User reviews

Firstly, for a totally Independent and VERY Low-Budget film, they did a great job in putting it together. If you are the kind of person who likes these kinds of films, say like Full Moon's 'ARCADE' (which this one is FAR more polished) or 'THE LAWNMOWER MAN' (although this one here is WAAAAAAAY simpler and cost about 1% as much) then you should find this entertaining.

The point is, is the film made well with what they had? Is the acting decent? Is the script and direction okay? If so, then you have a decent, entertaining film that does PRECISELY what it is supposed to do. I really liked the way it ended too; nice touch...

If you like these kinds of films and you go in realizing that this is just a VERY simple Low-Budget Sci Fi Thriller, and you are NOT expecting ultra-realism and as I am always saying, if you have a good imagination and can easily suspend disbelief, and you don't mind a few Phantastical elements thrown in, then you should enjoy it. Believe me... there are TONS of horrible, lousy, and EXTREMELY Painful Sci fi / Horror films out there (just check out the Syfy channel. Or better yet, DON'T... :)

Definitely a strong '6'...

A couple of computer scientists working with the army borrow their expensive experimental computer equipment to map out a haunted prison, that was secretly used to torture terrorists to death, so they can create an authentic environment to play a virtual reality first person shooter with their stoner buddies. Turns out the prison was haunted by the vengeful spirit of a cyber- terrorist who died there. She hacks into their game system leading to exciting adventures for our plucky band of heroes.

The atmosphere of the prison is excellent, I assume it is a prison in Northern Ireland. Rachael Taylor, playing an army private, love interest and experimental subject really stood amongst the acting performances. The others were playing such very thinly written characters that we learn almost nothing about any of them. Perhaps all the other characters were merely game characters and the whole film takes place in a virtual reality game she has been playing from the start.

The story seems very similar to other films and it really pales in comparison to some of those. The ghost was okay and I suppose the CGI gore is really to be expected in the context of the film. Some of the early action sequences really do capture the authentic feel of the first person shooter games.

If it weren't for the language and gore, this would look just like your typical SyFy channel movie of the week. The plot (described elsewhere on this site) is hackneyed and uninspired. The ending is particularly predictable.

Don't get me wrong, the film is at least competent, it's just that the producers didn't have the talent, budget, or script to produce anything impressive.

Adding to the distaste is the political slant of the director and writer(s). You know...all noncommissioned officers are sex perverts and sadists, acting openly to molest female enlisted personnel and torture prisoners to death; each female soldier is worth ten male soldiers due to her commitment to having to "prove" herself throughout her military career; and the government routinely captures and tortures female terrorists, which would be a bad thing even if they are in fact murderous bitches, but it might be a good thing, too....who knows?

What it boils down to for me is that this film is made with some skill, but I never cared about what was happening to the characters. This is in direct opposition to some other films that are made rather poorly, but which have compelling characters and a decent story.

Choose this one if you don't bore easily.

All I knew about "Ghost Machine" prior to sitting down to watch it was that it was allegedly a horror movie.

But it turned out to be a very boring horror movie, and with little emphasis on the horror part.

I managed to endure 45 minutes of the ordeal that turned out to be "Ghost Machine", before I threw in the towel and gave up. I must admit that I gave up out of sheer and utter boredom. There was just nothing interesting the entire 45 minutes that I watched, and nothing to spur me to watch the rest of the movie now.

It should be said that they actually had adequate production value to the movie. Just a shame that the movie was killed off by having a horribly boring storyline that offered nothing of any interest. And it is the production value alone that manages to ensure that I am rating the movie three out of ten stars.

The acting in the movie, well for the 45 minutes that I managed to sit through, was adequate although not anything in the outstanding department.

"Ghost Machine" came and left without leaving a lasting impression, and I can't recommend that you waste your time or money on this.

This is hands down, one of the worst movies I've seen in recent history. At the heart of its failure is the lack of character development. You are given less than 5 minutes to meet each character and then given a crash course in their personality. You are then thrust wildly into the main story. Any "relationships" between characters are developed over a few lines of dialog; this is barely enough that you don't wonder why these total strangers are hanging out together.

The plot, even for a sci-fi horror movie is laughable. While the general premise was interesting, it wasn't developed sufficiently. The progress through the story required the characters to discuss what just happened with each other, so you (the viewer) could figure out what just happened.

The most enjoyment I got out of this movie was when the screen went black and the credits finally rolled.

Just watched "Ghost Machine" with a few friends (all nerds) and I actually quite enjoyed it. It had some weak points but overall was a interesting and enjoyable movie.

But if you don't like sci-fi and horror combined - stay far away from this one. The horror elements are not that scary and the sci-fi is not that convincing. But my friends and I still enjoyed it - especially because of of a lot of action/soldier/cool moments.

So, yeah. Objective it's not that good a movie - but I still enjoyed it. So watch it with a few friends (and preferable some beer) and you will have a good time.

The basic plot: a group of soldiers and their gamer buddies play a haunted video game, where if you die in the game, you die for real.

I didn't have high expectations for a movie titled Ghost Machine, and, when I read the synopsis, I lowered my expectations even further. If all you're looking for is a cheesy, derivative movie that looks like a video game, then I'm sure you'll be satisfied. Otherwise, I'd say you should avoid it, because it's only going to annoy you.

The writing was a bit stupid, but any bad writing was dwarfed by the monumentally bad idea of a haunted video game. The acting and special effects were alright. There's a bit of gore, titillation, implied torture, and an attempted rape. If the story had focused on these elements, instead of recreating a generic console game, maybe this would have been a better movie... but I kind of doubt it.

I watched it last night on Netflix instant streaming. Acting was good and I like watching Rachel Taylor, but script was too much like the Matrix. There is a software and you get plugged in and live in a virtual world, but there is a creepy woman who was abused and want to kill everyone. We don't know anything about her except she was a terrorist and was sexually abused by a sleezy top rank officer. So now she wants revenge. Cinematography was very good and so was music, but script was just so average. Same gun toting military search for a bad person and one by one they get killed. I've seen it so many times before. well, if you have absolutely nothing else to watch, then this movie would suffice, but look for something else first, unless like me, you wanted to see Rachel Taylor.

I'm not going to totally dismiss this box office dud as "bad," because I find it quite engaging, in a guilty pleasure sense. This is one of those films that is so flagrantly horrible that it's actually good. You can watch it on a Saturday night with a group of buddies and laugh your butt off. All in all, not an awful movie. If you end up watching this, you will probably be like me in saying that it starts off great then gradually begins to suck. Holds the attention but demands complete suspension of logic. This is one of those movies that had bad timing when it came to its release. This film really has no good merits, pretty much at all.

If you believe the box, this film is about a group of young American soldiers who use a video game simulator to have a little fun before encountering a ghost in the machine, quite literally. Of course, if you are paying attention, you'll quickly notice the soldiers speak with accents and drive on the wrong side of the road. As the film is an Irish one, I suspect the cadets are meant to be Irish, not American. Beyond that, it's about right.

I watched this one with two associates and cheap vodka filtered to make it taste better, though I am not a fan of vodka. The primarily chick was mildly attractive, which I appreciate, but beyond that I think we should look at the words of the critics (besides myself). Here's three samples: "If you have seen Doom, Stay Alive, Death Row, Gamer, etc., etc., ad nauseam, you have seen Ghost Machine. There are some cringe-inducing moments of violence, I'll give it that. And Rachel Taylor makes the movie watchable for awhile, but even she can't save it from the murky camera work, hackneyed storyline, and gawdawful CGI." ... "The horror elements are not that scary and the sci-fi is not that convincing." ... "This is hands down, one of the worst movies I've seen in recent history... The most enjoyment I got out of this movie was when the screen went black and the credits finally rolled." Well, they said it better than I could. Rachael Taylor good, CGI and plot bad. If you feel the need to rent this one, be sure to be plenty drunk or something, because it probably won't hold your attention. I find that it picks up after a while, but we are given many parts where it drops down again and no reason to care about the characters... whose names I already forgot, though I think the guy who looks like Tom Cruise is named Tom.

This story is a beauty. Don't pay attention to the cheesy art cover.

Some of the characters are formula. And some are not. And the Story itself may seem to be formulaic-- but it's slightly skewed in a different direction. Some good Thought went into this script.

And as for the ghost. . .the beauty of this flick is how your feelings will shift from one direction to another. Stupidity, Pride and Viciousness all end up paying a satisfying price.

And the Horror is not in the Blood Spatters-- but the twisty discomfort that comes from watching torture. No-- nothing a la 'Saw', but uncomfortable just the same.

This movie isn't produced cheaply either. It's a satisfying Saturday Nite Flick. Get the popcorn ready!

i think I've made it plain that I found Ghost Machine to be as stock and uninspired as its title, but about a half an hour in, there are some cool death scenes. I was encouraged, thinking maybe the film would rally and keep up a good pace. Unfortunately, that was not the case.

If you have seen Doom, Stay Alive, Death Row, Gamer, etc., etc., ad nauseam, you have seen Ghost Machine. There are some cringe-inducing moments of violence, I'll give it that. And Rachel Taylor makes the movie watchable for awhile, but even she can't save it from the murky camera work, hackneyed storyline, and gawdawful CGI. (as my friend stacilayne told me its a simple waste of time indeed.)

I've learned there are few things more annoying than German horror films (when they're made in English, anyway). But this low budget affair isn't much better. I suppose I should give it some credit...usually it takes four or five awful sequels for a horror movie to put it's killer into a computer (or space...that works too). For proof of this see: Hellraiser and/or Friday The 13th. Some movies attempt to skip right over this and pretty much universally fail. See also: Lawnmower Man. The Brits are no different, as this movie trips right out of the gate and falls so far back it has no chance.

I'll spare you any detailed plot...it doesn't matter and by the end of the film you likely won't care. It's basically a story about a VR simulation program with a ghost who offs characters who then die in real life. If whomever wrote this isn't a hack, I defy you to show me a person that is. What follows is a bunch of horribly improbable situations that offer no other purpose than to kill another character (improbable even considering the film's subject matter) and a bunch of nonsense about catching a ghost in a computer. The actors do their parts just fine so you can't fault them...it's just a bad story, bad execution, and bad conceptualization. Really, it's just plain bad.

Lamentably banal, metallic straight-to-DVD horror sci-fi outing which sees modern technology connecting with a revengeful spirit. Adeptly made with a certain slickness, but the commonplace story is quite ho-hum, as "The Matrix" meets "Stay Alive" or like somebody already mentioned "The Ring", but it comes off very second-rate in most departments. Uninterested performances with Rachel Taylor, Luke Ford and Sean Faris don't help much either. Richard Dormer is your stereotypical officer with a mean-streak. A couple of army computer experts and some gamer friends take some very high-tech software equipment and set it up in an abandon prison to kick back and have some fun smoking weed while creating a virtual war. However an evil entity (a woman computer hacker terrorist) lurks within the confinements and infiltrates the game's network, putting the lives of the gamers at risk. The premise is workable but the execution of it is lazy and repetitive. Many awkward exchanges, cheap predictable jolts, cheesy special effects and a flat pace. The choice of setting though, creates a foreboding presence. Boring, run-of-the-mill cyber Sci-fi Horror where if you end up dead, you're really dead.

Just saw this old title. Though story idea is good and really inspired by 'Matrix', the presentation is very poor and direction is hopeless. 3 of 4 th movie is tedious and nothing happens to chill you, only last 5 minutes story goes high with too thrills when ghost covers all their brains who tried her to wake up from past. Acting is just okay not any impressive, I sometimes feeling them horrible. Movie could have better if they work hard on script and direction.

(2009) Ghost Machine HORROR/ SCIENCE- FICTION

Another very low budget "Tron" or "Gamer" type of film but with the only difference that it's a horror spin-off which involves virtual game playing in the computer system or another where the users can input nonexistent characters created by the computer by the user on a keyboard while duking it out with actual players wearing virtual helmets! Very boring since the beginning consists of a lot of verbal dialogue which viewers should've already be aware about from the movies mentioned above and are already better. The movie is quite bad when they're better.

Surprisingly good for a low budget horror believable cast and interesting tech story will definitely recommend it to my friends who are both gamers and horror fans.

In an age where gore and cheap copies seem to be the mainstay where special effects and big names are all that seem to matter, this film was well paced and enjoyable.

It was also nice to have a film that didn't believe it needed to be two plus hours long.

If you want a horror film that caters to both gamers and fans of the genre and you can take it for what it is British indie horror movie then I hope like me you will enjoy watching.

Will definitely be keeping an eye on the people who made this.

This film has very few faults. The special effects were absolutely top notch, the acting was very good and the plot, with some exceptions, was brilliantly written. The eventual reveal and "Ah-ha!" moments were slightly less slick than the special effects, but it took nothing away from the enjoyment of the film. It presents a view of the future of warfare that, while fantastical, is a great thought experiment and it augments that with some really creepy horror. Think The Ring meets The Matrix. The antagonist is brilliantly done and works on many different levels of suspense and horror. This film does so much right that I would put it up there with any of the major horror/suspense/sci-fi films released in the last 10 years. I don't think you'll be very disappointed.

-anberlinrulez

Great movie! Really enjoyed this one. A.cool twist on the supernatural horror genre. A bit of Sci Fi as well.

When a group of military advisers sneaks into an abandoned prison to test an experimental virtual reality combat simulator, they find a vengeful ghost has infiltrated the software looking for revenge against one of them for how it came to be a ghost and must stop it before they become victims of its wrath.

This was a pretty enjoyable effort that has some pretty decent things about it and a lot more than would be expected for such a film. Among its better features here is that the atmosphere here is incredibly well-done, using an abandoned prison which is filled with disused equipment, dust-covered surfaces and long, dark hallways that are nicely done to maximize the creepy factor. The use of modern technology with their equipment and simulation machines against this background is a fine contrast with a nice air to it. That makes it quite fun once the ghost gets involved as it's got a lot more to like about it there. The film never really lags so it's got some pretty decent action to keep it interesting. Not only are the war-games fun and action-packed but the scenes with the ghost taking out the swarms of game soldiers or the squad themselves all make this one really enjoyable. That the ghost can manipulate the scenery to change the location on victims is immensely creepy and combined with the backstory and generally original feel of the plot here make for a good time. This one does have a few issues with it. The main problem here is the final half, which is totally out-of-place. The background revelation and allegiance shifts end up missing a lot of the impact they should've had considering storyline developments that are brought up. Hardly any of it makes logical sense as to how they react to what's going on really miss what could've been a great punch to what's going on, which is mainly through the writing which leaves motives totally lifeless, shallow and the ending as a whole pretty weak. The other problem here is the film's rather tame kills, which while dished out in the virtual world allow the CGI gore to be truthful and realistic, leaves a lot to be desired. Most of the gore is left to the simulated soldiers but aren't used for the main characters at all who are generally brutality tortured but fully killed off in bloodless means and leave their deaths feeling rather shallow and empty. Otherwise, this one wasn't all that bad.

Rated R: Graphic Language, Graphic Violence, Brief Nudity and mild drug use.

GHOST MACHINE offers established, notable international Film Stars and younger, up-and-coming ones. WATCH the entire Film before writing "this off".

Cons: *the lower-end budget *disturbing context *beginning has shaky-cam thing (yet this is only at start)

PROS: *U.K./Irish Film (yet with accents and dialog all American Viewers will be to comprehend) *young(er) stars, especially Rachael Taylor who's character/acting shines through the more she is on screen *dark, macabre locale *similar to Thirteen Ghosts (2001) in the CREEPY Factor and in ways which you will find out!