Machined

While driving through the Arizona Sonoran Desert, Ryan (Jose Rosete) runs out of fuel and he is forced to stop his car. The sadistic mechanic and collector of serial killer weapons Motorman Dan (David C. Hayes) runs over Ryan and brings him to his workshop, transforming him in a killer wearing a strange outfit. Ryan kills clients of the mechanic workshop for the pride and joy of Motorman Dan, becoming a serial-killer. Meanwhile his sister Angela (Patti Tindall) seeks out Ryan in the desert and meets Motorman Dan, who abducts her for Ryan, while her husband Clay (Mark Ray) chases Angela.

The sadistic low-budget "Machined" is an annoying and tedious crap. The ridiculous plot is stupid, and the soundtrack causes irritation to the viewer. The unknown Patti Tindall has a good performance but is unable to save this fiasco. The fake reviews promoting this flick misguided my choice and I saw this garbage expecting to see a reasonable horror movie. My vote is two.

Title (Brazil): "Oficina da Morte" ("Workshop of the Death")

It was probably a year ago when I first heard about Craig McMahon's MACHINED, and I gotta tell you - I was instantly intrigued. There's just something about a creature being part-man and part-machine that runs around slaughtering people. That and plus the poster art looked damn cool. So eventually I found a good time for viewing it, in the dark, no distractions and I was pretty impressed. There are not many films like MACHINED, I can promise you that! This tale is about a big, fat, hairy guy who goes by the name of 'Motorman Dan', who has a few personal problems. For one: he likes to jerk off while reading about serial killers; two: he dreams of having a "pet" serial killer of his own, and three: well, he's fat… So eventually, Dan accidentally runs over a young man named Ryan, (Jose Rosete), who was trying to flag him down for a ride at the time. Oops…Dan's bad. Oh, well, it's all good; more body parts for his dream "killing machine". After Dan adds the final touches to his creation, he lets it loose all over town, (that being his garage). One problem… Ryan has a few friends, who along with his sister Angela are determined to find out what happened to the unlucky young fellow.

MACHINED succeeds in many ways, atmosphere being one of them. Honestly, they nailed it so well (pun intended) I felt like I was right there in the grungy garage of horrors with the robotic killing machine, fat Dan himself and of course, his hairy back. I think director Craig McMahon accomplishes this by keeping the film very dark, both in tone and the impressive camera work. I don't think there's one shot even hinting at sunlight. It also helps that there are many first perspective shots in the film.

The sound design is second on the list of well-used elements. The effects were awesome, most of them coming from the killing machine itself. It's very interesting how McMahon combines the score with the sound effects. At times when the machine is walking around you can hear the nuts and bolts squeaking, but eventually those sounds become part of the score, which is insanely cool.

Now for the first negative aspect: the acting. For the most part the cast does a descent job, but there were definitely a few spotty moments. Our lead actor, Patti Tindall, who plays Angela, does a descent job…but I would have liked her to have been a little more realistic with her reactions. I mean, here she is fighting her brother who is now a robotic killing machine, and she acts as if she deals with this crap everyday. Maybe downplaying her emotions was a directorial choice, but it didn't work for me. My favorite cast member overall was David C. Hayes, who plays 'Motorman Dan'. He was rather brave with his choices and definitely comes across as being the most charismatic of the bunch. Now if he would just take a lawn mower to his back, we'd be all set. He'd probably make more money selling his back hair then he got for acting in the film. There's also one pretty bad apple in the cast, but I won't name names. See if you can guess who it is… The second element that didn't rock my boat was the characters. I'm not sure if it was because of weak performances (at times), the way they were written or the lack of realism that shooting with digital video sometimes displays, but I wasn't emotionally invested in them. During the finale, when Angela is going head-to-head with what's left of her brother, I could have cared less who won. I'm guessing that's not a good thing.

Overall, I found MACHINED to be problematic at times, but it's definitely interesting and I'm damn glad I experienced it. Notice how I said "experienced it?" I say that because it's such an odd and unique film. I would recommend you check it out, but just don't go in expecting greatness. Keep in mind that it's pretty much a better-than-average independent film and you'll be in for a solid ninety minutes.

I guess whether you like this movie or not depends on how tired you are of the slasher formula. Thankfully, this one doesn't have annoying teenagers in it. There's some more story and background than you might be used to getting, though it doesn't bog down the movie or anything like that. If anything, the slasher action kind of slows it down to a crawl, as the scenes get longer and longer and longer... until you're thinking to yourself, "How many victims does this guy *need*? Let's just get to the climax already!" Or maybe not. I did, at least.

There are a few fresh aspects to this movie, which might be what saves it for you. The director apparently was aware of how saturated the horror marketplace is right now, so I applaud anyone who tries to show any creativity whatsoever, even if it's just putting a football helmet and shoulderpads on a guy and calling him a cyborg. That's another thing that might bother you: this movie has really, really low budget effects. In fact, it's kind of distracting how low budget they are, but I guess I can't criticize the director for that. He did all he could with the money he had, and I guess the result is watchable. No, that's not much of an endorsement, but it's a lot better than I can say about most of today's low budget slasher movies. I recommend this movie if you're looking for a slasher that doesn't descend into "torture porn", doesn't have a bunch of horny teenagers that are too stupid to live, and has very little in the way of over-the-top screaming and shrieking. This movie will definitely *not* give you a headache, unless you're expecting good sets and sfx.

This film is hardly a masterpiece but its still very effective with some really creepy atmosphere ala WOLF CREEK. Gore is quite low but there are some good kills . Big reason to watch it ,is to see the hilarious David Hayes playing the delightfully perverse Motor Man Dan. Other than Hayes, the acting is pretty bad.. ESPECIALLY the lead actress,yikes and that blind lady ..GOOD HEAVANS!! The director does have a lot of talent though and created an insane set in a some desert junkyard.He just needs more to work with. For a first time indie film on a shoe-string budget MACHINED does deliver as much as it possibly can . All I can say is more gore next time and nudity..just not Motorman Dan naked!

(2005) Machined HORROR

Music, produced, written and directed by Craig McMahon directing a super duper low budgeter via cam corder style showing an overweight extremely hairy, heavy set guy, Dan (David C. Hayes) buying a knife which supposed to belong to some serial killer stolen from a police station. And then while Dan is driving along an isolated highway, he accidentally hits someone, his name is Ryan (Jose Rosete) knocking this fellow out. Then the next scene shows this new guy, that Dan had hit was being transformed into a serial killer somewhat electronically whomever enters his machine shop asking for help to fix his/her vehicle. At the same time the Ryan's sister, Angela (Pam Tiddall) goes out and tries to find and locate him since the police are inconsistent and careless, suspecting that his brother might still be alive and close to the area. Bomb.