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.

Additional photography took place in St. Johns and Forest Park, with Gus Van Sant serving as a location scout for the production.

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).

[5] 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).

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.

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.

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.

Later that night, Terry finds a human tooth under her bed and subsequently awakes to the sound of a man breathing heavily upstairs.

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.

[6] The original screenplay for Unhinged was written some time prior to late 1977 by Portland, Oregon native Don Gronquist and Reagan Ramsey,[7] the latter of whom provided additional dialogue.

[9] 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?

[10] The cast was made up entirely of Portland locals, including stage actresses Janet Penner and Virginia Settle as Marion and Mrs. Penrose, respectively.

[12] Filming took place over a six-week period[13] in the fall of 1981[i] by cinematographer Richard Blakeslee[15] at the Pittock Mansion, an historic 22-room French Renaissance-style château in Portland, built in 1914.

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.

[5] 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.

[7] 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).

"[41] 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.

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.

"[45] 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.

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.