Ghost in the Machine (film)
| Ghost in the Machine | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Rachel Talalay |
| Produced by | Paul Schiff |
| Written by |
William Davies William Osborne |
| Starring |
|
| Music by | Graeme Revell |
| Cinematography | Phil Méheux |
| Edited by |
Janice Hampton Erica Huggins |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
Release date |
|
Running time | 95 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $12 million |
| Box office | $5.1 million[1] |
Ghost in the Machine (also known as Deadly Terror) is a 1993 American science fiction horror film directed by Rachel Talalay and released by 20th Century Fox.
Plot
A serial killer named Karl Hochman (Ted Marcoux) is known as "The Address Book Killer" due to his habit of stealing address books and choosing his victims from them. While he is working at a computer store, he obtains Terry Munroe's (Karen Allen) address book after another employee, who is demonstrating a scanner, copies a page of her address book into the computer. On a rainy night while heading home, Karl suddenly ends up in a collision with a truck, which causes his car to go off the road and swerve down a trail in a cemetery as he laughs. Moments later he dies as police and ambulance arrive at the scene.
In the emergency room he is put into an MRI machine. A surge from an electrical storm manages to transfer his soul into a computer. Now as a network-based entity, Karl continues to plot his killing spree using various objects connected to the electrical grid and computer networks.
Karl opens the scanned page from Terry's address book and begins to kill all the names he finds there. Her co-worker, Frank Mallory (Richard McKenzie), becomes the first victim when he dies in an electrical fire. Another friend, Elliot Kastner (Jack Laufer), gets burned to death when a hand dryer turns into a flamethrower. Terry hires a babysitter, Carol Maibaum (Shevonne Durkin), to look after her son Josh (Wil Horneff). However, Carol becomes the third victim, electrocuted by an exploding dishwasher in the kitchen.
The police do not believe the theory that Karl is on a killing spree after his death, but Josh realizes the order of the killings is related to a list of contacts from Terry's address book. Terry, along with computer hacker Bram Walker (Chris Mulkey), unplugs everything electrical in her house.
The police then receive anonymous reports of an armed robbery, a hostage situation, domestic violence, and a murder in progress, all at Terry's house. The police open fire on the home after mistaking an exploding generator for gunfire. When they realize their mistake, they cease fire. Terry's mother is shot during the siege and goes to the hospital for recovery. Aided by Bram and Terry, Josh manages to defeat Karl by introducing a computer virus that traps him in a physics laboratory. They activate an atom smasher located in the lab, which draws Karl in and destroys him.
The film ends with Bram telling Terry to turn off a heart rate monitor in an ambulance as a signal fades out to black.
Cast
- Karen Allen as Terry Munroe
- Chris Mulkey as Bram Walker
- Ted Marcoux as Karl Hochman
- Wil Horneff as Josh Munroe
- Jessica Walter as Elaine Spencer
- Brandon Adams as Frazer
- Rick Ducommun as Phil Stewart
- Jack Laufer as Elliott Miller
- Shevonne Durkin as Carol Maibaum
- Richard McKenzie as Frank Mallory
- Nancy Fish as Karl's Landlord
- Richard Schiff as Scanner Technician
Production
The film was shot in Los Angeles in color with Dolby SR sound.
Release and reception
During its opening weekend, Ghost in the Machine grossed $1,854,431 and ranked at no. 10.[2] By the end of its run, it had grossed a domestic total of $5,086,909,[3] failing to recoup its $12 million budget.[4] The film was not generally well received by critics; on Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 13% "Rotten" rating, based on 8 reviews.[5]