The Infernal Machine

A fascinating and mesmirizing story about a (one hit) worldfamous writer, living secluded in the desert, who slowly looses his mind, when he gets stalked by anonymous letters, whose content reveals secrets that are only known to him. Is he in danger? And if so, who might be after him?

The good: this story kept me on the edge of my seat the entire movie. I HAD to know how it all would end and (for a change) it is not a disappointing plot turn which reveals what's the secret to this story. I would advice the reviewers NOT to read the other spoiler reviews by the way, because NOT KNOWING THE PLOT is really part of the suspsense.

More good: another stellar acting performance by Guy Pearce, who is terrific at portraying characters who are on the edge, who struggle mentally. Physically Guy Pearce looks like he has come out of a tumble dryer. He is at his wit's end, addicted to alcohol, living as a recluse in the desert, paranoid who is after him. This actor is always a guarantee for a solid acting performance.

Even more good: everything from photography, to sound, to editing is of the highest quality. I LOVE it when a movie looks the part!

Not any bad? This is a slowburning story and however mesmirizing it was to me, in this day and age of instant satisfaction youtube videos that dont last longer than a minute, some viewers might not be in the mood for a long, spun out story, which only reveals it's secrets until the very end. And what secrets they are!

So glad I stumbled upon this movie, because this is one of the best mystery movies I have seen these past months. What a joy to watch! BRAVO!

I watched The Infernal Machine with three other people. They all liked it a bit more than me, but it's not that they loved it. I wasn't impressed by it at all. The movie is just too long for that kind of story. It could easily have been half an hour lesser long. Slow paced, repetitive, just not really my thing. By the time the mystery was solved I lost all interest in the story, almost fell asleep. As for the acting it's basically all about Guy Pearce, whom isn't a bad actor, but even he couldn't make this movie better. I won't say the movie is a complete failure, as it probably will please other people, but just not me.

Guy Pearce should easily win a best actor award for this. He gives it his all.

All the actors do. Maybe the director's strength is his ability to get good acting out of his actors?

He shot this wrong. There wasn't any gore or observed threat. The movie has real guts for a solid creepy horror movie but it pulled it's punch. This was more of a slap and not a hard one.

It would have been much shorter too. One seasoned producer would have made a major difference in this movie.

But Guy Pearce makes it work still. He's that good in this. The other actors try but he stands out. David Lynch should work with him.

Watch this without expectations of greatness.

I don't quite know why this didn't work, but it wasn't gripping, the story was messy and was clunky. The acting was really good and I love the idea, but disappointing sadly. Some interesting twist, so not a complete flop, and whoever wrote it was clearly intellectual, just a bit of a dullard, or maybe that was the director? Had to tell.

Not as scary as I was hoping, as the advert made it look awesome. Maybe there weren't enough characters in the film? Sorry I can't quite put my finger on what the issue is here, but there we go.

I'd love to read some other reviews of this, so get posting! .....

I actually enjoyed it - it was better than what I was expecting. The beginning gets to be little drawn out to finally work your way towards the end - but it's not bad. Again, I enjoyed it. Guy Pierce did a great job - and although it was a little slow, I still enjoyed it nonetheless. Now then if I added more to this review, I'd probably have have spoilers - and I don't want to completely dissect the entire film or spoil anyth. But it wasn't terrible - a little bit drawn out - but it was okay overall. This sentence I am writing now will help me to reach the mandatory minimum length of my review! Whew!!!