Unhinged (1982) Directed by Don Gronquist
The 80s spawned so many slasher movies, like an ass load of slasher movies. Like I’ve seen over 120 of them from the 80s alone and that’s not even half of the movies that came out in the decade. Sometimes I find some I never even heard of and Unhinged is one of those movies. I found this DVD in a used movie, cd, and bookstore in Fort Wayne Indiana probably 4 or 5 years ago. I have watched it twice now and it is a strange beast. While it isn’t insanely original it isn’t completely cliché either.
The synopsis isn’t anything special really, a group of girls are driving to a music festival and they crash their car. The girls are wake up in a large mansion in the woods owned by the Penroses: Marion, her mother and the groundskeeper. The girls soon discover something isn’t quite right with the family and they know they have to get out of there. It was one of the 72 “video nasties” leading it to be banned in the UK. Yes part of the movie has some mild gore but to be a video nasty it is kind of tame really. The movie is a really slow burn, it takes forever to build up and the payoff really isn’t that satisfying more bat shit crazy than anything else. The movie has a low run time of an hour and 19 minutes. For a movie that short it is kind of laborious to get through. The music makes me feel like I’m listening to Steve Winwood’s outtakes from the 80s. Complete with farting robot sounding synthesizer.
The acting is as wooden as you could imagine it being for a film of this quality. The camera work is passable but the quality of the picture leaves something to the imagination. I’m not sure if it’s the DVD I have or the film itself, so for that I kind of let it slide. There are a few creepy scenes like when the girls feel like they’re being watched and all you see is an eyeball looking into a hole in the room ala Black Christmas. The movie’s budget is a shockingly low $100,000 so the fact that it has any scenes that can be considered decent is impressive. Marion, the lonely daughter of the rich woman in this movie is a little odd, but you get the sense that she has been sheltered by her overbearing mother her whole life. It really isn’t until the end where you realize how messed up the poor woman really is.
The ending? Oh my god! That’s all I can really say about this, the ending is pretty much the only thing that redeems the slowness of the plot for me. Like I said before its not the most satisfying as it comes out of left field, but the sheer insanity of it entertains me. Really what was the slasher genre known for other than boobs, gore, and dead teenagers? Crazy ass endings! This movie isn’t too hard to find, I think you can buy it off Amazon, but I would only suggest this to slasher movie fans. The casual fan isn’t going to enjoy this due to the slowness and bizarre story. Really its not a great movie, but like I said the ending is entertaining and crazy. I would give Unhinged a C-, without the ending I’d lean towards a D most likely.
