The Devil's Machine (2019) User Reviews

what a stupid mess

[ops-52535 · 3/10 · 9 February 2020]

This is just a cheap, weak british doll horror story, of no proportions at all. its a jumping jack that leaps back and forth 300 years to tell the story about an automatic doll made sometime back in the 1700's, a doll who will obey and sooth your wishes beyond death if so...

the grumpy old man havent got anything rewarding to say about this, you can try and turn it of after a while if you dont find it interesting, from me therell be no recommends

Symbol of Enlightened Minds

[nogodnomasters · 4/10 · 17 January 2020]

The widower Dr. Cole (Jamie Scott Gordon) and his teen step-daughter Rose (Victoria Lucie) are investigating a life-sized doll, created centuries ago at a time when such a thing was not possible. The two are drawn into a nightmarish world of the past as they uncover the secrets of the past while becoming dangerously close to one another.

This is a twist to the haunted doll stories that have become popular. The film had good but limited characters. The Gothic aspect was decent, but the plot line fell short and there were scenes either left out or cut short concerning the doll.

Guide: F-word. sex? No nudity.

Director through Kickstarter keeps asking patrons for a review so...

[rusrobertblemker · 5/10 · 7 June 2020]

I had been following Hex Studios social media for awhile and was intrigued by this film's story and concept. I donated to the cause and received my BluRay in a timely fashion. The packaging and contents are great and well designed; the disk had no problems on playback. They do a really good job on marketing and packaging.

The film is a good example for anyone wanting to see moody lighting in a cool baroque location. Unfortunately that is the only thing this film offers; it feels like the team's main focus was creating cool shots with Dario Argento colors in Ridley Scott smoke. The initial advertised story, of a haunted automata, is lost in a series of odd scenes between every other character but the automata.

I feel they realized too late in the game that the amazing Alexandra Hulme could expertly mimic the movements of the automata but her beautiful skin would never come across as a doll. They would need CG to flatten her skin to complete the illusion. A strong script would have allowed the audience to suspend disbelief and buy this amazing actress as a doll. Unfortunately they did not believe in the script so we see very little of the automata. (Her "turning scene" is amazing.)

So we are left with scene after scene of confusing conflicts between characters with no through line or satisfying conclusion. (Hex Studios has released scathing reviews of Ari Aster's work recently - they would do well to learn basic story structure from his films.). Even the mysterious backstory is overly confusing. Honestly it is hard not to fast forward this movie. There is zero tension or scares.

A for effort, D for execution. I will not be supporting another campaign from Hex Studios. I will check out their offerings on my streaming services if they come out hoping for more growth and tighter stories. Good luck, writing is rewriting - you can't fix a bad story in post.

A Faceplant of a Film

[claireboo · 2/10 · 4 March 2022]

I was hoping for the fun of Repo the Genetic Opera or V/H/S, but I left feeling disgusted and confused. The plot is incoherent (is the General the one controlling the Doctor? Is Talia controlling him?) and dream sequences aren't easily distinguishable from real events. Incest is used purely for shock factor rather than to actually progress the plot. Female characters don't do anything but flail helplessly and tempt male characters. The actress who plays the automaton has her face painted like a Spirit Halloween creepy doll costume. I can only hope this is the director's first film, so it at least has a reason to be as egregious as it is. Also, hey writer! You should really delete the fake review you left, it's pretty obvious.

Wow, this was pointless and boring...

[paul_haakonsen · 2/10 · 26 November 2020]

I managed to endure a staggering 39 minutes of what can best be described at utmost boredom when I sat down to watch "The Devil's Machine" (aka "Automata") from writer Sarah Daly and director Lawrie Brewster.

Now, it was the movie's cover/poster and the fact that it was listed as a horror movie that initially made me sit down to watch this 2019 movie. But the fact that I hadn't already seen it before also helped to win me over.

And I endured 39 minutes, and I can honestly say that I will not, never ever, be returning to "Automata" to attempt to watch the rest of the movie. This movie just was a massive swing and a miss from director Lawrie Brewster in terms of appealing to me or entertaining me.

The storyline was just rubbish. It felt like a heap of random scenes shot independently of one another and then given to the editor to make a movie out of the random clips of film.

Little did it help that the characters portrayed in the movie had as much appeal as wet cardboard and never stood a snowballs chance in Hell of winning me over. The dialogue given to the actors and actresses was just dull, mediocre and tedious.

My rating of "Automata" is a more than generous two out of ten stars. This was a stinker, and my advice is to give the movie a wide berth.

Weird movie

[Egyspirit · 2/10 · 25 August 2020]

Just weird, music is awful, too much colors, don't waste your time

Don't waste your time!

[joedante · 1/10 · 13 February 2020]

Complete and utter crap. Don't believe the fake reviews and don't waste your time with this nonsense. You have been warned.

I found this at the dollar tree & now I know why

[DeadMansTrousers · 1/10 · 19 July 2022]

I am sorry but this movie was so bland and slow that I had to turn it off. The acting in this is fairly bad, the story is slow, and there is hardly any "scares" in it at all. I got halfway through this and I had to turn it off because I was so bored. I honestly wanted to give this a chance because I love horror movies, and even really bad ones but this is unbearable. Save yourself the pain and watch something else. People must've gotten paid to leave positive reviews on this.

Nice Gothic Feel

[winja-64469 · 7/10 · 17 February 2020]

Lawrie Brewster and the Crew at Hex Studios keep getting better and better and I feel they're starting to hit they're stride.

Automata: The Devil's Machine was the first time I Kickstarted a movie and I can honestly say I'm glad I did. The movie definitely oozes with style. Has good direction, solid acting and writing. The best part of the movie was the Doll herself.

The biggest negative would probably be budget. You can tell this movie didn't have the biggest budget. But even with that it still comes off as well made. After watching a few of their other films I feel they're budgets will start to improve as they get more recognition. I really can't wait to their next one.

Definitely give this one a chance if you looking for a horror movie with a more gothic feel to it. The's Devil's Machine will easily scratch that itch.

So much wasted potential

[RandomFlux · 4/10 · 15 February 2020]

The Good: The cinematography is excellent. The visuals are amazing. The lighting is used to perfection. The sets in the castle are magnificent. The actors are quite good. They did an outstanding job creating the centerpiece of the film: the "doll" itself. Especially with the budget they probably had. The story hooked me right away.

The Bad: This story had so much potential but it was successfully avoided. It felt like they went with the most salacious thing they could come up with. Quite a pity because I was expecting a great deal more.

This could have been done a lot of different ways and avoided the exploitation. Personally the film left me queasy. It's more grotesque than 'horror'.

Would I recommend it? Probably not.

Old School Gothic Horror

[crstevens-836-328749 · 8/10 · 16 March 2020]

If you're looking for more modern horror and/or millions of dollars in CGI effects and actor's pay, perhaps this is not for you.

If you like indie-horror and Hammer / United International Films (like Roger Corman's Poe films), then by all means dig in to this film. Beautifully shot and riveting.

Kickstarter original - fantastic little movie

[amiamit · 7/10 · 18 March 2020]

I loved it - for me if the world at large gives a horror movie a rating ox X ... I just add 2 to it. And this movie is an 7 / 10 for me and any other die hard horror lover.

Watch it - its amazing what independent movie makers are capable of.

Strange and nonsensical.

[lord-blade · 3/10 · 19 October 2020]

The movie got really good reviews, so I gave it a watch. It starts off rather interesting. Gives the impression of being a normal person investigating an old automaton, which may or may not be haunted.

They learn more, we learn more, and things are going well... and then the movie just gets... weird. A whole lot of oddness happens, which isn't really explained if it's real or in the mind of the characters... and it only gets worse from there.

The ending really makes little sense. Especially when presented with the intro. Overall, I'd say they tried to make something unique... but unique doesn't mean it's good.

I'd definitely give this one a pass.

Another uniquely spooky Scottish Chiller...

[omendata · 5/10 · 9 February 2020]

However unlike the fantastic Lord Of Tears this time it is really looking a bit sad and its mainly from the awful acting from the very start!

So far every single top review over 7 stars was created the day after the film came out and every reviewer has only done two reviews - the secret in telling an IMDB shill is to look at the username - as soon as you see 4 digit numbers after the username you know its a shill and why oh why do this, you just make your film look desperate for votes as if you expect it to go down the toilet. So obvious who the users are behind these reviewers as well they didnt use much imagination either so bigging up your own movie on IMDB is really dishonest and I am very disappointed as i loved Sarah Daly's previous movie Lord Of Tears.

Why cannot IMDB weed these false reviews out is beyond me as I have reported many of the reviewers before and nothing ever gets done!

Back to the movie - Terrible acting from the off did not bode well. They have however created a unique atmosphere as they did in Lord Of Tears that I have never seen in any movie and which gives this film a totally unique and Scottish feel which I must applaud being a fellow Scot. So glad to see the fantastic Alexandra Hulme back but she has nothing to work with and never utters a word; such a real shame.

Victoria Lucie is the only one who can act in the whole thing and is rather sexy so she does give us something interesting to watch along with Alexandra and her superlative dancing - she really did the automaton dance perfectly adding to the spooky feel.

Once again they have found another spooky location in Scotland which has been hard to find on Google image search as I am sure I have seen it before - the red, spooky, desolate mansion surrounded by white African jungle grass does add once again to the movie's unique atmosphere!

Sadly though the movie is just missing something that Lord Of Tears had - hard to quantify but the bad acting and weak storyline leaves me giving it a fair but average 5/10.

No one needs to watch this.

[cls-30843 · 1/10 · 21 January 2023]

Boring, confusing, pointless with a touch of incest!

Why would anyone allow this movie to be made?

Here's my pitch: Imagine poor lighting with soft exposure that makes interior shots look foggy. Poor sound quality that makes it sound like everything was recorded in a tin can. Confusing flashbacks and /or parallel timeline overlaps? Maybe it's ghosts, or are they possessed?!? Who knows, no one!

The acting is adequate, but not good enough to overcome a shambles of a script and plot. Anyone who gave this movie a review higher than one star apparently has not seen any other horror movie. A SYFY original of vampire squid that fly and walk on land would likely be better in all aspects of movie making than this waste of time!

The Devil's Machine (2020)

[vengeance20 · 2/10 · 7 October 2021]

So I picked this one up thinking it might be good, but was skeptical being it's a Straight-To-DVD-Film & a lot of them aren't good.

The film follows & ancient life sized doll from the 1700's the is possessed. In present day, a antiques dealer & his girlfriend go to value the doll, but things soon starts to turn awry as hallucinations & visions plaque them both & the line between fantasy & reality becomes blurred.

I found the film to be boring mostly, the premise wasn't interesting & the story was all over the place. The action is little to none & at 87 minutes it's too long given the lacking in action or remotely any sort of a body count with interesting kills.

The film took surprisingly a while to finish & dragged quite a bit in a lot of areas especially the end.

The only redeeming feature was the eye candy with Victoria Lucie. Baby cake! Other than that, the film was pretty much pointless dull crap.

2/10.

Ummmmm....hehhh??? :=8/

[moocowmoo-581-89188 · 2/10 · 1 March 2022]

I would say this moovie was very cowfusing, except that it was also exceedingly boring as well. There are some nice locations (probably the whole reason the moovie exists in the first place), and some nice costumes, and for the moost part the acting was decent - but the meandering, wobbly, WTF story will leave you scratching yer head so mooch you'll think the moovie gave you head lice. There are lighting issues and udder production problems too. For an indie effort I suppose I have seen mooch worse, but this is a stinker through and through - so if you expect that, maybe this flick won't let you down too much. But if yer looking for a top flight horror flick, I moost inform you that you will be sadly mistaken. Good think my Dollar Tree blu ray also came with the dvd, 'cause the blu ray would not work! If yer looking to pad your horror cowllection with a cheap indie for a buck, maybe this isn't bad, but I feel really sorry for anyone who paid moore than a couple of dollars (pounds??) for this stinker.

:=8P.

Really enjoyed this film.

[beanebeano · 7/10 · 17 February 2020]

I loved the premise and decided to give it a chance. Glad I did! It's a beautifully shot film and a welcome addition to the horror genre.

Dark, beautiful and scary!

[tobigasser · 9/10 · 26 March 2020]

Dr. Brendon Cole was hired to examine a long lost mechanical doll. Based on reports on the dolls functionallity he tries to authenticate it as the mysterious "Infernal Princess".

I stumbled across Lawrie Brewster during the kickstarter campaign to "The Unkindness of Ravens". Since then I know Hex Media as a reliable source of excellent indie horror movies. They´ve proven more than once that they know how to tell a story, in words, pictures and music. And, I think this deserves special mention, they know how to stay consistent till the end! Besides the fantastic narration and the beautiful soundtrack I have to spend a few words on the main actor. In the years I followed Lewrie Brewster´s work I also became a big fan of Jamie Scott Gordon´s style of acting. I think it´s a real challenge to play these roles with the appropriate level of insanity and he convinces me in every single movie! It is a great pleasure to watch Dr. Cole´s efforts to discover the dolls secrets and how he starts doubting his sanity.

Automata aka The Devil´s Machine is surely the most elaborate Hex Media production and again, it´s a surprise how much value they get out of their tight budget!

Solid Effort - Not Your Average Haunted Doll Flick

[jakegrogan-75235 · 6/10 · 21 September 2020]

This is an ambitious little indie horror film. Largely a period piece, it attempts to tell the story of a recently widowed antique expert sent to authenticate a legendary cursed doll, and subsequently finds himself and his stepdaughter drawn into its web. This story, at its core, is nothing particularly new, but the film does attempt to do some rather interesting things within it. The film is extremely well-shot, the cinematography is beautiful and haunting. Acting is solid for the most part, especially the two leads. This is clearly an homage to old school British gothic horror, and it largely succeeds in that regard. There are a few sequences that I found genuinely creepy and intense, but where the movie really shines is the haunting atmosphere throughout and the gradual feeling of dread. This is slow burn psychological horror, many people will find it boring or uneventful, so keep that in mind. It is not for everyone. I think fans of Hammer horror will enjoy this, because it has that classic Victorian vibe.

Surprising in all the best ways

[mcmahne · 9/10 · 17 February 2020]

Having been a fan of Hex Media for a few years now, this was easily their most mature, complex and frightening film in their catalogue. This film showed a significant and mature step up in their filmmaking that not only mastered horror, but also dealt with harsh and dark themes which showed signs of brilliant writing and filmmaking. I can't wait to see what they do next.

Fantastic Indie Horror in a classic Gothic aesthetic

[LeePhilipson · 8/10 · 20 February 2020]

I've been following and supporting Hex Media and their output since I kickstarted their earlier production of The Black Gloves. Ever since, I've been helping to crowdfund all their subsequent productions sight unseen and picked up their entire back catalogue.

Automata (aka The Devil's Machine), like Lawrie Brewster's other works, draws a great deal of inspiration from classical Gothic aesthetics, and the British tradition of Hammer Films. The vivid colours in this film and the aristocratic setting might also invoke obscure giallo deja vu for some as well.

Those familiar with the other films from Hex will notice recurring actors, but showcasing performances in a different style than previous outings. As less well-known actors, they do a great job disproving the notion that indie horror actors are less talented, as this cast turns in fantastic performances all round.

The cinematography and production scale are great highlights of this film. The scope of the narrative and production value are very impressive, especially when considering the indie roots of the crew. You'll be reminded of Barry Lyndon with period-appropriate garb and aesthetics, all captured beautifully and cinematically.

I'd have no hesitations supporting whatever Lawrie Brewster turns his hand to next and encourage any horror fans who are looking for a taste of classical horror (but still with a modern edge) to check this one out.

Effectively creepy

[robertsalvin · 8/10 · 17 February 2020]

Lawrie Brewster has a track record of producing effectively creepy horror movies on modest budgets. Artfully shot and employing some beautiful interiors, Automata features the engaging Jamie Scott Gordon in a tale of an automated doll inhabited by an ancient curse.

Britain still has a thriving horror movie business...

[mazon2709 · 8/10 · 16 February 2020]

If this film is anything to go by, very Hammer in its gothic settings which as far as I'm concerned is high praise. Role on more from the same creator.

Once again

[dannywbutler · 10/10 · 9 March 2020]

Lawrie Brewster keeps me on the edge of my seat and up all night. Spine tingling is an over rated adjective until you watch this movie. Gothic and creepy, Mr. Brewster draws out the art of the horror picture show.

Well crafted, well written, well directed and well acted.

Thank you for creating another gem worth watching over and over - unless I need to sleep.

Watch it.