AS YOU ALWAYS knew it would, the psycho-killer sub-genre has
gone high-tech with the release of Ghost in the Machine. And
yet, some things never change. It is, after all, that hoary old plot
device, the Bolt from the Blue, that sets things in motion.
Specifically, it's a bolt from an electrical storm that affects a
hospital's MRI machine. It happens that the shattered body being
scanned belongs to a computer repairman (Ted Marcoux), who
spends his off-hours butchering innocent families. He crashed his
car on the way to the home of his next victims, a divorcee
(Karen Allen) and her rap-loving, computer-hacking teenaged son
(Wil Horneff).
The storm causes a power surge in the MRI machine sending the
killer's internal atoms into the city's electrical circuitry and computer
systems. Legally he's dead but he's now an interfacing psycho: If
you can plug it in, he can kill you with it. Sticking to his original plan,
he goes after Allen by messing up her bank account, drowning her
dog, harassing her son and microwaving her boss. It's up to a
super hacker (Chris Mulkey) to try and outwit the killer.
The movie works on a superficial (and not terribly original) level as
a cautionary tale of our overdependence on technology and what
could happen if the machines bite back. There's also a nice little
generational clash woven lightly into the relationship between Allen
and Horneff.
But beyond the premise and the computer-generated special
effects, there's not much extension in imagination or audacity.
Director Rachel Talalay, who also did Freddy's Dead: The Final
Nightmare, brings some of the old Elm Street brio to a few of the
uglier moments. (It'll be hard to face your faithful microwave oven
with the same ardor after you've seen the movie.) But this is
basically a hacker's overheated idea of Grand Guignol suspense. It
leaves you with the same kind of languid light-headedness one gets
after an afternoon wandering a mall, looking, not buying.
Copyright © 1993 Newsday, Inc.