Machined

Machined looked interesting, but was a conglomeration of plots ultimately more like a Frankenstein film. The acting was between bad and OK. The camera work was spotty at best with some good shots, but mostly bad and mostly b/w looking because of low light levels. Screenplay wasn't very believable and the dialog struggled tremendously. It was a horror film that just wasn't very horrifying, more sickening. A garage mechanic in a remote desert service station creates a man/machine hybrid that does his murderous bidding. The mechanic doesn't get many customers, but they all stop by at the worst possible moment for both the mechanic and the viewer.

Here's the thing, why do all horror movies have to take place at night? Would anyone protest if someone made a horror movie taking place during the day? Second, if you have next to no budget and no decent equipment, why would you go and film a movie at night, knowing full well that is going to look like garbage?

In Machined, a big mechanic dude is obsessed with all things gruesome. He pays a ton of money for some knife used in a killing. One day some guy drives on a desert road and his car breaks down. Motorman Dan literally runs into and over him. Then he takes the injured guy to his shop and does something to him. We don't know what, but it's painful and it involves putting a mask on the guy. We see this from the victim's POV.

Then a bunch of kids driving nearby at night have their car break down, they make it to the creepy shop. Dan offers to help but it will take a while. The kids start frolicking around when a creature appears and starts killing them. The creature is Dan's creation and he does look strange. He has a camera on this head and lights, so that Dan can see all the gory details on a tiny TV.

Eventually, the sister of the first victim starts looking for him and finds the shop. And there's an interesting twist near the end.

I'll give Machined credit for an idea, granted, the Frankensteinian creature isn't a new idea, but it's more than 99% of horror movies about dark-haired teenagers running at night in hallways from some lame killer. But you need more to make a movie aside from an idea and enthusiasm- you need resources, to at least be able to afford a decent camera and a flashlight. If you can't afford that, you have to be smart about using the little that you have. Machined isn't- it looks terrible and is painfully slow because it doesn't have anything to tell aside from the creature killing a few teens. Couldn't they have gotten at least some more teens to volunteer? A Z-budget movie through and through that probably should not have gotten distribution.

I wonder if everyone saw the same film I watched... then I noticed that a better part of the good reviews for this film were posted prior to it's release date... so I guess the film makers have a lot of friends and family writing reviews for them. Also, I don't understand this excuse that most of the reviewers use stating "... considering the budget" or " great considering how low the budget". Since when do we excuse a film's poor production value on the money they had or didn't have? Maybe we need a new genre of films... Films shot on a shoestring budget that look like crap, but we excuse all that. Let me begin by saying that the box cover and the copy treatment are very misleading. This is some strange retelling of the Frankenstein story... only none of the characters are defined... none have the motivation or back story to even justify why they are doing what they do. Never did we get that Motorman Dan tinkered in reconstructive surgery... When he hits a motorist on the highway (on purpose or by accident? Who knows) he uses the victim to create his killing machine, but when did he hatch this plan... on the road? Days before? Weeks? How would a member of the audience know that his plan was to create this monster since there was no foreshadowing on this character... and since we never actually see him create the monster... I guess we have to just assume a lot. These are all the traits of a bad screenplay and this one is no exception with every cliché and bad horror movie moment telegraphed 500 feet ahead. For the most part the film is dark and murky and I guess this is the part we should forgive since they had no money for lights and the music was so annoying that at no point I had to turn the volume down as to not listen to it. The acting is OK, but at times the main character seemed to drift in and out of his part. The supporting cast is just plan bad and the monster, with his welding cap and pen lights just wanders around doing others bidding, so we are left to not care a thing for him. NOTE: In all great stories that involve a victim that is forced into bad situation... we should feel sorry for that person (Frankenstien's Monster, Hunchback, The Wolfman, etc).

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.

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.