Amid Netflix's messy games strategy, Oxenfree developer's ingenious new thriller suggests it might actually have a secret weapon - and it's streaming now

I still vividly recall the moment in No More Heroes when my Wii Remote rang for the first time. Confusion turned to delight as I held the controller to my ear and, through its tiny tinny speaker, Sylvia began to speak, as if on the other end of the line. Suddenly, Travis Touchdown's world had broken free of the TV, and I was thrilled. Oxenfree developer Night School's brisk new horror game Unhinged, currently streaming on Netflix, is built from these kinds of fourth-wall-busting moments, helping turn an already breathless thriller into something fascinating.

It's night, the wind howls, and we're outside looking in. Rain batters a darkened apartment window and, from some distant radio, comes a hurricane warning. Cut to the apartment interior and suddenly a buzzing phone lights up the gloom - and it's here you're asked to do a quick bit of set-up before you can quieten its incessant thrum. First you'll need your own (real) mobile device; then you'll scan an on-screen QR code to access Netflix's controller app, which proceeds to do its thing. A few moments later and a gulf has been bridged: your phone and Unhinged protagonist Ava's phone are, for the purposes of this story, now one and the same.

Look down at the phone in your hand and, via some decently convincing UI trickery, it's now the one receiving the incoming call we just saw on screen. Accept it using the touchscreen and the voice of Ava's friend, Claire, spills into the room, anxious about the power cut, eager for reassurance. The conversation continues, Ava speaking in the game world, Claire in the real one, and the effect is striking, blurring the lines between the two spaces and making it all the more involving. Soon Claire hangs up, but the text messages keep coming. And Night School has built enough phone UI into Netflix's app that you can even browse earlier exchanges from other characters - an elderly neighbour, Ava's recent ex, a slightly creepy superintendent, and more - making for a brisk, wonderfully economical bit of world-building.

But soon, your attention is required back on the TV screen. At its core, Unhinged is a fairly traditional first-person walking (and before too long, sprinting and sneaking) sim, all streaming from Netflix's servers. To navigate its gloomy world, your phone's gyroscope powers an on-screen pointer (mostly represented as a beam of torchlight to maintain that wonderful sense of verisimilitude), and by interacting with limited hotspots, Ava bobs forward, heading where you want her to go. Your first steps through the dimly illuminated darkness see you fiddling with a lamp to confirm that - yup - no power. Then it's over to the window for a cheeky lightning-flash jumpscare, which is where you learn Claire - a near constant presence throughout, either through text or call - is close enough across the street to see your every move. Think Rear Window in reverse, and the pieces are in place for some effective chills and thrills.

Then comes a noise from the living room, and it's here Night School begins to tighten the screws. Soon another call from Claire: shaken and eager to sleep out the storm in a hotel well away from here. Ava agrees, but first she wants to check in on that elderly neighbour, and already there's the creeping sense that something bad is happening here. But just as you're settling in for one type of unpleasantness, another call from Claire upends the whole thing; Night School goes pedal-to-the-metal and doesn't let up from there.

From the outside at least, Netflix's video game strategy has often felt like desperate, directionless flailing. From its first tentative steps - 'here, have some mobile games with your subscription' - to a classic bit of big-tech hubris as it charged into studio acquisitions and a big-name triple-A gambit that was shut down before it even released a game. It feels like it's tried everything in a short space of time. More recently, it's gone full-on casual, focusing on the kinds of audiences Nintendo and Sony decided were no longer worth pursuing some time ago. And these days, you can barely move for party games on its service, all played using your phone.

How this latest shift is working out for Netflix, I have no idea. But somewhere in the middle of all this is Oxenfree studio Night School, whose post-Oxenfree 2 output has been limited since being acquired by the streaming service in 2021. But if Unhinged is any indication, Night School could, if given more opportunities, be Netflix's secret weapon. Obviously, I understand why - in this age of subscriptions and yucky retention metrics - Netflix's games strategy has landed where it has. But if there's room for variety across its movie and TV output - prestige shows rubbing shoulders with entertaining crowd-pleasers and the inevitable slop - it'd be lovely to see a bit more variety with its games too. Which is to say, more Night School please Netflix.

Unhinged isn't a total slam-dunk; it's a little too brisk and a little too familiar to leave a lasting impression, and it's stacked so high with well-worn horror tropes, there comes a point where it starts to get daft. But even so, it's a blast. Zoë Kravitz and Sadie Sink are compelling, sympathetic leads, despite only ever fleetingly appearing on-screen (Troy Baker shows up too, but his instantly recognisable voice does unfortunately undermine a key reveal). And it's masterfully paced, Night School orchestrating a breathlessly tense 45 minutes of meticulously choreographed nastiness, made all the more engrossing thanks to the clever fourth-wall-breaking phone business at the heart of it all. And it is clever, utilising its central gimmick in all sorts of imaginative, additive ways. No spoilers, but there's a bit near the end - just a lovely, simple bit of attention to detail - where I looked down at my phone and gasped in delight.

It is, in other words, the kind of entertaining interactive narrative experiment I hoped we might see from Netflix when it first announced it was getting into games. And I genuinely hope Unhinged finds a bit of success amid the vast churning miasma of Netflix slop, so that Night School gets to do more of this kind of thing.