Netflix's "Unhinged" Turns Your Phone Into a Horror Game
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- "Unhinged" is now available as an interactive Netflix game developed with input from David Fincher and Zach Cregger, casting players as Ava (voiced by Zoë Kravitz) trying to escape a serial killer (voiced by Troy Baker) in a darkened apartment building.
- The game uses players' real-life smartphones as both a flashlight that reveals clues hidden in darkness and as an in-game phone fielding calls from Ava, her friend Claire (voiced by Sadie Sink), and the put-upon building super (also Baker).
- Gameplay runs roughly 35 minutes and relies on pointing mechanics to grab objects — a screwdriver to force open a lock, a nail gun to shoot at the killer — with no substantial learning curve.
- The reviewer found the scares effective, citing squirm-inducing moments including the killer wielding intestines and nailing Ava's hands to a table, and joked that Claire's constant unhelpful calls almost made the killer look like the better ally.
- Dying on a second playthrough unlocks additional grisly death moments and two police officers who deadpan their thoughts about the crime scene.
- The piece frames "Unhinged" as a proof of concept for interactive, gamified original content that occupies the phone rather than competing with it — positioning the hybrid movie-and-gaming format as a potential retention tool for Netflix.
Why it matters: For Netflix, "Unhinged" tests whether a 35-minute interactive experience can hold a viewer without them reaching for a second screen — and the smartphone-as-flashlight/phone design is built to occupy the very device that usually pulls attention away. If the format sticks, it gives Netflix a new template for original content that competes on immersion rather than just minutes streamed.
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