Unhinged

What starts out as your average old dark house movie picks up its dragging feet towards the end and delivers a whopper of a finale. It's not a very good movie - some of the actors appear to be in danger of falling asleep mid-line reading, the pacing is uneven, and some of the scenes are lit so dark that you have to imagine what's actually going on, but when Unhinged rises to the occasion, it can be very effective.

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.

Unhinged doesn't seem to have much going for it. The acting is amateurish (to say the least), the pacing can be a bit plodding, and there's a body count of about 3. However, there's something about this movie that helps it stand out from some of the other slashers of the time.

The plot of Unhinged is paper thin. Three monotone, mouth breathing young women are headed to a concert when their car breaks down. They wake up and find themselves in a strange mansion, being taken care of by an odd middle aged woman and her elderly mother who seems to hate men. Also, there's a heavy breathing maniac on the loose and...well, you can probably tell where the rest of this is going.

As I said, the acting is more wooden than the forest surrounding the film's main location, but it's almost endearingly awful. Surprisingly, there actually is a little mood and atmosphere to spare and that goes a long way in keeping the viewer engaged while there isn't much of anything going on.

There's an almost giallo flair to a lot of the stalking/murder scenes which is appreciated and the synth score isn't half bad. Unhinged even manages to pull off a pretty creepy twist ending that will stick with you.

Perhaps with a little recasting and a tighter, more interesting script, Unhinged could have been a minor slasher classic. As is, it's a flawed, but entertaining piece of low budget horror filmmaking.

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.

Unhinged is a strange movie indeed. While it obviously gets most well known because it was banned, and it stills holds it's own weight. It is not as bloody as you might think, there is blood but it's not overly exploited or in the film that much besides a few scenes.

The acting is a mixed bag, most of it being amateur acting that isn't very believable. Some of the actresses seemed like they were reading their lines while half asleep. The exceptions being the sister and the mother.

What i really liked about this was it's seclusion in a castle-like mansion in the middle of nowhere. This house is more like a palace and I'd really like to know who lived there when this was filmed, it looks more like an old hotel resembling a castle than a private house.

Another thing i really liked was the music score, a well executed early 1980's synth horror style that exceeds in creating a truly creepy atmosphere and it really helps the film a lot in my opinion.

This film is far from perfect, it's obviously a very low budget indie movie. The end scenes are worth watching the movie for, and there is an 80's era shocker in the plot. It looks somewhat dated by today's horror standards, but just remember this is over 20 years old now. There are a couple of nude shower scenes, for those looking for that sort of thing it's worth mentioning.

Unhinged is now out on a great DVD in it's uncut and uncensored version. It's worth a viewing for fans of oddball horror movies.