fedor8 It's a pity that this relatively original story, with a good first hour, had to take such a cretinous, totally baffling turn into dumb-thriller territory in the last third, almost completely ruining the interesting build-up. The invalid guy morphs idiotically into a silly Jason Voorhees clone, which is far-fetched and very silly, not to mention generic, made even worse by the fact that the guy playing him is a really hack actor who says his lines as if he's in a high school play. What started as a film that seemed to successfully escape its B-movie limitations ended up being just as nit-witted as the typical Z-movie flick. The movie rapidly deteriorates, as though someone tore up the last part of the original script and some clueless and confused newbie was hired to scribble something up in a rush.There are so many stupid things going on in the idiotic finale, so I will just cover the basic stuff. Suddenly the invalid becomes an all-powerful, cunning serial-killer type who somehow reaps only benefits from using the machine whereas the junkie has very few of these powers: the junkie completely fails in stopping another junkie from using the bad heroin, yet the invalid manages to pretty much do anything he wants.I can't stand movies that blatantly break their own logic, their own rules, just to advance plot-twists that a pigeon could write.

Paul Magne Haakonsen I got to watch "The Ghostmaker" for the second time now, and must admit that I could only vaguely remember fragments from the movie from the first time around.But I have to say that the movie just wasn't much better actually the second time around. Sure, it has some good aspects here and there, I will get to those in a bit, but in overall then this just was a less than mediocre foray into the horror / thriller genre."The Ghostmaker" is about a some friends who stumble upon an ancient coffin from the 15th century, which turns out to be an intricate machine that can project a person into a ghost-like incorporeal state. And what seems to be fun and games soon turn out to have deadly consequences.The concept idea of this machine is actually interesting, and it is apparently based on some real idea, nay fantasy idea of some long dead inventor.However, the storyline just wasn't impressive enough to make "The Ghostmaker" a particularly enjoyable horror movie. Why? Well, because it was so predictable that it hurt. You knew what would happen long before it did, and you could see what would be the result of things in the movie a mile away.The acting in the movie was fairly good, and people did perform adequately with their given roles, despite having a fairly generic script and storyline to work with.The reaper figure was actually interesting, especially since it was tied to the coffin and had machinery parts to it as well. That was actually a great touch of detail and concept idea that worked out quite well. However, it just wasn't much of a menacing presence.And as for the special effects in the movie, well the special effects team actually managed to pull off the effects quite nicely and also in a believable manner. And that lifted up the movie quite a bit."The Ghostmaker" is certainly a watchable movie, you just shouldn't expect to be blown away by it. I am rating it four out of ten stars because it just isn't an outstanding or a particularly memorable movie. And as for it being a horror movie, then it just lacks to muster a punch that makes you take notice.

GL84 After acquiring the coffin of a 15th-century mathematician who cheated death, a group of friends' slowly find the drawbacks to it's continued usage when they start crossing the line far more frequently and violently.There's not a whole lot to this one that really works, and it tends to get off-track quite often. The biggest problem with this one is the fact that the whole film is dependent on the idea of using this strange device being something that's terrifying or creepy, but instead none of what goes on here is really all that creepy or scary. Being astral projected into the area and witnessing events as a spectral being is not in the slightest bit scary a concept, and these scenes doing this are some of the blandest, more arduous scenes in the film with absolutely nothing going on that's in any way interesting to watch. It's so difficult to get through these since none of them are played off with the intent of being creepy or scary, just more of a curiosity by the discoverers which is so far removed from the intent of a horror film that it ends up becoming quite painful to sit through these with almost nothing of any value going on here and being so long into the film that when it finally gets going it's almost the final act which is quite a bit of time to get things going. There's a big difference in the way the action of what goes on in these scenes being far more enjoyable and entertaining overall since something's actually going on for once, as the endless chasing being done trying to get back his girlfriend makes for some rather chilling moments with the house battle, making effective use of the poltergeist stage for a chilling moment before settling back into action with the encounter in the gym which works quite well in putting his ghostly state to full-effect while forcing his smarts to come into play in finally being able to confront the menace. While not the greatest ploy, the tactic of putting the ghostly guardian of the coffin along for the ride does make for a fine sense of chilling atmosphere by having something to be scared of during the more boring sequences and it gets a lot of play in the finale which helps that as well, and helps this out quite well even with the slew of problems on display within.Rated R: Graphic Language, Graphic Violence, Brief Nudity and drug use.

parsonm2 I've been waiting for years to get my hands on a copy of this movie. And I was pleased to finally see it. I was worried when it spent so many years being delayed which raised some concerns. But it's a decent horror flick. The acting, film and effects are good and are on par with any well made modern flick. On a 1-10, I'd give it a 7 (I think more could have been done with the story or plot) but and 8 for subject matter and originality. The movie reminds me of the Guillermo del Toro movie Cronos. The ancient mechanical horror theme is very similar. The protangonists too are very flawed and the box brings their own demons to the surface. It doesn't scare me or really creep me out but it was entertaining and wasn't predictable.I've seen tons of bad horror movies. I'll probably watch this movie aqain down the road at some point. I can't say that for many. I even purchased a copy of it.