I should watch more sci-fi horror. The genre has so many great films: “Forbidden Planet”, the “Aliens” franchise, “Blade Runner”, “Event Horizon”, “Strange Days”. And the genre isn’t overdone the way a lot of supernatural or slasher-themed movies are. (Looking at you “Conjuring“ films.)
Yeah, sci-fi horror has a lot of standouts. “Death Machine,” however, is not one of them.
I summoned this one up on Amazon Prime because it looked interesting enough and I was in a mood for an 90s throwback. I was immediately caught off guard by the fact that this thing had an actual plot I would need to pay attention to—something about corporate malfeasance and underground rebels who are trying to fight the elites in a dystopian future. (Isn’t that every one of these films?)
Pretty quickly, we get to the heart of the matter, though. Several characters are trapped in a building with a killer robot (a device that is more jagged teeth and claws than laser beams) and its mad scientist creator. You could think of it as a riff on “Die Hard”, where the heroes need to navigate their way through the floors of a skyscraper with a killer bot on their trail.
The standout actor here is Brad Dorf, who is best known as the voice of the killer doll Chucky. He plays his part with maniacal t impish glee—part Doc Brown from “Back to the Future”, part Pee-wee Herman.
The film doesn’t hide its influences. It’s no coincidence that the female protagonist looks a lot like Ripley from the “Alien” series. And the cyborg suits of armor some characters wear are a nod to “RoboCop”.
Though it’s presumably set in some kind of future, the characters kept referencing 1980s movies like “Scarface” and “The Terminator” and actors like Stallone.
Research online revealed this film was considered so violent that it was banned in some countries. I’m pretty sure I saw an edited version, because it was rather tame, though there was enough gore to keep my blood lust satisfied.
To sum up: not great, but watchable, dumb fun.
Best line: we’re just a caring, humane attack squad.
