Unhinged (2017)

Undescribable Perfection

Powerful

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

'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 creepyUnfortunately, 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

Traveling through the English countryside, a group of friends heading to a wedding get stranded at a remote house in the wilderness with a lone woman who lives in the house and when they start disappearing come to realize something monstrous lives there with her and must escape alive.This here was quite the decent and problematic remake effort. One of the few more enjoyable elements is the rather intriguing slow-burn style of setup this one takes which follows along the original rather nicely. From the initial abduction point that gives them a fine reason for being stranded as well as a tense sequence on it's own, to their arrival at the abandoned house and the strange customs imposed on them by the owner which starts off as somewhat unnecessary but soon comes to have far more significance with the later revelations given here which is revealed with the stellar scene of them overhearing the conversation out in the backyard with the unseen force wanting them out. That this one ties that in with the fine backstory that takes place in beginning which features rather prominently in the middle where not only is it fully revealed what happened but it plays into the incredibly tense and chilling sequence of her being subjected to a series of intense tortures where he engages in all sorts of brutal measures which are quite fun to see. The other fun part here is the fine stalking at the end from the chase through the woods and the battle in the house to brawl around the outside of the house which has some fun energy to it that is helped off with a rather creepy look to the killer. These here manage to hold this one up over somewhat prominent and rather obvious flaws. The main factor here is the rather bland and banal pacing that really makes for an extremely uneventful first half here. The exploits of the group getting stranded at the countryside inn and finding their accommodations to be quite unappealing aren't that exciting and really makes this one feel so dreary and sluggish that it's hard to be interested. The other problem with the utterly dragging and detrimental pacing that comes up here is that hardly anything happens that resemble horror sequences for large stretches of time, meaning too much is featured with them engaging in those extracurricular activities that don't mean anything for this one to have any kind of momentum or energy at all and rendering it quite a dull time. The other big issue here is the problematic and truly troublesome stalking scenes at the forefront of this one, as the vast majority of it's supposed horror scenes are completely inept, with non-suspenseful scenes in the woods when you don't see anything behind her to just bland moments with the killer interacting with the victims or just being so dark as to make it virtually impossible to tell what actually happened. Combined with the obvious low-budget that renders a lot of the scenes as being cheaply done, these here really hold this one down.Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language, Graphic Violence and Brief Nudity.

Film opens with a chained up woman getting her head lopped off as per DVD cover. 35 years later apparent final girl Kate Lister and party end up stranded at the same remote house. Not to hard to figure out. Add a wedding plan and a stalker.This is a me-too slasher/cabin-in-the -woods type of film, one that is at the low end and a remake.Guide: F-word. FFsex. No nudity

Unhinged is a remake of sorts of the 1982 'video nasty' of the same name, and, like the original movie, it's an extremely dull watch, suffering from a predictable script, pedestrian direction and weak acting (it's four protagonists—three British women and one Australian—struggling with their American accents), whilst also failing to deliver those two staples of the genre: gory kills and female nudity.The film stars Kate Lister as American bride-to-be Melissa, who is travelling with her sister and two friends through the English countryside en route to her wedding. On a deserted back-road, the girls encounter a local loony who tries to attack them, but who winds up dead, brained with a rock by Melissa's sister Lisa (Lucy-Jane Quinlan). Rather than report the incident, the girls stash the body in the boot of their car and go on their merry way. Their plans go further awry when their car runs out of petrol and they are forced to accept the hospitality of Miss Perkins (Michelle Archer), sole occupier of a remote country cottage, until her gardener comes to visit in a couple of day's time. While they are waiting for help to arrive, the foursome try to dispose of the dead guy in their car, but find themselves being stalked and killed by a maniac in a wedding dress and a rubber mask.A routine stalk 'n slash with too much stalk (and talk) and not nearly enough slash, Unhinged pads out the running time with lots of pointless guff: there's the lesbian relationship that adds nothing to the plot and provides zero gratuitous titillation; we get a spot of crap exposition as one of the girls finds a box of newspaper clippings that are intended to help explain the backstory, but which I found all the more confusing; and finally, we have the mystery of the disappearing body in the boot, which is intended to mislead the viewer into believing that the supposedly dead man is still alive and now seeking revenge. He's not. The real identity of the killer is far sillier.2/10. I always thought that the prime purpose of a remake was to radically overhaul or improve upon the original. That's most definitely not the case here.