Rachel Hunter is a newly-divorced single mother living in New Orleans with her 15-year-old son Kyle having been granted custody by her ex-husband. While driving Kyle to school one day, Rachel fails to signal the car in front to go after a red light. Losing patience, Rachel drives past the car. The owner of the car soon catches up to her, demanding an apology despite her and Kyle's pleas to leave them alone. Things only escalate quickly when the stranger begins to stalk Rachel and Kyle, offen attacking nearby pedestrians who try to intervene. When Rachel tries to contact her friend and divorce lawyer, Andy, for help, the stranger has already caught up to the latter; viciously beating Andy to death. The stranger continues to stalk Rachel causing chaos and destruction along a highway, injuring a number of people. A police officer is killed by the stranger just after Rachel and Kyle try to get his attention to alert him of the stranger following them. Rachel soon comes face-to-face with the stranger when he invades her Mum’s house. He attacks Kyle and Rachel before being stabbed in the eye by Rachel. The police arrive and Rachel and Kyle drive away.
Cast
Russell Crowe as The Man, a mentally unstable stranger.
Unhinged was originally scheduled to be released on August 28, 2020, before being pushed back to September 4. In May 2020, its release was moved up to July 1, 2020, in order to "likely be the first to test the waters as theaters try to rebound" from the COVID-19 pandemic, which was later pushed back to July 10, and then July 31. On July 23, the film was again delayed, this time to August 21, 2020. The film began an international release on July 16 in Germany, and then on July 31 in the United Kingdom, Europe, Australia, Asia, and Latin America.
Reception
Box office
Unhinged made $251,849 from 380 theaters in its German debut, slightly below expectations but finishing in first place. In its second weekend the film made $201,655 from 438 theaters for a 12-day total of $530,572.
Critical response
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 50% based on 24 reviews, with an average rating of 5.46/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Russell Crowe makes for a compulsively watchable villain, but Unhinged lacks enough intelligence or depth to get sufficient mileage out of its pulpy premise." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 38 out of 100, based on seven critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Guy Lodge of Variety said that the film "delivers exactly the nasty B-movie thrills you expect" and wrote: "The carnage is the point here, not any of the reasoning behind it, and Borte and Crowe bring it to a suitably frothing, furious head". Writing for IndieWire, Kaleem Aftab gave the film a "D" and said: "For a film so reliant on the telephone, it's probably not a surprise that Crowe dials in his performance. Dressed heavy-set, Crowe is all grimaces and frowns in disgust at everything around him. His only emotional note is all ANGRY, resulting in a parody of his own performances. It's Crowe on overdrive, and it's horrible."
