Unhinged is a cinematic throwback in all the best ways.

An exercise in the lurking terror of everyday life, “Unhinged” makes a half-hearted attempt to attribute away its antagonist’s predilection for violence to unspecified ‘mental illness’ but it’s not interested in putting in the effort to expand on that theme. But that’s because this isn’t the film it’s made out to be. This isn’t a pychological thriller at all – this is an eighties-style slasher, it’s just wearing the skin of a psychological thriller.

Harassed single mother Rachel (Caren Pistorius) is struggling to keep things together as she deals with her in-progress divorce, slacker brother, failing business and the school run. One morning, a series of unfortunate events, and a freeway traffic jam, leads to a chance encounter with Tom Cooper (Russell Crowe). A couple of blasts on the horn of her ageing Volvo later and her fate is apparently sealed.

Rocking the lockdown look, Crowe is this movie’s Michael Myers, its Freddy Krueger, its Jason Voorhies: a seemingly unstoppable, inventive and industrious killing machine. Something of a high functioning psychopath, he’s adept at speed reading the entire contents of mobile phones, complex logistical planning and burglarising cars in mere seconds. He’s also royally pissed at the lack of civility in society, one of the many subtle Reaganomic right-wing messages encoded in the film’s subtext. That we should be civil to those threatening us with violence and terror is the most obvious one but the pro-police messaging playing through the opening credits and repeated ad infinitum in the background news broadcasts, is an unmistakable repudiation of the principles behind ‘defund the police’, positing that mental illness is a police matter and that more police is, in fact, the best solution to any social problem you’d care to name. It’s very much in keeping with its resolutely eighties zeitgeist.

While thematically “Unhinged” might not be able to read the room as expertly as Tom Cooper can read the contents of an iPhone, it’s still a wonderfully knowing homage to classic eighties slasher movies, taking the template and tropes and gleefully applying them to as mundane a horror as road rage. My first thought while watching the explosive opening scenes (and, in fact, the first note I wrote down as the movie began) was that the film begins exactly like the beginning of a horror movie, showing the origin of the monster. It’s so loyal to the formula, though, that I was able to write notes in advance, such as ‘he’ll get shot at some point but keep going’. Check.

It’s a great performance from Crowe, though, sometimes evoking a spirit of ‘evil’ Jon Goodman, and he balances just the right amount of menace and camp to maximise his value to the movie. Unfortunately, Caren Pistorius is something of a bland final girl but in her defence, she’s saddled with a character who’s slightly too slow on the uptake and not particularly sympathetically portrayed by a script which is more focused on hitting beats than building characters.

Director Derrick Borte shoots Unhinged in claustrophobic style with lots of tight close-ups and peeping Tom POV shots, keeping the tension high and the audiences focus away from some of the bigger holes in the movie’s set-up. Cooper’s unfettered access to Rachel’s iPhone may be his ‘supernatural’ power but the film keeps things trucking in the hope you won’t realise (as Rachel doesn’t) that it would also be his greatest weakness. Luckily, once Cooper’s rampage begins, it’s punctuated regularly with entertainingly brutal and occasionally gasp-worthy kills, including a homage to the “Final Destination” series amongst the vintage slasher fun.

“Unhinged” offers pulpy, enjoyable b-movie thrills elevated above direct-to-DVD fare by a grandstanding performance from Crowe who almost single-handedly grabs the whole film by the throat and throttles every bit of entertainment the script has to offer and while it might not be packing them into the multiplexes, it’s destined to find (and deserves) a place amongst the midnight movie pantheon.

unhinged review
Score 6/10


Hi there! If you enjoyed this post, why not sign up to get new posts sent straight to your inbox?

Sign up to receive a weekly digest of The Craggus' latest posts.

We don’t spam! Read our privacy policy for more info.

logo

Related posts

13 Reasons Why Season One Review

13 Reasons Why Season One Review

Mister X says 13 Reasons Why is not for the faint-hearted. One day Clay Jensen arrives home from Liberty High School to discover a curious package on his doorstep. Upon opening the box he discovers seven audio cassettes that serve as an explanation for his close friend Hannah Baker’s...

Non-Stop (2014) Review

Non-Stop (2014) Review

Neeson just won't quit with the high-concept action. With awards season winding down, the world’s multiplexes are once again opening up to a broader range of movie as we start the slow, inexorable march towards the summer blockbusterpalooza. It’s time for an action movie, and cometh the...

Robin Hood (2010) Review

Robin Hood (2010) Review

Ridley Scott robs the legend of its richness and gives us a poor man’s Robin Hood. He doesn’t even rob the rich – well, actually that’s not true. He does once, to dress himself in the borrowed nobility of a fallen knight. That’s 2010's Robin Hood in a nutshell – not a rebellious...

The Secret Garden (2020) Review

The Secret Garden (2020) Review

The Secret Garden puts a chilly stiff-upper-lip spin on an old classic. There a sumptuous promise to this latest interpretation of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s 1911 novel “The Secret Garden”, bolstered by the handsome locations, that never quite feels fulfilled. Looks great, solid cast but...

The Revenant (2016) Review

The Revenant (2016) Review

He lives! He dies! He lives again! Witness DiCaprio's latest pitch for Oscar glory in The Revenant. Alejandro González Iñárritu’s latest offering sees yet another story ‘based on true events’ brought to life on the big screen. This time it’s ‘inspired by’ the true story of frontiersman...

Craggus’ Trek Trek: Now, Voyager! Vol 12

Craggus' Trek Trek: Now, Voyager! Vol 12

Craggus' Trek Trek:Now, Voyager! Vol 12 Craggus' Trek Trek Now Voyager Vol 12 takes us from the end of season four and into the unexplored voids of season five. Star Trek Voyager S4E22: Unforgettable An ironically titled romantic drama for Chakotay that's...

Gran Turismo (2023) Review

Gran Turismo (2023) Review

"Did you feel it when you were out there? That thing where time slows down?" I got that in the cinema watching this. Perennial Alien promiser Neill Blomkamp finds himself in the director’s driving seat for Gran Turismo, a movie based on a true story based on a reality TV show based...

Playing With Fire (2019) Review

Playing With Fire (2019) Review

Playing With Fire produces plenty of smoke but never catches alight Although "Playing With Fire" suffers from the same problem which blighted the 2016 “Ghostbusters” – every supporting cast member is competing to one-up each other in a game of schtick – once things settle down a...