Death Machine
Tags: cult, horror, humor, satire, action, revenge, entertaining, sci-fi

Plot synopsis:
In the near future, the controversial megacorporation Chaank Armament is the world's leading manufacturer of cutting-edge weapons and military hardware. Death Machine is set in the near future of 2003. A cybernetically-enhanced supersoldier codenamed Hard Man malfunctions and massacres the patrons of a roadside diner before being deactivated by Chaank security operatives led by John Carpenter. Public outcry ensues following the incident, the majority of it directed at the company's new Chief Executive Hayden Cale.
Chairman of the Board Scott Ridley, fearful of the potential termination of Chaank's contracts due to the bad publicity, tries to cover up the incident and the numerous issues with Hard Man project itself. Cale demands immediate and full public disclosure, having purposely leaked a number of Chaank documents to the press in defiance of Ridley's attempts to suppress knowledge about the company's shadier activities. She also demands that Jack Dante, Chaank's deranged weapons' designer and the developer of Project Hard Man, be fired. Despite Carpenter's acknowledgement of the project's numerous fatal flaws, the board ignores Cale's requests, no one seeming to care about her interests except for Dante himself. Cale is warned by a junior executive about Dante's unstable behavior and about Nicholson, the former's late predecessor. Cale goes to confront Dante, demanding to know about Dante's secret project in Vault 10, for which he never submits progress reports. Far from cooperative, Dante instead threatens Cale, makes unsettling advances towards her and displays detailed knowledge of her living situation, place of residence, and personal information. Cale asks Ridley for help, but he refuses while telling her that Nicholson took a similar interest in Dante's work and was killed in a mysterious accident resembling an animal mauling. During their confrontation, Cale manages to lift Ridley's access card so she can investigate on her own. Dante learns that Cale has the card and confronts Ridley, subsequently killing him with a mysterious weapon.
Meanwhile, a trio of eco-warriors, Raimi, Weyland, and Yutani infiltrate the Chaank headquarters in order to destroy its digitally stored assets and send the company into bankruptcy. Carpenter calls Cale after finding Ridley's mutilated body which had an implanted life-sign transmitter. She investigates and finds out that whatever killed him came from Vault 10. Taking matters into her own hands, she terminates Dante's employment and seals the vault. Dante is about to shoot her when the eco-warriors show up and take everyone hostage. They demand access to the building's secure area in order to destroy the company's digital bonds, but Cale refuses to cooperate. Raimi goes to their alternate plan to cut through the bulkhead leading to the containment area. Dante, sensing his chance, "helps" them by suggesting they cut through one of the vaults surrounding the containment instead, suggesting they start at vault 10.
Once the vault is open, Dante jumps in and activates his invention, called Frontline Morale Destroyer (aka 'Warbeast'), which promptly kills Weyland. Raimi flees, meeting up with Yutani and the subdued Cale and Carpenter. Dante broadcasts his demands over the monitor system, demanding that his employment be reinstated, and that Cale "interface with him on a regular basis".
Raimi and Yutani cancel the operation and attempt to get out of the building, along with Carpenter and Cale. Carpenter is killed by the Warbeast inside of a lift. Later on, Raimi, Yutani and Cale get into the top floor of the building, which holds classified items, whose existence even Cale is unaware of. Among the classified items are the primary components of Project Hard Man, including advanced weaponry and armour. Raimi suits up and downloads the Hard Man data into his brain. Fighting off the Warbeast, he manages to it slow down enough to allow an escape via an outdoor service elevator. Yutani, however, is killed by the Warbeast after tripping and falling in front of it. Once Raimi and Cale make it back to the surface, they have an altercation with a police officer who is quickly killed by the Warbeast as it falls from the rooftop. It chases Cale and Raimi back into the building, and the former use to partially incapacitate the Warbeast; however the explosion knocks out Raimi. The machine takes Cale back to Dante. During their conversation, Raimi regains consciousness and subdues Dante. The two escape, and Hayden seals Dante inside of the vault with the Warbeast.

Review: While the surface of the film is a long-corridor (Aliens) horror movie, what lies beneath is sort of a manic, director-oriented comedy that reminds me more of Evil Dead 2 than anything else.
It's a satire subtle enough to pass as just another bad horror movie, if you're not paying attention.Brad Dourif (who was B-B-B-B-Billy Buh-Bibbit, a long time ago, and the voice of Chucky-- and might become a little more prevalent in film after being in the upcoming Lord Of The Rings trilogy) is the great shining spot in this film, and alternates from acting well (check out his outpouring at the end) to completely terrible (awful references to hacking...
When people ask "What are some good straight to video horrors?", Death Machine is usually top of my list.
Its a great blend of sci-fi/horror that borrows heavily from others but still emerges as a cool flick nonetheless.The simplified plot leaves some good guys (and gal) trying to stay alive in a sealed corporate skyscraper, while being hunted by a robot controlled by the fantastically OTT Brad Dourif.
She is joined by a couple of would-be terrorists - Martin McDougall and John Sharian (who some may recognize from his role in The Machinist).The plot is good, if a little far-fetched (hey I did say this was sci-fi/horror), and director Stephen Norrington skillfully constructs an effective sense of fear with tongue-in-cheek humor, which belies this being his first time at the helm (he would later go on to direct Blade and the less-than-stellar The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen).The effects are very good for what must have been a small budget, and the robot (which is reminiscent of a alien/terminator hybrid) is well designed.There are "strong influences" from movies such as Universal Soldier, Alien and Hardware...and most of the death scenes are quite vicious, though its not really that gory.
Also many of the characters are named after horror directors - John Carpenter, Sam Raimi, Scott Ridley etc - not so much as a wink to them but rather a 10 foot neon sign - but it kinda adds to the charm.Final word goes out to Mr Dourif, who steals every scene he is in.
I have a feeling Norrington just let Dourif go wild in the role.TTKK's Bottomline - If you like sci-fi/horror mixed with a bit of cheese and some laughs, you can't go wrong with Death Machine.
It takes quite a while for any real action to start, the beginning instead being used for interesting plot and character development sequences.Brad Dourif does one of the most wonderful acting performances of his life here as the child-like psychotic genius Jack Dante who develops the ultimate killing machine.
There ARE some fairly bloody moments but I don't think this film really deserves the 18 certificate, I've seen worse in 15-rated movies.The film remains constantly engaging, has strong actors all round and is directed very well.
A great script with quite a lot of comedy moments sets this film apart from other low-budget sci-fi horror movies.
Death Machine; even though the name sounds trashy, the movie itself is not.It's about a company, named Chaank Armaments, which does all sorts of experiments, including testing 'techniques' on babies.
I have to admit, I only rented the movie because it starred Brad Dourif, which I think is a brilliant actor.
Watching this little movie after a decade or more , gave me the creeps again , still fresh , original , where the talent and actors' dedication , attention to detail , and the story count , and another proof that young directors must learn their ropes from the scratch ,and not from a 100 - million budget hand-outs , that turn their product into mush and the material to eternally laugh about!
The movie is based on the shenanigans of a large weapons manufacturer corporation called Chaank, which has been accused of using children to produce super warriors and their new executive appointee , brilliantly portrayed by a little known E.Pouget with a tiny personal secret, who is determined to find out what exactly ' s been happening in the bowels of the beast , under the leadership of a brilliant young prodigy appropriately named J.Dante , played by B.Douriff ,and you have got to see this character , a sort of post-punk hippie with dreadlocks and an insatiable appetite for porn in all forms, who has secretly devised an ugly gadget ,and then the whole business gets very nasty , when every access and door is hermetically sealed,and the Dante guy sets a few conditions ,the most important being ' to interface ' with his unrequited blond obsession, or else the beast will get you !
Set in the future, this film turns out a top performance from Brad Dourif, who plays a psycho-pathic weapons designer whose latest creation, the DEATH MACHINE is put into action when Brad resents a colleagues promotion, and engages maximum overdrive in the schizo department.The film maintains a good pace throughout.
and the fluid motion of the robot especially, is what makes the film appealing, with a very strong performance from Brad Dourif thrown in for good measure.This is definately a guys movie, even though the heroine comes no-where near to romping around a commercial cargo vessel in panties and a tight T-shirt!.
At first the only reason I wanted to watch the movie was to see Brad Dourif who plays Jack Dante but when I saw it,it was so much better then I thought it would be,and not just because of Brad Dourif but because of the creativity of how the movie was made and the acting wasn't a total waste but all in all the movie was really good.....
(Maybe "War Beast" would have been better?) And so I think it's the cheapness of the cinematography - it didn't look professionally made - that weakened this otherwise good movie.Kudos to the writer/director: Stephen Norrington Zafoid.
The story takes place sometime in the distance future, where a corrupt weapons corporation has come under fire for the deaths of several people when one of its killer robots malfunctions and goes rouge.
But she soon gets more than she bargained for when she crosses swords with the person who really calls the shots, eccentric and psychotic weapons designer Jack Dante (played by the voice of Chucky himself, Brad Dourif).
So if any of this sounds to your liking, give "Death Machine" a try; if your someone who likes cheesy but good flicks, you won't regret it..
Direct homages are paid to off-beat directors who frequently use comedy to liven up sci fi and horror stories - There are major supporting characters named Sam Raimi, John Carpenter and Scott Ridley.
This was, and it was a nice surprise for a dollar, and it was what "Hardware" should have been.Without giving away too much of the story, it is about a war weapons development corporation that has a renegade inventor who builds a killer robot called the Warbeast.
Brad Dourif is my favorite actor I saw him in alien 4 and lord of the rings not knowing who he was, then a friend told me to watch child's play.
Death Machine is one of, if not THE greatest B movie of all time.
The movie does wear out its welcome by the time the final act starts.The Death Machine, aka the WarBeast, didn't set well with me.
The Dante character would've come across as incredibly lame in the hands of a lesser actor, but Dourif gives Dante a very unique aura of childish menace and pulls off one one the performances and creating probably the best character in the film.Pouget is fun as Cale, constantly bouncing her chivarlous and noble comments off the demented Dante.
which is weird, sad, and entertaining at the same time and well, you have to see the film to understand.If material has to be 100% believable for you to like a movie .
5.- This movie alone should prove once and for all that Stephen Norrington is more than just another special-effects guy turned to film director (even though they say he hates this movie...) "We are talking Geraldo!".
Demented inventor Jack Dante (Brad Dourif) is busy building terror weapons for the amoral Chaank Armaments corporation.
Sure, they have printers the size of an oven and speaking computers that sound like a female Stephen Hawking but most of the technology on show looks credible for a near-future setting.The casting is spot on, Brad Dourif is highly entertaining as the nutcase genius and the rest of the cast are pretty good too.
I first saw DEATH MACHINE, back when it came out on VHS, I never thought to much about it other than it was okay, not to long ago I found it on DVD and figured why not buy it and add it to my old film collection, so I did and of course I watched it expecting it to be dated which it was, but I actually had more fun watching it now than when I first saw it VHS, because in way it was refreshing to see a film that wasn't overblown with today's CGI effects, and the cast were really into their characters you just couldn't help but actually go along for the ride.The film also featured a lot of likable characters, such as Hayden Cale the strong female executive, Sam Raimi the leader of the small band of humanitarians on a mission, Yutani, crazier than a loony toon and obsessed with street fighter, and the other good quality about this film is that the characters all have distinctive personalities, unlike a lot of other films where characters tend to feel one dimensional especially with films in the same genre.Overall, it was a fun trip down memory lane and is a film that I enjoy more now than I did before..
It is amusing to see that Brad Dourif appeared in Alien: Resurrection after he did this piece, but it certainly is a world away from his more recent role in Lord of the Rings.I'd say this is a casual beer and pizza movie..
good for a laugh especially if you are a movie buff or like cheesy stuff.
That said, he achieves a pretty good "futuristic" feel on a B level budget, and whatever "Death Machine" lacks in originality is compensated for by the fast pace and the sheer intensity on display.
The Warbeast in particular is a cool antagonist of sorts, and Norrington makes it most effective when we get partial looks at the thing.Matching the Warbeast for absolute ferocity is the great character actor Dourif, one of those thespians often at their best when allowed to utterly devour the scenery.
Look for Rachel Weisz ("The Mummy" '99) in her film debut as a "junior executive".Norringtons' in-jokes range from the obvious (giving characters names like "John Carpenter", "Sam Raimi", and "Scott Ridley") to slightly less obvious (the character names Weyland and Yutani, "Weyland-Yutani" being the name of the evil corporation in the "Alien" franchise).While reminiscent of earlier films in the sci-fi / horror genres, "Death Machine" is still a decent example of this sort of thing.Seven out of 10..
^^All in all, "Death Machine" is, if not a gem of a B-movie, at least a solid performer for friends of the genre.
Like A Sam Raimi Film Only Not. Death Machine is your standard "trapped in a building with some evil $#!+head lurking about trying to kill us" cliche.
Good sci fi horror action film..
Stephen Norrington's Death Machine whips up a knowing, near meta grind-house schlocker that harvests names, ideas and actors from other well know horror classics and churns out a wonderful little pastiche that's clearly in love with every project influencing it, as well as the genre.
Scott Ridley (The always maniacal Richard Brake), Sam Raimi (The Machinist's master of everything unsettling, John Sharian) John Carpenter (William Hootkins) and even a pair of characters called Weyland and Yutani, all references are here and they're not subtle whatsoever, part of the film's charm.
They created the perfect sci-fi/horror B-movie.Production and entertainment value at it best, considering the low budget (6M).
A good mix of humor, one-liners, non-stop homages and hidden details makes it fun to re-watch, but you will need a little movie knowledge.Make sure to see the full version (128min)..
What I WILL say is that there is a significant difference between the 99 minute cut out on DVD and the 128 minute cut that is only available on a long OOP Japanese laserdisc and a long OOP German DVD (which looks fantastic, but has no English audio).Regardless, there is a significant plot point that literally links the main character to the Death Machine (which I won't spoil), and among all of the other cuts and edits this makes for a better movie.PS: keep an eye out for "Porkins"..
This movie has some real suspense, as the evil machine thing looks dangerous, well animated and FAST; on the other hand it has some absolutely hilarious laugh-out-loud moments, especially in the "Terminator"-style HUD display shots later in the movie.
Brad Dourif has made some pretty strange movies, but none as grievously annoying as "Death Machine".
"Death Machine" was actually a nice surprise of a movie.
Sure it is a spoof on movies such a "Robocop", "Aliens", "Terminator", "Die Hard" and movies in that caliber, but it was so much fun to watch.The story in "Death Machine" is about Jack Dante who works at a big corporation, who unleash a killing machine that he has been working on in secret after he becomes fired from his job.
And it is up to a small group of people to stand up to this ultimate killer and stop it before it kills them."Death Machine" was loads of fun to watch because it was so cheesy and campy.
It was hilarious.Take a look at the names of the people in the movie; John Carpenter, Weyland, Yutani, Scott Ridley, etc.
It should be said, that the movie was being carried by Brad Dourif who played Jack Dante."Death Machine" has a lot of action and actually have a good amount of entertainment value.
I was thoroughly entertained by the movie and must say that it was actually a great homage to various movies over the years.If you haven't seen "Death Machine" yet, get to it.
δ. Attractive but dim exec (Ely Pouget) has to fight against a fruitcake mad scientist/ computer genius (Brad Dourif) who has just built "death machine", a nine-foot-tall, fanged robotic creature which senses fear, and goes chomping through the high tech HQ after its creator is fired.
A trio of cyberpunk computer hackers breaks into the building the same night "death machine" is unleashed, and end up running for their lives and fighting it also, and also to give the film a higher body count and a couple more plot complications.Robotic "death machine" creature looks effective, and its fall from the side of the building was done fairly well, but it takes too long for it to be introduced into the plot, and after it is,it disappears for too much time to really keep the momentum going all the way through, which keeps this cyberpunk slasher from being as much fun as it might have been.
It for most part makes "Death Machine" a pretty fun movie to watch but it also doesn't exactly surpasses the level of average.The script, the effects, the acting, it's all being pretty average.
Who knows) break into the corporate headquarters to conduct a little merry mischief making, but instead get caught up in Dourif's sour revenge, in the form of a cybernetic killing machine, aptly called the 'war beast'.To Norrington's credit, the film visually well done.
The film exists in a sci-fi world that is tragically underdeveloped, the characters as 2D as they come, and the plotting lacks any kind of good twist or sense of purpose.
He's quirky, but he does his best to win her heart with a great sense of humor, trys to earn her trust.- Then Scott trys to arrange to get Hayden killed, so Jack takes the creep out with his death machine.
In the last scene, we think Jack is killed by his own death machine, but he couldn't have been..
On watching Death Machine, I had no real idea what to expect other than a Sci-Fi movie.
Death Machine is an efficient, exciting slice of sci-fi action, with more or less everything one looks for in the genre.The first thing that hits with this movie is the look.
Main players Ely Pouget and Brad Dourif (a personal favourite) turn in performances of a calibre rarely seen in the cinema, let alone a straight to video title, both more watchable than any Hollywood star or starlet I can think of.
With the score, the camera and the fast cuts, this creates are very nice atmosphere that lets you fear for characters and celebrate Dante whenever you see him.All in all this is a really great movie, that you should already just watch, if you are a fan of Dourif in any way, or if you are into horror at all..
I like this movie, I think Brad Dourif is great at being the insane villain type.
People are running, being chased by a killer robot, are hurt by it, but they do not seem to troubled by that, besides limping a bit, and of course the female CEO is the leading character of this movie, and cannot be killed, i.e. survives every attack, explosion, you name it.
The movie takes place in 2023 in a cyberpunk type future that Blade Runner paved the way for.The story follows Hayden Cale, played by Ely Pouget, who is the CEO of Chaank Industries.
The creator of the machine is Jack Dante played by Brad Dourif.
The one character I thought was a lot of fun is Brad Dourif's character Dante.