Netflix's Unhinged horror game is scary, funny and phone-first
Netflix's Unhinged is a roughly 35-minute horror game that uses your real smartphone as the controller while you play on TV or computer. Voiced by Zoë Kravitz, Sadie Sink and Troy Baker, the Night School Studio thriller is drawing praise as a funny, scary proof that the unhinged Netflix experiment can keep viewers off second screens.
Released June 30, Unhinged drops subscribers into a Category 5 hurricane at a South Carolina apartment complex. Power fails, doors lock, and Ava must survive a killer hunt through the dark. Variety calls it a unique proof of concept for reclaiming attention spans in an era of endless phone scrolling.
Key Takeaways
- Unhinged is Netflix's latest TV-playable game, using your phone as Ava's flashlight, calls and texts.
- The 30-to-40-minute experience stars Zoë Kravitz, Sadie Sink and Troy Baker in a choose-your-own-adventure horror story.
- Directors David Fincher and Zach Cregger secretly shaped the project, receiving Special Thanks in the credits.
- Netflix aims to blend gaming and streaming so your phone serves the story—not a second screen.
- Standard Mode adds timed survival stakes; Story Mode strips timers and death for a narrative-only run.
What Is Netflix's Unhinged Horror Game?
Developed by Netflix-owned Night School Studio—the team behind Oxenfree—Unhinged sits between a thriller, a horror game and an interactive film. You play as Ava (Kravitz), woken by best friend Claire (Sink) when the building loses power during the storm.
Soon the exits are locked, a neighbor vanishes, and building superintendent Ben (Baker) may not be who he seems. The plot is thin by design, but Variety notes it delivers substantial scares in a fluid tale you can finish in one sitting.
How Does Unhinged Use Your Phone as a Controller?
Scan a QR code in the Netflix app to link your phone, then tilt it to aim Ava's flashlight through pitch-black hallways. When Claire calls or texts, your actual device rings and vibrates in your hand while ambient audio plays through the TV.
Deadline reports that Sean Krankel and Sam Warner built the entire concept around that diegetic phone mechanic roughly two years ago. You point to grab tools—from a screwdriver to a nail gun—and choose paths under pressure in Standard Mode, where timers can send you back to checkpoints.
Why Does Unhinged Point to a Future Without Second Screens?
Netflix wants you watching the big screen while your phone works for the story, not Twitter. If your device is busy as Ava's lifeline, Variety argues, you are not second-screening during the ride.
The hybrid model echoes Choose Your Own Adventure books: interactive originals that reward attention instead of distraction. For more on how Netflix is reshaping its slate, see our Streaming & TV Alerts coverage.
Who Secretly Helped Shape Unhinged?
MovieWeb and Variety report that David Fincher and Zach Cregger collaborated in secret, earning understated Special Thanks credits at the end. Fincher, whose House of Cards helped launch Netflix originals in 2013, lent thriller instincts to a project Netflix confirmed involved both filmmakers creatively.
Netflix's film-and-TV casting team also landed the star voices. Krankel told Deadline the studio felt "very lucky" to work with actors who brought instant chemistry to what is fundamentally a friend story wrapped in home-invasion terror.