By Terry Sherwood
The shortest story intro in genre writing is ‘ The last man on Earth sat in his room when he heard a knock at the door.” Images in both monochrome and color, The Lonely Man with the Ghost Machine has an isolationist feel to it in the line of French Le Jetee and the original Russian Solaris
Graham Skipper, who wrote and edited this work, allows Wozzeck (Graham Skipper) to resound through the screen time on his signal obsession of resurrecting his dead wife Nellie ( Christina Bennett Lind) who was a victim of a purple sky ‘Calamity”. Nellie was killed by the creatures of the schism when the couple tried to escape the event in a lonely rural cabin. Wozzeck now lives a camper lifestyle in the middle of nowhere. Oddly Wozzeck is working on the completion of his ghost machine, which is never explained why or how he developed this will bring his deceased wife.
The Man with the Ghost Machine is much like a one-hander theatre piece as the world is shattered by a disembodied voice one night known as the Deletarian (Paul Guyet). Wozzeck waxes in riddles with the deep voice presence in a verbal game of identity and purpose. Graham Skipper’s performance consists of mugging big-eyed, looking shocked and being uneasy to moments of excitement when his wife lets him touch her reminiscent of COVID restrictions.
Unlike similar themes in films like the Vincent Price version of Last Man on Earth and Richard Matheson’s superb novel that it was based on, Wozzeck has no purpose but to exist. He shows no other emotions, ingenuity, or resourcefulness even when confronted by the physical form of the Deletarian. Wozzeck cowers in his bed, looks wide-eyed and tries to reason with the entity without a drive to overcome it, unlike Vincent Prices Dr Robert Morgan. Nor does he give up the ghost of the cause for a moment as Morgan does in Matheson’s book when he sits in his barred-up home and drinks. This is a film about a one man who sees himself as a victim not of the destruction of the world which is the bigger picture but of his family and does nothing but strive to establish that.
Interesting to note in the special thanks section of the end credits where listed some names like Fangoria’s Phil Noble Jr, Barbara Crampton and director Chelsey Stardust.
The Lonely Man with the Ghost Machine is a good film if one enjoys one-note performances. This is very much a story of today’s isolation effects. Some of the best on-screen work is Nellie (Christina Bennett Lind) who becomes more articulate in her rebirth to tell him really what he wants in a marriage, not companionship but someone to clean, fawn and have sex. That ripping away of the veneer is the real story for me, the bitter reality of their shortcoming blaming someone else since they cannot or will not face it themselves.
This is the age when many so-called ‘victims’ don’t act they declare and do nothing to find their way out of the trouble making this film is many ways a selfish portrait. Oh, poor me but what about the rest of the planet which they cannot comprehend?
Bloody Flicks 