Review - Creature Corner
Review by Alex Riviello
Source
Frank is having a bad day.
He wakes up from a blackout to the realization that he's holding a gun pointblank to a man's face in a roomful of dead people. He doesn't know what the hell's going on or why his face is covered in bandages, so he quickly pistol whips the guy he's aiming at and runs off. As he stops by a motel he checks out his injuries, noting that his face is cut up and that chest has a massive scar like an autopsy was performed on him. Even stranger is the fact that his arms aren't his. One of them is from a black man's, and the other is a white man's and is heavily tattooed- with the most prominent one reading SEX MACHINE. He also has a bag filled with more money than you've ever seen in your life.
As he examines himself further he notices a little metal nubbin sticking out of his neck like something from TETSUO. It hurts him to touch it, but he grits his teeth and pulls the metal thing out, amidst splurts of blood. We cut to a computer room, where a group of people are freaking out that they lost the Frank's signal. Something sinister is definitely going on here....
As he starts to unravel his past he travels around looking for things familiar to him. It takes Frank forever to find his way back to his hometown, as all his memories are as jumbled up as his body. The fact that he seems to remember things from all of the people whose parts he's made up of doesn't help things. When he starts to spend the money from the bag he realizes that whoever made him is still after him, and they can trace the cash. They send other mixed-up freaks to eliminate him... leading to Frank's realization that he's been trained to kill. He dispatches his enemies with little effort. After searching for months, he finally finds his home and eventually his former girlfriend, who's a little shocked to see him. For one thing, he's dead. He died in a car accident months ago.
Now, that Frank's back with his ex and best friends, he tries to figure out what else has done to him- while trying to lay low. It's a little hard when you're walking around in Invisible Man-style bandages, but people don't seem to mind. Frank doesn't want his friends to be hurt by whoever's chasing him, but of course his past catches up with him eventually....
Sex Machine is a mishmash of a film, and I mean that in the best way possible. It's not really horror, it's not really action, it's not really comedy. But it takes elements of all of these things. It was made on the cheap (8,000 bucks!) and while it certainly doesn't look like it had a huge budget, it looks like it had a helluva lot more than it did. The soundtrack also helps, being one of the greatest I've listened to in a long time- of any film. It had me bopping my head, working perfectly for the style of movie it is- and it even made me wish for a cd soundtrack. Just great stuff. The effects are also remarkably well done for the budget, and it does have its share of gross-out moments, which are always fun.
The other big plus for the movie is the plot- it's just a really compelling story. The Frankenstein thing hasn't really been decently remixed for a modern audience yet, and setting it admist all this craziness and different styles of film makes for a entertaining time.
Now, unfortunately, I bring you to the bad. One of the worst parts of the movie? The acting. John Howell who plays Frank is thankfully great as the lead, because the movie would've fallen apart without a convincing main character, but the same can't be said for much of the rest of the cast. The bad guys, for instance- man, do they overact. It gets a little painful at times. They're very much comic book styled villains, which I assume is what they were going for, but it does get grating. There's nothing more pitiful than someone trying to act tough when it's obvious your grandmother wouldn't have a hard time beating them off. The other Frankenstein's monster henchmen are better, but underused.
Also, the action scenes are pretty badly done. They lack any sort of excitement to them, and there's no sense of impact or violence... just some poorly choreographed moves taking place. It's a shame, because there's a lot of good ideas here (the Frankenstein's monsters, the bowling ball fight) and it would've made the film that much tighter to have some good fights in it.
Despite this, don't let the few problems deter you from checking out the movie. It's really fun, original, and you're guaranteed to have a good time. This movie shows a lot of promise for director Christopher Sharpe, and I'm really looking forward to what he comes up with next... hopefully with some nontracable money behind it.
7.5 out of 10