Ghost In The Machine (1995) was recommended to me (shout out to Eddie) after I had such a fun time with The Lawnmower Man. They both exist as early 1990s mainstream thrillers that are about fear of technology even as they automatically date themselves with their representation of internet culture through special effects. Here, an uncharismatic serial killer – ‘The Address Book Killer’, who targets happy families, I think, and kills everyone in their address book – gets his soul uploaded to a data network during a freak lightning storm while he’s in an MRI machine. So this killer is now a digital ghost, and he can basically stalk and kill people through the internet and any form of connected technology. “A computer can’t kill you,” someone says – oh yeah, but what about a possessed microwave? Directed by Rachel Talalay who made Freddy’s Dead, there is a Freddy Krueger quality albeit in the special effect set pieces where unsuspecting victims get killed by household machines. There are actually great sequences here that knowingly play with audience expectation and revel in cartoonish and grotesque punchlines. It definitely feels like a precursor to the Final Destination formula, the giddy unveiling of a murder by an invisible force, each shot a set-up of a circumstance and a consequence, ratcheting up the tension knowingly and goofing on audience expectation. Karen Allen is grounded as the single mother who is the target of the techno serial killer. Chris Mulkey (the guy who always plays the third cop in movies and TV shows) is likeable as the middle aged hacker who helps out. The son played by Wil Horneff is hilarious as a representation of bratty 90s cool – no doubt inspired by Edward Furlong in T2 – who is a scam artist with his friend, is very horny around their blonde babysitter, listens to rap music and acts like he’s Vanilla Ice in Cool As Ice. Great to see invaluable supporting players like The Burb’s Rick Ducommun as a bewigged wise cracking boss and Jessica Walter as a proto-Lucille Bluth mother, though both of their appearances are too brief. There are also some great VR sequences and animated detours into the world of the internet, all of which leads to a climax where the killer emerges as a low resolution unstable graphic. Just a pity that the killer was a bit of a black hole, no personality or dimension. Despite this, I had fun. Available to rent or purchase on iTunes. Recommended.
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