” “The Innkeepers” and “House of the Devil.”

Stuart Taylor is a reporter with The Valdosta Daily Times.