FilmFatale Three girls (Terry, Nancy, and Gloria) are on their way to a jazz music festival run off the road on a dark and stormy night. They wake up in a mansion with a spinster daughter (Marion) and her cruel mother (Mrs. Penrose), who really hates men. As Gloria is injured, Terry and Nancy decide to stay with Marion until Gloria is able to travel again. Things get weird after that, with dirty men peeping in on the ladies, a tooth under a pillow, piano playing, and of course Mrs. Penrose's anti-male tirades. Will the girls escape unscathed, or will they meet their fates at the hands of the Unhinged?? Allegedly, this movie was banned for years due to shocking violence, nudity and depravity. My version said it was uncut, but it wasn't very depraved or violent and the nudity was confined to two shower scenes. There were only three murders, and none of them were shown happening - we only get the aftermath. Unhinged was boring, poorly written, poorly directed and poorly acted. The "Taco Time" radio spot was my favorite part.

tonymurphylee An odd combination of the weirder elements of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Psycho, Unhinged tells the shocking tale of innocent young women who, out of nowhere, are forced into a world of familial dysfunction and horrible death. Three teenage girls are on their way to a music festival, but within five minutes of the film they get into a car accident and wake up in a strange mansion. They are greeted by the owner of the house and her adult daughter at dinner. Things get weird, however, when the mother lets loose some disturbing opinions about her daughter and the men in her life and all men in general. The girls are already creeped out enough, but then things get twisted when a prowler sneaks into the house and starts spying and preying on the girls. One-by-one, the girls are butchered mercilessly, and it all leads up to a grotesque and jaw-dropping finale that will have even the most seasoned horror fans startled.Released during the early 80s, and then shortly banned in the UK, unjustly, Unhinged is one hell of a wild slasher film. It's one of the most odd slasher films that was released in the 80s. I think that there's a lot to love about this film, despite it definitely being flawed. For starters, the setting. The film mostly takes place in a giant mansion and there is some remarkably strong atmosphere. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that you never really get to see most of the mansion. There's only a few locations that the film actually takes place in, and because of that you can really feel the eerie quality in a way that feels almost otherworldly. The combination of the mansion setting and the slasher film horror give the film a real surreal quality to it that makes it quite unique. The violence in the film is also kept to a minimum. It's how fast and how unexpected it usually happens that is more unsettling. When characters die in this film, they die quickly and in a rather blunt manner, well except for the very last death that I wouldn't dream in giving away. The performance of Janet Penner in the role of the daughter is also incredibly well mannered and remains as one of the most memorable aspects of the film. What really makes this film really work, however, is the ending. I'm not going to give away what happens, but the final ten minutes of this film are insane. They are like something out of a Hitchcock production. The ending of the film should go down in history as one of the greatest endings to a slasher film ever. I know that people will disagree with me, but I personally think that it deserves to rank right alongside the endings of Bob Clark's Black Christmas, Tod Browning's Freaks, and William Friedkin's The Exorcist as one of the strongest horror film finales of all time. I do not want to hype the ending to this film up any further though, because if I do one of two things will happen. One, you will be disappointed by it, or two, you will watch the film based just on the fact that it has a great ending. Make no mistake, it's a shocking ending, but throw away any hope of it being original. What I mean to say is that it's a very typical horror film twist ending, but done about as well as I have ever seen it get done. It's an offensive ending in a lot of ways, and it's incredibly misogynist, but it's effective and that's what matters.Unhinged, unfortunately, also suffers from a lot of the same problems that most slasher films suffer from. The film contains gratuitous and unnecessary nudity and drug use that takes away it's chances of being taken too seriously. I am not bothered by nudity and drug use in film, but here there really is no need for it at all. It's also a very slow paced film, and that may bother people. The performances of two of the three main female characters is also shockingly bad, almost to the point where you could swear that they are taking sleeping pills. Some of the line delivery is really distractingly awful. In all honesty, this is just another 80s slasher film and it does not try to do too many new things. It does, however, succeed in incorporating elements from more classic horror films, and for that I think that Unhinged is a horror film that is worth seeing.

forecastfortoday For a movie that was banned and labeled a 'Video Nasty' Unhinged is not very explicit when it comes to violence. For that matter, it's not even very slasher-ish but otherwise I seem to have a strange liking for it.The plot is pretty simple, it follows three pretty college girls on the way to a concert. While taking a route through backwoods their car ends up in a ditch. The girls end up in a mansion owned by a crazy old invalid woman (Virginia Settle) and her spinster daughter (Janet Penner). Not surprisingly, the mansion is conveniently located in the middle of a very isolated set of forest. One of the girls (Sara Ansley) decides to go get help but ends up slashed to death by a maniac with a scythe. Meanwhile, one of the other girls (Laurel Munson) seems to be observing some strange things about the old spinster and her mother while the other remaining girl (Barbara Lusch) is axed to death while sleeping. Eventually a disturbing climax erupts once the final girl discovers a horrible family secret that sends her running for her life from the mansion but little does she know her escape will not come easily.This movie is so underrated that it's almost disgusting. Yes, the acting is not good but there actually is some decent acting from a few of the characters such as the spinster daughter (Janet Penner), a neighborhood handyman who tries to warn one of the girls about the murders (John Morrison), and even the final girl (Laurel Munson) did seem sincerely scared towards the end of the movie. The movie is a little slow but that was probably the point, since the movie only has four murders the movie needs a few scenes to build up the rest of the movie. There are actually some very scary and even disturbing scenes in the film such as a few scenes of the final girl looking around the house in the dark, a scene where one of the girls is trapped in a shed lined with dismembered corpses, a speedy chase scene throughout the mansion and the extremely disturbing ending that includes a shocking machete murder and the killer ranting while hacking at their victim. There are many references of other good horror movies in the plot such as Psycho, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Three on a Meathook, Black Christmas with an ending that is very similar to The House with Laughing Windows. The movie is not horrible, but by no means a classic. Nonetheless, it is worth a viewing or at least the ending is worth a viewing.

eyecandyforu Unhinged follows the typical plot of the early 80's slasher trend. Pretty Young Girls In Peril. I have to give it up for the filmmaker who used a helicopter for some of the early road-trip shots, you actually think for a second there's going to be quality in the production. Watching "Unhinged" was like seeing an amateur acting class go through it's warm-up. Some of the most awkward, badly lit, overlong scenes are played out with the gusto of a Valium overdose. I wondered why they didn't just put the cue-cards on camera so the actresses wouldn't have to constantly shift their gaze. The two main girls were obviously chosen for their T&A factor rather than talent. Laurel Munson as the main chick Terry is as exciting as watching paint dry. Two nude scenes make for an adolescent thrill. Janet Penner and Virginia Settle as the crazy/creepy daughter and mother the chicks find themselves stranded with compete for Worst Acting Ever. Long pauses, weird expressions, emphasis on the wrong word, it's all there and is a delight for those of us out there who love bad films. The scenes shift suddenly with long black-outs you could drive a Mack truck through. Cartoon lightning crashes across shots without even bothering to show the sky. Eighties eyeshadow assaults the viewer. But ya know, it grew on me. I felt sorry for it. I wanted to hug it, kiss it's boo-boos and make it better. The ending doesn't make up for the damage it's caused but I grinned anyway. I have my own theories regarding the whole "banned" hype and hope that anyone who chooses to view this film does so with substantial substance abuse and a sense of humor. Otherwise pass.