GHOST IN THE MACHINE

GHOST IN THE MACHINE

Technology provides a serial killer the ultimate means to wreck havoc....

GHOST IN THE MACHINE is perhaps one of the most absurdly ridiculous movies ever made, however, that doesn't mean it isn't worth watching. One of the things you will find in my reviews is that when it comes to CYBERTRONIC films, almost anything goes, because you can find something either amusing or fascinating about them, whether they are 'really good' or 'really bad.'

What the hell is this movie really about? A serial killer is smashed up in a car accident and during an MRI scan, he dies, and magically gets transported into

'cyberspace.' Or something like that. It's always a lightening storm that causes these things, you know. The movie has an absolutely B-Movie insane premise,

and it goes with it, because it is, after all a B-Movie. Its fun to watch just how 'wrong' some people get things when it comes to computers and technology and

'the future,' and in this case, while it gets a whole lot wrong--well not just wrong, but so stupidly wrong, its hilarious. With probably some of the dumbest lines in movie history, as well as some of the most absurd scenes, the film still actually manages to say something else about technology...but you must grasp that it was released in 1993...this is before the internet as we know it today, with Google, and Amazon and Paypal, and Facebook, and whatever it currently is as of 2011 existed. Ultimately this movie in its complete lack of understanding of 'the W

eb' and how computers actually work, in fact predicts scenarios now taking place, and that have taken place since this movie came out.

And to what do I refer? Well, in the beginning is a scene

where a kid is tricked by someone with a computer into thinking he's won the lottery... where have you seen that recently, or in the last few years? Its called the 419 scam online. What is interesting about this movie, is that while there were most certainly notorious hackers at the time, and email, and video games, and 'virtual reality' was nothing but a concept really, this movie tries to cram as much commentary on technology as it possibly can, with the serial killer representing every 'bad thing' that 'will happen to us' in the future because of all this technology. The movie on one level is one of the funniest bad movies you'll ever see, and on a whole other level it is about that terrible person or force out there that can wreck your life all because you are so dependent on technology. The more connected everything becomes to computers and the internet, the more this movie becomes absolutely possible...well ....sort of.

This movie predicts the 'cyber stalker' long before Myspace trolls, it conceives of the idea that a BIG BROTHER out there will have the ability to track everything you do,

where you are, and use your cellphone to do it...and cancel your credit cards and

destroy your life, maybe even kill your friends. The serial killer does this by somehow moving through phone lines, and 'the internet,' this is a movie where the modems still operate by connecting your actual phone receiver to a box. He also moves through electrical cables, power lines, and anything electrical. Basically, if you're 'connected' to civilization, he'll come get you. A lot of the things he does with 'the web' weren't really possible at the time, at least in the sense of using nothing BUT a computer, it would have taken a Kevin Mitnick with access to land line phones, a dozen aliases, a car, and a good imagination to con people all over to get you the information, or give you access to their computers, not EVERYTHING was connected back then. Here this cybernatural serial killer is able to cross power lines into your microwave to make it explode, and electricute the baby sitter. What 'the Ghost in the Machine' was then, Homeland Security or Private Contractors are now, and the only hackers we see now are people like Julian Assange, whose credit cards and accounts can all be cancelled by BIG BROTHER. Our hero in this film, which really puts it on the CYBERTRONIC movies list, is of course, an 'ex-hacker' who fucked with some IRS computers 'back in the day.'

What is really amusing about this movie is that it manages to touch upon all of these technological issues, from cyberporn to virtual reality, to the dangers of electromagnetism, etc, all in the course of the most basic horror movie plot you can imagine, in the best way a horror B-Movie can, by exaggeration of the terrors it will all one day cause...and they were right...the horrors in this movie, though you laugh at them, are all very present here today, without the cyber-serial killer.

The devious 'slasher' of this movie just happens to live inside a computer...instead of your dreams. Its all pretty damn silly, and as the narrative of this movie moves forward, you can tell, they're not taking it that seriously. It has some really neat effects, probably even for the time they made it, and it does indeed have a recognizable star with Karen Allen, from Raiders of the Lost Ark, who actually does a pretty decent acting performance in it. She plays it straight while comedians around her ham it up. Once again, we refer you to the "New" Outer Limits series as a 'baseline' conceptual media in which to grasp just how a lot of these movies work. A low budget show which explored ideas exactly like this movie can prepare you to enjoy movies like this. Not every movie can be a Blade Runner or a Matrix, and thankfully enough sometimes the studios make mistakes like this one. I can imagine some executive saying, 'hey its virtual reality, thats big right now, and throw in Freddy Krueger, and it'll be a hit.' This is what this movie pretty much adds up to, only with it, you get what really amounts to an extended Outer Limits episode, as are a lot of the films I review on this site. Believe me, I'll let you know if I absolutely hated a movie and denounce it like the plague that it is, this is not one of those movies. They're not for everyone, but if you have a bit of a demented sense of humor, or a demented sense of irony, or you simply can be amused by just how silly and impossibly ridiculous some movies can be, this is a 'must see!' Cult classic? Perhaps it really is in the end, if you're into CYBERTRONIC films for the same reasons I am, you'll be delighted with this god-awful film, it surely made me laugh, and what more can you ask for?