Unhinged

Sometimes it can be most useful to analyze something small and seemingly insignificant like, for example, a film's title! My mother tongue isn't English, but I've always been impressed by the number of synonyms that exist in this language for practically every single word. Some of these synonyms are truly cool and powerful words. As an example, I love the word "unhinged". I never heard of that word until I watched the 1982 original film and found out, via the awesome website thesaurus.com that it's a synonym for insane, berserk, manic etc. It's now one of my favorite words, and I also happen to be one of the few people who thinks that the original "Unhinged" is a uniquely grim and massively underrated 80s slasher! That film, with its demented storyline and notable moments of nauseating gore, truly deserved to be named "Unhinged". This 2017 remake shamelessly copies the title, but the atmosphere, the violence, the characters and simply the film in general are not "unhinged". In fact, it's weak and unremarkable horror fodder with a dumb and totally implausible plot, spineless lead characters and a nearly unforgivable shortage of blood, savagery and overall weirdness. Four American girls take an enormous detour through the English countryside to go to the wedding of one of them. That's where the story goes wrong already. A bachelorette-party in the backwoods, seriously? Why would any girl want to drive through a completely unknown region where there's absolutely nothing to see? They are not lost, or at least not at first, but deliberately avoid the main roads. Why, exactly is that? They clearly never listened to any basic traveling safety advise or even watched a horror movie in their lives, because they are surprised when they run into crazy people. How they then handle their problems is, if possible, even more stupid and unbelievable. "Unhinged" features all the irritating clichés and predictable plot twists you can think of. These girls take the dumbest decisions imaginable (like not calling the police when their mobiles still have signal) and do the most idiotic things that even my 5-year-old wouldn't do (like running off into the woods after a banal argument). All this might have been acceptable in the early 80s, but not now. The killings are tame, bloodless and not at all unhinged. The performances are very poor and unconvincing, especially from Michelle Archer as the odd lady and Lorena Andrea & Becca Hirana as the supposed tough chicks. I'm sorry, but there's absolutely nothing to recommend here.

Don't bother. Missed chances to do something different. Lame and tame "kill" scenes, literally you see nothing. Acting was unconvincing. And the plot, seriously? Don't bother, skip it or prepare to be seriously underwhelmed. You've been warned.

Four hot "American" girls travel across the English countryside only to be offered refuge by a strange spinster when they run into difficulties. Three of these actresses are English, the other an Aussie, none of them can do a convincing American accent so right from the off things are bad. The voice of the killer sounds like a demon from some cheesy 80's horror movie & there are many plot holes, it's pretty dumb at times. On the plus side the musical score is pretty creepy, there's some girl on girl action (brief) and a bit of torture porn thrown in. Overall it's a poor remake of a film that wasn't very good in the first place, but seek out the original instead.

It's full of weak actings, dumb characters, and clichés. And not as atmospheric as the first film.

'Unhinged' drew me into seeing it, with a cool poster/cover, an slightly intriguing premise and as someone with a general appreciation for horror. That it was low-budget, which from frequent personal experience is rarely a good sign due to that there are so many poor ones out there, made me though apprehensive.

It is sadly however yet another film seen recently, hence some reiteration because the exact same strengths and flaws those films have are present here, that to me was incredibly disappointing considering its potential which it doesn't do anywhere near enough with. 'Unhinged' is terrible, with a plethora of problems (huge ones too) and doesn't do enough with its potential, which was hardly small. There is next to nothing to recommend and it is a sleeper.

Lets start with the positives. The scenery is atmospheric and spooky. The music is creepy

Unfortunately, the scenery is not done justice by the rather direct to video schlocky way it's shot and edited, it was very clear that the film was made in a rush with no care or enthusiasm.

Going on further to the negatives, the story does feel paper thin, disjointed and over-stretched and some of it feels vague, under-explained in the last third where the film especially became duller, more predictable, more senseless and less scary. Too many characters are too sketchy and with nowhere near enough to make one want to endear to them. Their annoying and illogical decision making and behaviours frustrates.

Making the film feel bland and forgettable with not enough heart put into it. The effects are ropy at best, the sound quality is obvious and utilised cheaply (being too loud in the build ups and people's reactions) and it's best not mentioning the uniformly lumbering and histrionic acting. Even the killer looks goofy and the way they speak is more unintentionally funny than unnerving.

Dialogue, which is far too exposition-heavy, can be stilted and rambling, with lots of clichés and no depth whatsoever, while the pace goes to a standstill very quickly and drags on forever with very little going on worth caring about and useless padding, never recovering. Found too many the supposedly shocking moments not surprising or scary and the supposedly creepy atmosphere dreary, due to the excessive obviousness, a lot of dumb and vague moments and explanations and the lack of tension and suspense. Would not have minded the lack of originality (the film is extremely derivative and in a dumbed and watered down way) if the story and atmosphere were at least alright in execution, in reality they were both very poorly done.

A lot of 'Unhinged' has underdeveloped plot elements and often nonsensical and confusing character motivations, while too many of the things to make you jump or shocked are far from creative or scary and are pretty tame. The ending makes the film finish on an incomplete and confused whimper.

There is not enough threat, and what there is of it tends to be used poorly, it is completely unimaginative and more odd than creepy, completely failing to show any sense of horror or creativity. The kills are not enough and are neither creative, suspenseful or nail-biting. Some badly sagging momentum too. The direction is leaden and like their heart was not in it or ill at ease. Some elements are gratuitous to overused and abused effect, further adding to the cheapness.

Altogether, another very bad film. 2/10 Bethany Cox