Unhinged

Unhinged is a 1982 American slasher film directed by Don Gronquist, written by Gronquist and Reagan Ramsey, and starring Laurel Munson, Janet Penner, and Sara Ansley. The film follows three young women who, after suffering a car accident, are taken in by a mysterious family at their rural Pacific Northwest mansion, where they are subsequently stalked by a violent murderer.

The screenplay for Unhinged was completed by Gronquist and Ramsey in September 1977, when it was registered for U.S. copyright. Principal photography took place in 1981 in Gronquist's hometown of Portland, Oregon on a budget of $100,000. Filming primarily took place at the Pittock Mansion, whose interiors were used over a course of 19 nights due to the estate's daily operation as a museum. Additional photography took place in St. Johns and Forest Park, with Gus Van Sant serving as a location scout for the production.

Unhinged screened at the Cannes Film Festival's Marché du Film in May 1983, and was released on video shortly after in the United Kingdom by CBS/Fox. It subsequently appeared on the list of the United Kingdom's 72 "video nasties," which led to an expanded role for the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC).[3] Video copies of the film were seized and confiscated by the British government during police raids in December 1983. Despite censorship efforts for its home video release, the film received an 18 certificate from the BBFC for theatrical release, and screened throughout the United Kingdom in the latter half of 1983. In the United States, it opened at the Northwest Film & Video Festival in Portland on August 20, 1983.

Though the film received little critical attention at the time of its release, it has been subject to retrospective reviews and reassessment, receiving praise for its atmosphere, synthesizer-based musical score, and twist ending, and criticism for its acting and pacing. In 2014, the film's original score by Jonathan Newton was ranked at number 40 in a list of the 100 greatest horror film scores by Fact magazine.[4] The film has also been the topic of scholarly discussion due to its depiction of repression and gender dysphoria of its villain, and has also drawn comparisons to Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960). A remake was made in England and released in 2017.

Three female college students, Terry, Nancy and Gloria, embark for a music festival in rural Washington. While driving on a forested road, the women smoke marijuana in the car, while a news radio broadcaster announces the recent disappearance of two teenage girls in the area. A sudden storm causes Nancy to accidentally crash, rendering all three unconscious. Terry awakes to find her and her friends alive, sheltered in a large isolated mansion owned by the Penroses: the middle-aged Marion, her mother, and their groundskeeper, Norman. Gloria is the only one with serious injuries, so Marion suggests that they spend the night until Gloria is able to leave. Terry and Nancy are invited to dinner with Marion and her elderly, senile crippled mother. Throughout dinner, Marion's mother rants and raves, espousing her misandrist views, and recounts how her husband left her for another woman while the family lived as socialites in Rhode Island. She also recurrently accuses Marion of bringing men into the home. Later, while the women relax in the parlour, a mysterious man looks menacingly into the windows at them.

Later that night, Terry finds a human tooth under her bed and subsequently awakes to the sound of a man breathing heavily upstairs. In the morning, Terry and Nancy take a shower, while someone spies on them through a peephole in the wall. Later that day, Nancy elects to walk to the local village alone, and starts off through the woods. When she arrives at a rural country road, she is attacked by a cloaked figure with a long scythe, who slashes her to death. That evening at dinner, Mrs. Penrose continues to ramble about her disgust for men and harangue Marion, while Terry worries about Nancy's absence. Alone in her bedroom, Terry once again hears the breathing and goes to investigate. She searches the attic, where she finds black and white pictures of two children, and an old tool belt with a dusty handgun and machete. She goes back downstairs and sees the man staring in at her through the window, and runs screaming through the house. Marion calms her down and reveals to her that the man is Carl, her developmentally-disabled younger brother. She insists that he is harmless, and Terry goes back to bed.

The next day, Terry goes outside to talk to Norman and asks if he has seen Nancy. Norman reveals that he never spoke with her, and instead tells her a confusing story about the two teenage girls who recently disappeared in the woods. At nightfall, Gloria regains consciousness, and Terry tells her she feels the two need to leave as soon as possible. After Terry leaves the room, an unseen figure attacks a sleeping Gloria, plunging a hatchet through her head. Later in the evening, Terry finds Gloria's room empty and asks Marion where she is. Marion suggests she may have gone outside for a breath of fresh air. As she steps outside, Terry is attacked and chased by Carl. She hides in a shed, where she discovers the dead bodies of her friends along with several other dismembered corpses. Carl breaks through the window and tries to grab her, but she manages to escape from the shed and runs back to the house as Carl chases after her.

Hurrying into the attic, Terry obtains the handgun and shoots Carl in the head, killing him. Marion rushes upstairs after hearing the struggle, and chastises Terry for killing her brother. Terry responds by ordering Marion to search the shed. After a moment of silence, Marion, speaking with in a deep, masculine register, tells her that Carl had nothing to do with the corpses in the shed. Terry confusedly looks at Marion, who pulls out a machete. Marion reveals that she was actually Mrs. Penrose's second son, and Carl's younger biological brother, who dresses and presents as a woman. Terry attempts to flee, but Marion knocks her to the ground and maniacally stabs her to death whilst raving about the pressures of her gender dysphoria, and of her obligations to care for her brother and mother. As Terry bleeds to death on the floor, Mrs. Penrose calls for Marion from downstairs, asking if there is a man up there. Marion, covered in blood, responds in her feminine voice: "No, mother."

Unhinged has been noted by some film scholars for its dealing with themes of repression and gender dysphoria.[5] Writing in Serial Killer Cinema: An Analytical Filmography with an Introduction (2003), Robert Cettl analyzes the character of Marion, the villain who is a biological male presenting as a female: "Unhinged portrays the society of women as monstrous, perverse abhorrence which corrupts the male and, ironically, consumes itself. The killer, whose aggressive gaze is coded as masculine, considers such young women groveling, subhuman figures, and his crimes are in part expressions of the person he has been forced to become, and the gender he has been forced to adopt. It is self-hatred and gender confusion as much as it is misogyny."[5] Cettl connects this element of the film as being inspired by Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960).[5]

The original screenplay for Unhinged was written some time prior to late 1977 by Portland, Oregon native Don Gronquist and Reagan Ramsey,[6] the latter of whom provided additional dialogue.[7] The 145-page screenplay was registered for copyright in the United States on September 21, 1977.[8] Commenting on its origins, Gronquist said that he and Ramsey devised the story together while drinking together in local bars: "We were sitting there talking about, how cheap can we make a movie? How cheap could we make a commercially viable 35 mm film?"[6]

Prior to filming Unhinged, Gronquist had made his debut as a producer on the independent film Stark Raving Mad (1981), a biographical account of the murders committed by Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate.[9]

The cast was made up entirely of Portland locals, including stage actresses Janet Penner and Virginia Settle as Marion and Mrs. Penrose, respectively.[10] Sara Ansley, who portrayed Nancy, was a model whom Gronquist hired through a talent agency.[6]

Unhinged was produced on a budget of $100,000, which included funds from local investors, including helicopter and aviation entrepreneur Betsy Johnson, a friend of Gronquist's who later became an Oregon State Senator.[11] Filming took place in late 1981[i] by cinematographer Richard Blakeslee[13] at the Pittock Mansion, an historic 22-room French Renaissance-style château in Portland, built in 1914.[6] Because Pittock Mansion is a tourist attraction and city property, the bulk of the film had to be shot overnights from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m.[14] over a course of 19 evenings.[6]

Reflecting on the shoot in a newsletter during production, Blakeslee commented: "Don is going a little crazy by this time, zeroing in on something new every day.... The one we enjoy most is, 'I've lost my pages!' This is in reference to his script…which he has taken apart and carries around like a bundle of autumn leaves; at various times, these will be lost, splattered with stage blood, misplaced, left in other rooms, soaked with water, covered with muddy footprints."[6]

Additional photography took place in Forest Park; the film's opening scenes feature shots of the St. Johns Bridge, and the road accident scene was filmed on Northwest Germantown Road near Linnton in North Portland.[15] Local filmmaker Gus Van Sant assisted as a location scout for the production.[16]

The film's special makeup effects were completed by Janet Scoutten, who at the time had recently designed special effects for the slasher film The Slumber Party Massacre (1982).[17]

The film features an original score by Jonathan Newton,[18] who later scored Shadow Play, starring Dee Wallace and Cloris Leachman,[19] before becoming a professor of music at Portland State University.[20] In 2014, the British music publication Fact magazine ranked the film's score at number 40 in a list of the 100 greatest horror film scores of all time.[4] The list's compilers, John Twells and Joseph Morpurgo, noted: "Newton’s score for synth marries Carpenter-style moodiness with unusually dynamic drum programming, and, simply put, ticks all the boxes: genuinely killer theme, impressive atmospherics, [and] occasional moments of unsignposted lunacy."[4]

Unhinged screened at the Cannes Marché du Film on May 14, 1983.[21] It was released theatrically in the United Kingdom beginning on July 14, 1983, with an 18 certificate.[22][23][24][25] It continued to show on British screens in Manchester, London, and Coventry through December of that year.[26][27][28]

In the United States, it was shown on August 20, 1983, at the Northwest Film & Video Festival in Portland, Oregon.[6][29]

A review by TV Guide noted: "In this film, J. E. Penner is one of the few cast members left in one piece by a mysterious serial killer. Props essential to the action include machetes, scythes, and power saws. The climactic showdown between heroine and villain is as predictable as it is inevitable."[30] In a retrospective review of the film, Blumhouse wrote of the film: "The main issue for most viewers is going to be the film’s rather leisurely pace; the filmmakers apparently attempted to position Unhinged as more psychological thriller than chop-em-up slasher, but instead of slowly building tension and suspense, the script frequently leaves the characters lounging around with nothing much to do except talk and sleep (both of which they do a lot). A tighter edit might have helped speed things along, but considering the film’s ultra-lean runtime of under 80 minutes, I’m not sure that would have even been possible."[31]

In his book Nightmare Movies: Horror on Screen Since the 1960s, film journalist Kim Newman was critical of the film, calling it a "sickle-slicker slasher so inept that the clapperboard can twice be discerned in the grey murk during a slow fade."[32] In Scott Aaron Stine's The Gorehound's Guide to Splatter Films of the 1980s, he writes of the film: "Although not a bad film, Unhinged is exceptionally slow; the abundance of talking heads actually slackens much of the suspense and tension the film strives to generate. And despite some wonderful plot twists—the above average shock ending is a pleasant surprise—the scriptwriting rarely rises above that of pulp horror, derivative of such films as Three on a Meathook (1973)."[1] Jerome Reuter of Dread Central praised the film in a 2017 retrospective, noting: "While it isn’t the blood-splattered mayhem of Violent Shit, or the psychological portrait of Bill Lustig’s Maniac, it certainly deserves recognition among genre fans as an underrated gem... Unquestionably, the greatest attribute of Unhinged is its pacing best described as a slow burn. The story builds up gradually, and unlike some of its contemporaries, it restrains itself a great deal with its content."[33]

Writing on Unhinged for the film review website Bleeding Skill, Joseph A. Ziemba praised it, noting: "The music is perfect for a midnight axe murder, but totally surreal when it accompanies a dinner scene. There’s also Laurel Munson’s loud-yet-medicated lead performance as Terry, which wouldn’t feel out of place in John Waters’ Multiple Maniacs. These dream-like details enhance the grim reveals, making the movie feel damaged on multiple levels. Unhinged might be a terrific sleep aid, but it's also a gloomy slasher mood piece — the kind that will never exist again."[34] An assessment written for a screening of the film by the Spectacle Theater in 2019 noted: "The performances range in tone from ‘on too many painkillers’ to ‘community theater Tennessee Williams’, only adding to the surreal-dreamlike feel of the whole thing. Featuring a synth score by John Newton that's been described as sounding like “a black mass that’s being sabotaged by an all-skeleton Soft Cell cover band”, Unhinged is way more fun and moody than your average video nasty."[35]

Although the British Board of Film Classification had passed the film uncut for UK cinemas in 1983, the U.K. Director of Public Prosecutions retroactively banned the video release, placing Unhinged on its list of 72 "video nasties",[6] which violated the Obscene Publications Act (as amended in 1977).[36] Unlike other films on that list, the film's few murders were suggested (by sprays of blood) rather than explicitly depicted, and featured few scenes of nudity.[6] The film was one of several titles whose videos were confiscated by the British government during police raids in December 1983, alongside The Boogeyman (1980), The Driller Killer (1979), and The Last House on the Left (1972).[37]

The film was released in the United Kingdom on a pre-certification VHS by CBS/Fox Video in the spring of 1983.[38][39] In 1988, Lighthouse Home Video released the film on VHS in the United States.[40]

In 2002, IndieDVD released Unhinged on DVD in the United States.[41] It was subsequently issued in the United Kingdom on DVD in 2004 through Platinum Home Video,[42] uncut and with an '18' certificate. In the United States, the film received several other DVD reissues from different distributors: First in 2005 by Brentwood Home Video, and again by Code Red in 2012 as a double feature disc with Murder Run (1983), a film produced by Gronquist;[43] this edition was limited to only 500 copies.

The film was released in a remastered DVD in the United Kingdom by 88 Films in 2014.[44] In a 2021 interview with David Gregory, a co-founder of Severin Films, he commented on the film's home media status, stating that "there are no [original] film elements [known] in the world. There’s basically a one-inch master in London and it’s not even as good as a DVD!"[45]

In the years since its release, Unhinged has developed a cult following.[20] It received a 30th-anniversary revival screening at Portland's Hollywood Theatre on August 21, 2012.[46][47] It received another revival screening at New York City's Spectacle Theater in 2019.[35]

A remake of the film was produced in England and released in 2017.[48] In December 2022, a second remake was announced, with Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey (2023) producer Scott Jeffrey producing.[49]