Unhinged

I happened to pick up the "uncut, uncensored" DVD version of "Unhinged", a film I had never heard of before, but since it was only $6.99, I decided to give it a try. And I actually think it was a little better than I had expected it to be. The story is about three college-aged girls who crash their car in the woods on their way to a jazz festival. They awake in a large, dark mansion that belongs to a woman and her mother. One of the girls is badly injured, but the other two are alright, so they join the woman and her crazy, man-hating mother for dinner. The mother rambles on about how she believes her daughter is sneaking men into the house under her nose, and while we are thought to believe she's crazy, there does seem to be a man lurking around the mansion late at night. The girls then begin to die one by one, before the film reaches it's twist-ending climax.

To start off, the acting in this film was horrible. I mean, really, really bad. The dialog was cheap, and the actors didn't make it any more convincing. There was a load of nudity, which serves the purpose to please it's male audience, and the gore (when it happens) was fairly nasty (although not violent enough to get this film 'banned', as it was), besides the cheap effects that were used. So, does it sound like I hated this movie? Well, I didn't. I liked the atmosphere the movie gave off, it reminded me a little of "Suspiria", although this film is nothing close to "Suspiria" in terms of quality. As for the writing though, I thought the premise was solid. The idea has been done many times, but there were enough twists and turns to keep things interesting. Plus, the twist ending is one heck of a twist, that came completely out of nowhere. I have to applaud this film for that.

I found it interesting when I learned the movie was filmed at the Pittock Mansion in Portland, Oregon, the city I was born in as well. Strangely enough, I've been to the Pittock Mansion before (it is now open to the public as a historical site), and I recognized some of the areas used in the film. Apparently all of the actors and filmmakers were Oregonians, and I don't think any of them went on to do any major projects after this. And it makes sense, because this really isn't a top-notch movie - it's a very low budget, B-movie.

To sum it up, "Unhinged" is a low-budget video nasty, and while it's not completely horrible, it's far from great. I think if some of the characters were a tad more developed, and there was some better acting, this could have been much more improved. Although, I do tend to have a soft-spot for cheesy 80's slashers of this type. But if you can look past the bad acting and all of the shortcomings (mainly due to the film's low budget and whatnot), there was a solid attempt at something good here. It may be amateurish, but it was a step in the right direction. 6/10.

This movie should be along with the cult classics, it's a pchycological thriller involving a demented mother and her daughter and somewhere during the movie a mentally disabled son. A group of girls are caught during a storm when their car wrecks and are soon brought to a house of the old lady and her daughter and soon discover their strange relationship. This movie is so full of curved balls you can't figure out just who the killer is in this movie that leads to the end of the travelers lives. One thing that was not explained was the weird way the old lady acted during the dinner table staring at silver salt and pepper shakers or whatever they were, which was one of the many strange things she did. There were a few strange scenes in the movie; why would somebody just sit in front of a piano and listen to this loony toon play the piano playing checkers? But it's all worth the watch as the end climaxes and the whole movie just throws me for a loop. Well worth a watch if you like strange, spooky thunderstorm type movies.

After crashing their car on the way to a rock concert, three young woman wake up in a spooky mansion where a repressed spinster and her unstable mother live. There's also a bloodthirsty killer who doesn't want the girls there.

Unhinged is a mostly unremarkable series of slasher and old dark house movie cliches, but I'd be lying if I were to say some moments don't possess some sort of lo-fi eeriness. It's not a poorly shot film, there's some rain drenched atmosphere, a few nasty murders, and one truly insane final twist. That's more than you can say for a lot of movies. If it weren't for the mostly pedestrian script and wooden acting, Unhinged might really be something special.

Three young girls set off for a concert, and have to look for shelter.

I have to begin by commenting on the acting, it is rather woeful, the trio of girls in particular are somewhat off with their performances. Janet Penner was surprisingly fun to watch as Marion.

The film is definitely a low budget horror, but the success lays in the fact they managed to create a level of atmosphere that's sometimes lacking in many horror films. The climax is particularly shocking, it's brutal and seemed to come out of nowhere, I wonder if it had something to do with the film's banning in the UK?

So it's full of clichés, it has a very clunky score, but it is hugely watchable, full of shocks. If you haven't seen it and you like slasher/b-movie horrors I would whole heartedly recommend a viewing. 8/10.

Unhinged didn't exactly show up with the highest of expectations. It hailed from a lousy looking (but cheap) multi-DVD set featuring a bunch of other unknown horror films (many of which were, indeed, awful), so I wasn't expecting much. As the film started, my fears seemed well founded for about 5 or 10 minutes as we're introduced to our three leads and watch them get ready and drive to a concert. They end up hitting a log and wrecking their car. They come to and that's when Unhinged starts heating up.

Unfortunately for them, they've been "saved" by a creepy spinster (who's a dead ringer for Miss Jane Hathaway on The Beverly Hillbillies) and her man-hating mother. From here on out, it becomes obvious that there's someone else in the house with them and they're really into casual voyeurism, heavy breathing, and chopping up women with a scythe.

Unhinged won't be winning any awards anytime soon, but there are some moments that are bizarrely effective and unnerving. The music score is appropriately spooky and the main mansion location is dripping with atmosphere and potential threats around every corner. It's hard to tell since the version I watched looked like a VHS master of some sort, but some of the cinematography isn't half bad, either.

On the other hand, the acting is either eye rollingly inept or overcooked community theatre level. Still, they're not exactly required to recite the works of Tennessee Williams, so they mostly get by ok.

Unhinged might just be worth your time if you're a non-picky horror or slasher fan.