Unhinged (1982 film)

Unhinged is a 1982 American slasher film directed by Don Gronquist in his directorial debut, written by Gronquist and Reagan Ramsey, and starring Laurel Munson, Janet Penner, Sara Ansley, Virginia Settle, and Barbara Lusch. The film follows three young women who, after suffering a car accident, are taken in by a mysterious spinster and her infirm mother at their rural mansion. Over the course of the next several days, the women are stalked by an unseen killer.

The screenplay for Unhinged was completed by Gronquist and Ramsey in September 1977, when it was registered for U.S. copyright. An independent film, Unhinged was produced on a budget of $100,000, with principal photography taking place in Gronquist's hometown of Portland, Oregon in the fall of 1981. The majority of the film was shot at the Pittock Mansion over the course of 19 nights due to the estate's daily operation as a museum. Additional photography took place in St. Johns and Forest Park, as well as in Gronquist's own home. Gus Van Sant served 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 Avatar Communications. 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). Numerous video copies of the film were seized and confiscated by the British government during police raids between 1983 and 1985. 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, with criticism aimed at 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. 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) and William Castle's Homicidal (1961). A loose remake was made in England and released in 2017, followed by a second remake, Unhinged Retribution in 2023.