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Debuting before uncaring audiences in 1993, director Rachel Talalay's (Tank Girl) Ghost in the Machine is a derivative sci-fi/horror hybrid that adds nothing new to the old 'amok machine' genre that is represented best by director Donald Cammell's Demon Seed. The plot concerns Karl, the 'Address Book Killer,' (the horror!) played by Ted Marcoux (Dark Blue), who is killed in a freak accident and has his ever-living and ever-evil soul transferred directly into the power supply. (Don't even ask.) Karl roams the electric highway, possessing all manner of gadgets and kitchenware, as he stalks lovely Karen Allen and her son.
Director Talalay, run into the wilds of television after this fiasco and the ill-fated Tank Girl, has a nice style. She's appropriated Dario Argento's swooping camera and swirling colors and we get some really nice macro POV shots as Karl makes his way through the machinery. But when it's all style and no substance, the movie quickly bores. The pacing lags, the special effects are decent but stupid and the over-the-top murder set pieces (the guy in the microwave is certainly memorable) are laughable. (You'll certainly never look at automatic pool covers the same way again.) The screenwriting pair of William Davies and William Osborne, who thrilled audiences with Twins, should have known better, but judging from their more recent output, still don't.
First billed Karen Allen, best known for her screechy role in Raiders of the Lost Ark, turns in a 'where the hell has she been?' performance, and her obnoxious son, played by Wil Horneff, is suitably, well, obnoxious.
A reboot is definitely in order here.
