Unhinged (1982)
Starring Laurel Munson, Janet Penner, Sara Ansley, Virginia Settle & John Morrison
Directed by Renny Harlin
Written by Don Gronquist & Reagan Ramsey
I have a lovely little book which lists all of the films banned during the 80's clampdown on 'video nasties'. Ever happy to immerse myself in needless depravity, imagine my delight when I came across Unhinged: 'Violence beyond reason,victims beyond help!' - one of said noted nasties. Filmed in 1982, it starts with three nubile college girls setting off for a rock concert. After numerous "'we are driving through isolated woodland" shots, the screen cuts to black and one of said girls, Terry, awakens in a strange, dark mansion with a woman called Marion and her gardener, who inform her that the trio had a car crash but were rescued by them.
Terry and Nancy escaped injury, but their third friend, Gloria, is injured so they decide to remain where they are for the time being, until she is a little better.
After an awkward dinnertime introduction to Marion's eccentric elderly mother, with her endless accusations that downtrodden Marion is a 'whore' and a 'slut,' the two friends begin to feel understandably uneasy. Terry in particular feels they are being watched and when she awakens later that night to the sounds of a man 'relieving himself,' her and Nancy decide one of them must go to get some help.
Nancy sets off through the woods the following day and meets a grisly demise at the hands of a mysterious hooded figure with a scythe. Terry, utterly oblivious to her friends unfortunate fate, explores the dark recesses of the house further, adding to her mounting suspicions that all is not as it seems. Marion meanwhile, seems to be rather enjoying all the drama and confides in Terry that her Mother is a 'man hater' because her Father was a pedophile and bought shame upon the family. This forced them to retreat into isolation, along with Marion's retarded brother who 'lives outside' in the outhouse. The film reaches its gory climax when Terry ventures into the outhouse and finds all her friends chopped up, along with a few others for good measure. Marion's brother then sets about chasing after her in a frenzy, until, terrified, Terry shoots him dead. A furious Marion, hot in pursuit, finds them and shows her true colours. Literally, for 'Marion' is - with a flash of a rather impressive chest wig- actually a man, who has lived in drag for years to avoid her mothers anti-male wrath. All of this repressed emotion explodes as she hacks poor old Terry to death.
Now, the film is, as you would expect, badly scripted. The lines are delivered horrendously and the whole thing seems to plod along at a rather predictable rate, that is until the stunning closing scenes. When Terry makes her bloody discovery in the outhouse, the camera work is truly brilliant, very stylized and perfect for the disturbing subject matter. The gore is also well done, considering it was obviously a low budget feature and just enough is shown to create the desired effect. As for the end scene where a crazed Marion is stabbing Terry over and over, I for once could see why this film was banned. It was pretty grim and certainly unsettling to watch.
The cross gender twist was also quite clever, although I had my suspicions about ol' Marion, mentally as well as physically (she's no looker that's for sure! ), I really didn't see that one coming!
So, in summary, while 'Unhinged' could easily be overlooked as just another run of the mill hack and slash film, I think its a 'cut' (see what i did there?!) above, and well worth preserving as a flawed classic addition to the genre.
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sophia