Allow me to get my cane and hobble over to take you on a little trip down memory lane. Back in the magical ‘90s, I would record films off of cable and, those tapes would make it in my regular rotation of movie watching. Some of these titles include Rumpelstiltskin (1995), Pinocchio’s Revenge (1996) and 1993s Ghost in the Machine, as well as another cyber-horror turned cult classic Brainscan (1994). When I got a little older, I would start buying VHSs of my favorite horror movies and later DVDs and now Blu Ray and UHD. But I sometimes think about my random library of horror movies that came courtesy of whatever happened to be HBO or Cinemax. Recently, I noticed that Ghost in the Machine was streaming on HBOMax, and I couldn’t help but be curious how this movie held up after all these years.
As for the film itself, well…, it is not what you would call a masterpiece in horror cinema. The plot is underdeveloped, and the movie is painfully dated. Having said that, damned if I wasn’t totally entertained through the entire lean runtime. Ghost in the Machine is very much a product of its time and a shrine to the strange decade that was the ‘90s. From the fashions, the nostalgic novelty that was computer tech and hip-hop, (Hell, there’s even a moment when a character is watching In Living Color at one point.) For people of a certain age, I suspect this “going-all-in on its time period” will give you the warm nostalgic fuzzies. On a technical level the movie has a nice look to it. Future Bond/BAFTA nominated cinematographer Phil Meheux gives the movie a polish you wouldn’t expect from a movie of its ilk. Not to mention, this has James Spencer. Though not a household name, Spencer was the production designer on such classics as 1982’s Poltergeist not to mention a slew of early Joe Dante films like Innerspace (1987), Gremlins (1984), Gremlins 2 (1990), The ‘Burbs (1989).
For all its failings the movie looks like a $12-million movie, and though the visual effects are laughable by today’s standards, I think they are not the worst, especially being the product of the dawn of CGI. Some of it’s actually really effective. For example, the computer avatar of the main baddie is quite unsettling at times. Speaking of, the film’s serial killer is maybe miscast but is still pretty creepy and played to hammy perfection by Ted Marcoux. Karen Allen does a fine job at playing a former activist and hippy radical now finding herself as a single working mother. Allen brings heart and humor to what could otherwise be a very shallowly written character. Chris Mulkey (Twin Peaks), the late great Jessica Walter (Arrested Development, Archer), Nancy Fish (Exorcist III), Brandon Quintin Adams (People Under the Stairs) and cult icon Rick Ducommun (The Burbs, Groundhogs Day) all make up a stellar supporting cast. I have to give the movie credit for having more depth in its characters than you might expect. Making Karen Allen’s character a former radical is not only interesting but it’s cleverly and organically woven into the narrative.
Re-visiting Ghost in the Machine, I was happy to see that the movie is clearly in on its own joke. Rachel Talalay had a very bloody tongue in-cheek (similar to what she did with the much-hated Freddy’s Dead), and this sense of humor serves the movie very well. Couple this with some very creative kills most of which play out like Rube Goldberg machines (something Final Destination did years later), and I dare you not to have a good time with this temple to ‘90s cheese. Brainscan from 1994 also tried to tap into the cyber-tech zeitgeist. Though I wasn’t able to find the films budget it did manage to only earn over $4 million. Sadly, these cyber-horror films seemed to be just another ‘90s fad but would also morph into the techno-terror genre which still thrives today. I now wonder, had Ghost in the Machine and Brainscan been bigger hits outside of their cult-classic status, would we have had more cheesy, cyber-centric terrors? Ghost in the Machine might be bad, but it’s the right amount of so-bad-it’s-enjoyable and the perfect movie to discover for October. It’s currently streaming on HBO Max and why not give it a watch.
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Big film nerd and TCM Obsessed. Author of The Ultimate Guide to Strange Cinema from Schiffer Publishing. Resume includes: AMC’s The Bite, Scream Magazine etc. Love all kinds of movies and television and have interviewed a wide range of actors, writers, producers and directors. I currently am a regular co-host on the podcast The Humanoids from the Deep Dive and have a second book in the works from Bear Manor.
