The Machine Girl

Right so the hype for this has been extreme. Not in the populace at large of course, I was referring to round my way. Ever since my mate sent me a link to the trailer above the only thing I've wanted to do was see The Machine Girl. Even to the level that The Dark Knight has taken a back seat, although if I think about the fact that that's out next week I'll probably piss myself...bugger. Anyway, Machine Girl. Brilliantly many people, myself included, were left wondering if the trailer was some elaborate and staggeringly accurate spoof trailer, I mean over-the-top cheap gore, a Japanese schoolgirl with a machine gun for an arm, DRILL BRA! It really did seem too good to be true. Thankfully it is in fact a real film, and is as insane and inventive as the trailer suggests.

How best to describe Machine Girl? I think if Troma made a Kung-Fu film it might turn out a bit like this. Machine Girl's one of those films where the gore is there to make the viewer laugh instead of squirm, and the low-budget effects only help in this case. The blood fires out of wounds as if the characters have high pressure hoses for veins. And the deaths are some of the most hilarious and inventive seen in a film in an absolute age. Even straight forward shootings have some sort of angle to them, be it how the shooting occurs or in the carnage that it leaves behind. And the weapons are just brilliant. The drill bra is good, but the flying guillotine wins for best, and funniest, thanks mainly to some ropey animation that again adds to the charm.

In a way good comparison points are the first two Evil Dead films. It's got the splatter, pitched on the right side of ridiculous, it's funny and it's inventive. Plus the acting, apart from first timer Minase Yashiro, is bad, the budget's low and there are a few moments where it goes to a dark, uncomfortable place that maybe doesn't quite sit with the tone of the rest of the film. That and most people will not only hate it, but unless low-budget comic splatter is their thing, will fail to get what's so brilliant about it. Is Machine Girl for you. Watch the trailer. You're reaction to that will tell you all you need to know.