Machination

If watching a woman wash herself constantly and go mad, Is your thing, then look no further.

I can understand several things about making movies. Firstly, they are difficult to make and anyone who does so, especially on a small budget, will always have my admiration. Secondly, doing the first thing whilst under a Covid lockdown must be doubly difficult.

That being said, this is really poor stuff. Thankfully, it is a really short movie, 62 minutes and done. Which makes me feel that with the editing being being rather 'generous', it might have been an idea to simply make a 20 minute short and have done with it.

I watched Machination on a whim on Tubi. I didn't know anything about it, but I liked the cover art and had some time to kill. I watch an unhealthy number of low budget random horror films and expected this to be the same. Boy was I wrong. This is an exceptional film all about one woman's descent into madness and paranoia while living in isolation at the onset of the pandemic.

I enjoyed all aspects of this film, but all the credit goes to Steffi Thake as the lead actor. The whole film rests on her shoulders and her performance is mesmerizing. We watch her go from taking a lot of the same precautions many of us did to complete shut down. Almost the entire movie is just her in her house, and it works. As someone who isolated by myself for months in the early covid days I could relate to a lot of the paranoia and fear. I don't know anything about Thake but I will be sure to watch out for other projects with her. Be sure to check this out. This is the first film I've seen that effectively brings out those fears we all had early in the pandemic.