Adam Schultz I find it frustrating that so often truly great independent genre films are poorly reviewed on IMDb or Amazon because they fail to follow the genre conventions established in Hollywood films.For example, if "horror" to you means violence, blood, and gore--especially torture, rape, and exploding genitalia--then this film is not a horror movie. Similarly, if "sci-fi" to you means aliens, patriotic/ military subtext, and tentacle sex, then this film utterly fails as a science fiction film. Finally, if by character development or depth you mean something like protagonist A starts out as a good guy but eventually eats kittens or love interest B starts out as the girl-next-door but is revealed to be an S&M dominatrix by the third reel, then these characters are neither very well developed or sufficiently deep. However, while there is nothing wrong with people making or enjoying popcorn-munching, lowest-common-denominator genre films, there is another way to make great, entertaining films.Phasma Ex Machina takes that other approach delivering believable responses from believable characters to unbelievable events. Suspend your disbelief and ask yourself if you'd really want the love of your life returned from the dead or your grand-daughter resurrected after twenty years? Ghost from the Machine succeeds in exploring how real people might learn real answers to these and other questions without descending into moralizing or allegory. Similarly, it succeeds in being genuinely creepy--and even frightening--without resorting to fake blood and orchestration-based jump scares. The film succeeds at these goals largely because its actors and locations aren't the usual Hollywood caricatures. The relationships depicted might strike us as underdeveloped or thin specifically in that they resist any attempts to hit us over the head with their supposed "depth." The events seem real even while the premise is spectacularly unlikely precisely because these characters inhabit a believable universe not dissimilar to our own.Yes, the sex scene is awkward to the point of making us look away, but much like The Sessions (2012), it is so because it lacks the normal Hollywood glitter and slickness. Yes, the machine is merely a macguffin that occasions an exploration of real loss and tragedy. Yes, the inclusion of the former-pedophile-who-ran-a-daycare--and just happens to have lived in your house--subplot seems to push the limits of coincidence. However, even this can be overlooked if you are willing to admit that every house has probably had somebody distasteful living in it at some time or another in the past. If you want to be genuinely frightened, abandon your tinsel-town preconceptions and check out this great film.

Matt Kracht For a low budget, independent movie from an inexperienced director/writer, I thought this was actually pretty enjoyable. The plot is a bit of a rehash of the old mad scientist trope, but this time the mad scientist is a young adult who can't let go of his dead parents. Feeling guilty and responsible for their deaths, he embarks on a single-minded quest to contact them, using some pseudo-scientific theory involving electromagnetic fields. I guess they figured that audiences might get confused about EMF, so they dedicated several expository scenes on the science behind the kid's invention. Unfortunately, this does slow down the pacing a bit, but, unlike Primer, from which this movie seems to draw some influence, they managed to keep the technobabble to minimum. Like Primer, the invention is basically a MacGuffin, a black box that serves to advance the plot and draw the focus of obsessive behavior. Unlike Primer, the themes aren't as explicit, nor is it quite as compelling, though I fail to see why the rating is quite so low as it is (hovering around a 4, at the time of my writing). I'd say that it's pretty decent and probably worth a view for fans of supernatural thrillers. There's no gore, profanity, or nudity that I can remember, though there's a little violence and atmospheric tension. That makes me wonder if maybe it was aimed at younger audiences, especially seeing as how the leads are all fairly young. Still, I think it works fine for older audiences, as long as they're not expecting it to be a gory horror movie.

jcorty28 Ghost From the Machine is an original and ultimately heartbreaking ghost story. Subtle and nuanced, the film tells the story of an afflicted young man who's bound and determined to reach and bring back his parents from 'the other side' at the expense of maintaining personal relationships. You hope he achieves his singular purpose because if not, he stands to lose a lot. After many trials and some success, he learns a difficult lesson in that no one is meant to ever come back.The film itself is a more character based film than pure horror. Sure, it has its scares and genuinely creepy moments, but it's the focus on the characters which really drives the film. When I stated that it's subtle and nuanced, I meant it is in such away that it never really force feeds you the 'why' of Cody being so single minded. You just know that he is extremely grief stricken and in some way, feels responsible for what happened. The same with our widowed tech geek. You never really know the ins and outs of his relationship with his wife. You just know that she was the love of his life. The horror elements are balanced carefully with our character driven moments and the filmmaker pulled off this balancing act exceptionally well. Had he not done so, the ending would not have packed as much of an emotional of a punch as needed. Truly not a made for Hollywood ending.Check this one out if you like more emotionally engrossing films that are thought provoking but also terrifying. It sounds like an oxymoron but this is one horror film that is truly different.

jamester05 The first quarter of the film shows great promise. But quickly the film turns into a complete slop fest of awkward (can't look at the screen) acting, amateur screen writing (the film has no solid path/direction), and strange musical transitions.The good:The Idea - Some of the acting - CinematographyThe Bad: - Everything else.The above reviews are completely misleading. There are so many obscure scenes in this film that take away from the solid premise. This could have been an AMAZING low budget horror film. A rewrite of the script, some better onset acting coaches, and you might just have yourself a killer of a film. Watch this: With a bottle of wine and some friends. Know what you are getting into, and you'll have a good time.C+