SPOILER ALERT: This post contains mild spoilers from the video game Unhinged, now available to play on Netflix.
When it comes to horror movies, I’m a wimp. Coward, chicken, scared cat. This is my favorite genre, but you can definitely see me jumping and whining even at closed film festivals and press screenings.
When I heard that David Fincher and Zach Cregger had helped develop Netflix’s interactive game Unhinged together, I was so excited to give it a test drive. Not only does it come from the minds of two of the best directors working today, but unlike horror games that boil down to mowing down hordes of zombies with machine guns, this project promised more of a “you’re living in a horror movie” idea.
Indeed, even though Unhinged is animated, the first-person feel makes it a believable facsimile of a real-life nightmare. You play as Ava (voiced by Zoë Kravitz), who is awakened by her best friend Claire (voiced by Sadie Sink) when the power goes out in their apartment building. Ava soon learns that the floor’s exit doors are locked, her neighbor is missing, and a serial killer (voiced by Troy Baker) may be rummaging through her apartment.
Although the plot of Unhinged is very thin, it manages to create a fast-paced story with significant scares that can be completed in about 35 minutes. Perhaps most impressive are the game’s visuals, bathed in darkness with your smartphone’s flashlight being the only thing keeping clues and exits visible. Instead of a traditional controller, your real phone becomes Ava’s device, answering increasingly urgent calls from Ava and your fictional construction worker (also voiced by Baker). Aiming mechanics allow you to grab onto objects—from a screwdriver to pick a lock to a nail gun to shoot an assassin—and move around a building without requiring much training.
This is useful considering the killer is fast, scary and quite disgusting. From an early scene where he has fun with long guts to nailing Ava’s hands to a table, there are plenty of pervert-inducing moments that encourage you to move faster to get the hell out.
Ironically, the biggest villain in “Unhinged” might be Claire, who always blows up your phone at the wrong moment and doesn’t give any real advice that you couldn’t figure out on your own. Despite several attempts to ignore her calls, you need to interact with her to keep moving forward, which almost inspired me to team up with the game’s psychopathic killer to cross the street and rip her guts out instead.
Luckily, Kravitz is a great vocalist, evoking strong emotions during the short line readings. If you play your cards right, she can lead you to the girl’s ultimate safety. After all, the first time I played, I stayed alive thanks to the sharpening of my reflexes as a result of the discomfort caused by the horror film. However, on my second playthrough I enjoyed getting stabbed to death as it adds another gruesome moment, while also calling in two cops who do a wonderfully deadpan job of expressing their thoughts at the crime scene.
Whether we’ll see a sequel remains to be seen, but in the meantime, “Unhinged” exists as a unique proof of concept for restoring audience attention spans. If your phone is used as a flashlight to search for clues in a run-down apartment building, you won’t be subject to a second search. Just as choose-your-own-adventure books can keep even the lousiest readers turning pages, interactive and gamified original content can be the next step toward longer-term audience retention. If audiences respond to this hybrid model of movies and games, it could be a very good way for Netflix to tighten its stranglehold on culture.
Watch the trailer for “Unhinged” below.