Machine Head (2000 Video) User Reviews

Reanimator with a Lawnmower engine on your bonce.

[CorblimeyGuvnors · 3/10 · 8 February 2015]

Nerdy Max, is a grade A student and is determined to win the $25,000 prize at the annual student awards. He started of small with reanimating animals, then one day resurrects a human (by sticking what looks like a lawnmower engine to the side of his head). I am not giving this away, as it is evident on the poster and well, the title says it all.

I watched this as part of the Catacomb of Creepshow box set and thought this to be a valiant effort. Seemed to have higher production values than most of the other films in the box set with decent acting, score and music. All put together to make a semi- professional film. It is a shame that the director only appears to have one credit listed on the IMDb. (Michael Leonard Murphy). In fact scrolling down the cast list, a lot of the names have only one credit in acting too.

Special mention to Chris Cowden, who plays the title character. I though he did well and his performance reminded me of the Frankenstein Monster with some of the same sympathetic traits of a Monster not really seeing himself as such.

So all in all a good effort

Catacomb of Creepshows #22 (of 50) or got a Machine Head better than the rest

[movieman_kev · 5/10 · 11 October 2012]

If Herbert West of "Re-animator" and Wyatt from "Weird Science" had a criminally financially neglected baby, this movie would be it. Oddly enough this humorous low-budget tale of a nerdy, bullied, love-crossed school kid who learns how to reanimate the dead and the resulting Frankenstein-esque motor-powered monster he concocts hit the nail on the proverbial head with me. It was entertaining and I found myself liking this ambitious little no-budget movie much more then I had anticipated. Perhaps it was merely due to numerous movies that I had to suffer through in the Catacomb box-set being godawful but this one was good.

Mindless but in its way sort of catchy.

[ansell-72879 · 5/10 · 27 June 2021]

Bush, the English band, not the Presidents, had a song out in '94 called Machinehead. The opening verses consist of the word yeah and breath repeated ad nauseam. Pretty mindless but in its way sort of catchy. The same could be said about the movie Machine Head.

OK it's not Re-animator nor is it Frankenstein, any version, but it is part of that tradition. Oh, and it's funny, not Mel Brookes' Young Frankenstein funny but sort of groan and smile funny. The fact that it is supposed to be funny is a bonus.

Of course, it does raise the great question of the 21st Century, is Frankenstein's monster, and his kin, a zombie, or something else? Doctorate stuff this.

Max Kelp, played with gusto by Josh Walitt, is a high school student who reanimates a corpse with a lawn mower motor as part of a high school science project. He is desperate to win a cash prize. In his way, he is just desperate. This is Walitt's one stab at a Zombie movie; it seems it his one stab at anything!

The macabre tenor of the movie is established at the outset. Kelp's father Herman, played by Jeff Stroud, is an undertaker and Kelp helps out in the mortuary. I suspect that these scenes are also meant to establish the project as a comedy but in reality, it just involves a lot of shouting. Shouting is something of a reoccurring feature of the film.

Many in the cast are on average a decade too old for the high school students they are playing. Even so, or perhaps because of this, the cast, overall own their parts and deliver adequate performances.

Again, the film has the look of being filmed on a mobile phone but director and writer, Michael Patrick-Leonard Murphy, does go to the trouble of establishing and constructing shots as opposed to filming whatever happens to be occurring in front of the lens and hoping for the best.

The special effects aren't special, but they are probably better than the budget might suggest. Oh, and there is surprisingly little gore given genre.

There is the usual unrequited love involving a way too old Sondraya Rowe as Sally Kates (way too old for a high school student), the monster running amok, police involvement and so on that one has come to expect. Rich Cowden throws his all into the monster, Machine Head.

Look, it's OK. Think a good quality high school production of Little Shop of Horrors. It's about that standard.

Cute re-animator knockoff

[dark_nebulae2003 · 21 October 2005]

I guess no one else saw this one? Speaking of seeing, this marks the first ever digitally-shot flick that I've ever seen, which I thought was strange and generic at the same time as there was little doubt that the product was direct-to-homevideo.

Anyways, I just wanted everyone to know, it was FUNNY as hell! I was definitely pleased with this one. Kept me laughing all the way through. There's nothing funnier than seeing a Frankenstein wannabe with a lawnmower attached to his skull like an overgrown tumor. It somewhat reminded me of Stephen King's The Lawnmower Man (short story only) for some reason though I am sure it's totally unrelated.

The movie's style is cheap like it were made with a home-movie; the acting is HORRID; its atmosphere is respectably dark and Gothic; the dialog is lame; no tits and a little gore, but the movie has its own redemption in the end though with a twisting end that'll actually surprise its would be audience. And the Herbert West wannabe looks strikingly like pornstar Jim Powers weirdly enough, and as a result, I notice that there's virtually no credits for this film.

Good for a rental. Plenty of campy fun for fans of bad movies like me. Fans of Ed Wood style schlock should enjoy this the most.

Putt Putt Putt

[saint_brett · 5/10 · 4 December 2022]

You can tell it's getting close to Christmas when you watch 'Machine Head' to put you in the mood. This is gonna be a great big "Wrong way, turn back" error.

A dead guy on an autopsy gurney becomes embroiled in a heated argument and caught between two bickering love birds.

Hitting a new low, our lead actor, lives in his parents' basement and reads X-rated lawnmower "Four Stroke" pornography.

He also keeps his favorite sock - Theodore - locked in a treasure chest as his prized possession.

The depraved youth - Max - also has black & white stills of Sally, who he's secretly stalked and photographed without her consent.

Ostracized by Trench Coat Mafia, teachers and a big moon bum, Max accumulates all the humiliation he can and no doubt he has a hit list hidden somewhere in his sock chest and will reference it when the time comes.

The final nail in the coffin is the deflation of his blow-up doll that pushes him over the edge which sees him lose it and then reincarnates a dead cat with a lawnmower that's hooked up to an 80's computer. (It's what you do when you crossover that boundary of going postal.) I think it's safe to say that this Max fella took it one step further and succeeded in creating a zombie where Dahmer failed.

He uses a combination of prods, lawnmower components and 'Weird Science' technology.

The movie's sort a Frankenstein concept which comes complete with blips and 70's frequencies to make it authentic.

But, try picturing in your head a dead person with an old 50's laundromat contraption, or teleprinter, connected to their head that runs by a lawnmower and ripcord. There's your Machine Head.

It becomes his own personal hitman and starts ridding the world of undesirables.

Ever the serial killer now, Max starts cremating his victims - father included - and drinks one night to his success and without his glasses on he kind of resembles Bam Margera.

A scientific, community, catwalk parade sees Max bring his show & tell experiment to a hall full of frightened locals who scamper at first sight when the Frankenstein is set free and runs rampant at a carnival.

This must have been filmed around the same time as Taylor Dane released her "Tell It to My Heart" video as it shares the same kickass visuals in slow motion as her footage at certain times... which give me a headache.

The Frankenstein sees his reflection in a mirror and realizes how stupid the 70's projectile weaving machine looks connected to his head and pulls the plug and wants out. For some reason it keeps ploughing on though.

A touch of comedy ruins any chance of serious horror.

It ends with the silly machine beast rescuing Max from a flaming car and passes away for the fifth time only for Max to wake-up from a dream and have the machine head sitting next to him in bed concerned about his welfare.

What am I doing with my life?

Abysmal

[atinder · 1/10 · 25 April 2013]

A teenager creates a machine to raise the dead for a science experiment.

Who ever did the casting job in this movie,.

It was really hard believe this people are teens, they way to old to play these roles.

And that is not the worst thing about it, the acting in this is horrendous

The script was so bad, it was just playing stupid , some scenes didn't make sense at all.

No gory death this, no cool zombie effect at all. Nothing!

After 45 minutes, I had enough.

1 out of 10, I liked the cover of the DVD.

Amusing zombie movie.

[ThrownMuse · 6/10 · 19 April 2007]

Max is a geeky high school genius who gets harassed by his peers and pressured by his father to follow in his career footsteps by becoming a mortician. What they don't know is that Max does intend on doing this and has been working a secret project for the Science Fair: re-animating life. He believes his invention will make him world famous and he will finally get respect. After testing on animals, Max steals a corpse from his dad's mortuary, and successfully brings it back to life--by attaching an engine to its head! But Max has not mastered control of Machine Head and all hell breaks loose when he unveils his pet project at the Science Fair.

"Machine Head" is a good example of how fun a no-budget film can be. It is a nice blend of Frankenstein-esquire horror and absurd comedy that never takes itself too seriously. For example, when Max's dad tries to convince him that what he is doing is immoral, babbling something about life and death, Max screams back, "Shut up! You sound like the Discovery Channel!"

Many of the characters are annoying and clichéd, and most of the high school kids look like they are in their late 20s/early 30s. The performances are mostly over-the-top, and that works at times, but it can also get severely grating (Max, in typical "mad scientist" fashion, is always wild-eyed and screaming). But overall, these performances are much better than what you see in other recent Z-grade horror movies. The best performance comes from the guy who plays Machine Head. It is hilarious watching him stumble around, clearly annoyed and unhappy about coming back to life with an engine attached to his head. For a movie about re-animation, the movie unfortunately skimps on gore. The gore that is there doesn't look particularly gory, which is likely due to budget restraints.

"Machine Head" is basically a "Re-Animator" rip-off, but it is entertaining and a silly good time. It pokes fun at itself and the Frankenstein story, but doesn't take itself too seriously. For a little-to-no budget movie, it is well-made and worth checking-out.

Campy, ultra-low budget homegrown sci-fi. Fun, though.

[litenupp · 7/10 · 25 April 2013]

I'm biased, since I'm in it. I played one of the cops (the blond). Making this movie was a total blast, at least for me. It was filmed in and around Grand Junction, CO, by a director of TV commercials for a local TV station, with a budget that would fit on a gift card. The casting audition was held in an empty storefront in the local mall. We came up with much of our own costuming and makeup. One, maybe two takes, and on to the next shot. Rehearsals for us bit players were done while lighting and sound for the shot were being set up. The final scene was shot over one cold night on the deserted main street of Fruita, CO, where the world now comes to mountain bike. There was a borrowed motor home that served as dressing room, warming hut, catering wagon, restroom and editing suite. Much of the film's budget was spent on the car explosion stunt, which had to go right the first time; we only had one beater car. The metal roof of the car was cut out and replaced with heavy paper so the monster could punch through it. Compensation was free pizza sometimes, and an excellent T shirt which I wear on Halloween. Ed Wood-type scenario, without the crossdressing.

If you happen across this little curiosity, I hope you enjoy it from the perspective of something-from-nothing; with creativity, ingenuity, determination and esprit de corps underlying the final result. "Jesus, he saved that kid," my big ad lib line.

Not bad for a B movie.

[johnolj · 7/10 · 23 September 2021]

I actually quite enjoyed this...original and fun at times .

DEATH LIVES

[nogodnomasters · 6/10 · 16 May 2019]

This review is from: Machine Head (DVD) and has nothing to do with Deep Purple.

"Death Lives" is the oxymoron often repeated by science nerd Max Kelp (Josh Walitt). The writers of the film were so proud of that line it became the mantra for the film. I had original planned on using "reverse polar bypass manipulator" for the title until they changed it to "reverse impulse bypass manipulator." It seemed kind of silly to me as everyone knows it is the "reverse polar bypass manipulator" that brings dead critters back to life. The "reverse impulse bypass manipulator" simply fries them. Trust me on this. I own cats.

Our science geek learns how to reanimate and creates his "Frankenstein" to do his bidding for him, including taking care of the school bullies. Max goes from nice science nerd to "mad Max" in quick fashion. This is a cult movie for sure, but not a cult classic. I prefer cult movies that didn't start out that way over those specifically designed to be bad for the cult niche, like this one. A lawn mower engine attached to the head? Seriously?

Parental Guide: F-bomb. Corpse nudity. No sex.

Gas-Powered Mayhem...

[azathothpwiggins · 25 January 2022]

MACHINE HEAD is an extremely low-budget horror-comedy film about budding high school mad scientist Max Kelp (Josh Walitt) and his unique science project.

Max has been dedicated to reanimating the dead, and finally finds success by resurrecting one of his mortician father's latest customers. Max is able to supply the necessary locomotion through the use of a lawnmower engine strapped to the cadaver's head.

NOTE TO ALL BULLIES WHO'VE TORMENTED MAX: Prepare to meet thy doom!

Is this movie absurd? Yes. Is it entertaining, perhaps for all of the wrong reasons? Indeed! It's sort of like a tribute to the glory days of Frank Henenlotter and Stuart Gordon. Sort of...