This Christmas I got the DVD of Unhinged released by 88 Films as part of their Slasher collection. Like you might have guessed the movie is an 80’s slasher. It was one of the movies that was banned in the UK and came on their 'video nasties' list. Like me many collectors collect these video nasties. But I have to say some are better than others. So let’s talk about Unhinged.
The story is about 3 girls going to a music festival. On their way to the festival they get into a car accident. The girls wake up in an old house where a woman and her mother live. 2 of the girls have light injuries and the other girl is a bit more injured, but nothing serious. The girls stay at the house for a while and discover that the mother is acting very strange. She isn’t nice to her daughter at all and she despises men. She also accuses her daughter of secretly letting men into the house. Meanwhile one of the girls tries to go to a nearby town since there isn’t a phone at the house they are stranded at. The other girls are left behind with the mother and daughter, but there are some very weird and creepy things going on.
Overall I thought the movie was really awesome. It’s not a typical slasher. In fact I wouldn’t call It a slasher at all. There was a lot of story going on and not too much action. But I really liked that. The mother and daughter characters were really interesting and they had some very awkward conversations. Even though the cast was very inexperienced they did an amazing job. Well maybe mainly the mother and daughter, the other girls weren’t that great of an actresses. But this movie isn’t for everyone I guess. The pacing is very slow, like I said before it’s more of a story driven kind of movie. But I like the way the progresses builds and the atmosphere becomes more and more tense, it makes for a lot of suspense. And the story builds to a very heavy climax.
Like I said before, the cast was very inexperienced. Most of the actors that were used were just some locals. And most of them hadn’t (and still haven’t) done any other movies, even the director. Still the overall quality isn’t that bad at all. Yeah the girls weren’t the best actresses, but that's not something I expect from a low budget slasher. I also like to mention the music. Overall the music was pretty descent, although sometimes a little weird. But it had that nice 80’s feel to it.
88 Films did a great job with this one. The picture and sound quality are really nice. It still gave you that nice grindhousy feeling without being a direct transfer from VHS. The DVD features the full screen version as well as the widescreen version. I’ve only watched the full screen version so I can’t comment on the widescreen version. The DVD also features audio commentary and the theatrical trailers, as well as some other trailers of films released by 88 films.
I would definitely recommend this film to horror movie fans, for those who don’t mind a bit of a slower pace. This is the first 88 Films slasher collection film I own and it started of good. I surely will buy more of them as they have an excellent catalogue.
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