Editorials
[Retrospective] No Flesh Shall Be Spared – Remembering ‘Hardware’
Sci-fi/Horror might just be the best man-made combination since the invention of the peanut-butter-jelly sandwich. From Frankenstein to Alien, this particular blend of genre mashup has presented us with countless memorable stories concerning the atrocities that the future might have in store for us. However, there is a certain early 90s classic that doesn’t get the love it deserves, and it just so happens to be one of my all-time favorite Sci-fi/Horror films. Of course, I’m talking about the criminally underrated cyberpunk slasher Hardware.
Based on a minor short story from the acclaimed comic series 2000 AD, Hardware was largely dismissed as a Terminator knock-off when it was first released back in 1990, but has since grown in popularity since rampaging onto home video (not to mention the internet). Much like 2000 AD itself, Richard Stanley‘s film masterfully disguises a poignant exploration of philosophical and social issues in a lovably schlocky and ultra-violent (not to mention ultra-entertaining) package, with a wicked sense of humor for good measure.
The original 7-page-long story, appropriately titled Shok!, was a simple tale of woman versus machine set against a familiar Mega-City backdrop. While Hardware is a somewhat faithful (though completely unauthorized) adaptation in that the main plot is still about a killer robot terrorizing an artist in her futuristic apartment, Stanley uses this as a jumping-off point to tell his own story about a dystopic future where life might not be worth living anymore.
The film expands on the characters and setup, giving us a better glimpse at this rundown, overpopulated world filled with radioactive deserts, terrifying scavengers and malicious government conspiracies as we follow Moses Baxter (Dylan McDermott) on his quest to find a suitable Christmas present for his metalworking artist girlfriend Jill (Stacey Travis). Unfortunately, Mo’s idea of gifting a pile of dilapidated cybernetic parts has disastrous consequences when the pieces begin to reassemble themselves into a self-repairing murderous robot.
The most badass of Christmas ornaments.
Though the film doesn’t stray far from Jill’s cruddy apartment, Hardware somehow manages to make the world of 2000 AD come alive in a way rivaled only by Pete Travis’s Dredd 22 years later. Featuring a kick-ass soundtrack and cameos from the late great Lemmy as a ferry driver and even Iggy Pop as the memorable voice of W.A.R. Radio, it’s amazing just how detailed this cyberpunk dystopia feels, despite the low budget.
Of course, the killer robot itself, here referred to as the M.A.R.K. 13, is also a huge part of why the film works. Every second it’s onscreen is a feast for the eyes, with wonderfully suspenseful chase sequences, top-notch effects and what is without a doubt one of the best killer robot designs I’ve ever seen. Incorporating nightmarish elements like spider-like venom injectors under the skullish head, not to mention its creepy multi-armed stance borrowed from the death goddess Kali, help to make this one hell of a memorable baddie. The creature’s horrific nature is only worsened once you realize that characters refer to it as a cyborg instead of android, hinting at an even more sinister backstory.
In a world filled with bland CG monsters and uninteresting backgrounds, it’s refreshing to see a film’s memorable set and character designs contribute to the story’s themes, especially considering the limited resources that the filmmakers had to work with here. The movie is peppered with haunting imagery, religious symbolism and even classical art references that make it stand out from your usual slasher flick. All this attention to detail only enhances the subtle social commentary that permeates the movie without making the script feel preachy, allowing it to focus on the more entertaining aspects of the story.
In another break from tradition, even the added robot fodder characters are interesting and well-developed, which makes their gruesome deaths all the more impactful. It’s truly amazing just how much tension the film manages to squeeze out of a single location without ever becoming boring, though by the end of the flick, Jill’s apartment looks more like a robotic abattoir than a futuristic home.
Nothing beats the robot-smashing power of a good old-fashioned baseball bat.
While I love Hardware to death, even I have to admit that it’s nowhere near a perfect movie. The awkward pacing definitely isn’t for everyone, and things get a little bit too psychedelic in a few sequences. Personally, I find the engrossing atmosphere and quirky characters interesting enough to be able to overlook these flaws, and the soundtrack is awesome enough to make even a paint-watching marathon seem entertaining, but I get that not everyone feels this way.
Even so, I can’t quite condone Stanley’s treatment of the source material in the making of this film. I may consider Hardware an improvement over the comic-book story that spawned it, but that doesn’t excuse swiping another writer’s story with no intent of crediting their work. Fortunately, this unlicensed adaptation became official after a lawsuit forced the filmmakers into crediting 2000 AD, though it’s still hard to imagine why Stanley thought that no one would notice the similarities just because of a few altered names.
Despite its initial reputation as a bootleg Terminator, I’m glad to see more and more fans popping up online to share their love for this amazing movie. I honestly can’t think of any other Sci-fi/Horror films so utterly devoted to telling a meaningful story without compromising the sleazy fun in the process, which is why I think it’s a shame that we haven’t seen many Hardware-inspired Cyber-Slashers since then.
In any case, M.A.R.K. 13 is sure to live on as one of the best slasher villains of all time, but also a haunting reminder of humanity’s tendency to put collective progress ahead of individual human lives. This may be a grim and brutally honest vision of the future, but I’d recommend it to anyone looking for a fun and insightful ride through a disturbingly plausible dystopia.
This is what you want, this is what you get!
There’s been a lot of talk about how Christopher Nolan snuck in some horror elements into his epic adaptation of The Odyssey. However, even before the Cyclops began to eat Ithican soldiers and Circe subjected them to magical body-horror, cinemagoers were already witnessing supernatural terror through a certain trailer that was attached to most IMAX screenings of Nolan’s film.
It turns out that this trailer was for Rob Savage’s Other Mommy, an adaptation of Bird Box author Josh Malerman’s horror novel, Incidents Around the House. With the teaser now available online and revealing that the award-winning Jessica Chastain is playing the titular antagonist (as well as her ill-fated human counterpart), not to mention the fact that the picture is being helmed by the director of hits like Host and The Boogeyman, genre fans are understandably hyped for this upcoming thriller.
That’s why I’ve decided to take a closer look at the trailer and share four things we learned from this sneak peek at Other Mommy!
4. Rob Savage is Going Back to His Supernatural Horror Roots
I know I’m in the minority when I admit that Dashcam is my favorite Rob Savage movie, but even I understand why the filmmakers’ fans have been waiting a while for the director to get back to telling more grounded paranormal stories as he did with 2020’s Host.
Other Mommy obviously isn’t a found footage movie, but moments like the poltergeist activity on the kitchen table combined with the nature of the source material, which actually features a full-on exorcism, indicate that this adaptation is more than a simple creature feature. That’s why I think Savage is once again going to borrow from the same ghostly narratives that made his debut film such a viral hit.
3. Other Mommy is a More Convincing Doppelganger in the Adaptation
Part of the horror from Malerman’s original novel came from the fact that the entity taking on the form of Bela’s (Arabella Olivia Clark) mother wasn’t very good at passing itself off as human. This resulted in several uncanny moments where other characters began to notice that there was something visibly wrong with the family and decided to keep their distance.
Savage’s film appears to be taking a different route, with the trailer showing a version of the entity that can, at least physically, imitate Chastain’s character perfectly. This change is likely the result of the filmmakers wanting to incorporate more paranoid scenes where Bela and her father, played by Jay Duplass, are confused about which Mommy is safe to interact with.
2. The Family is Also Better Off This Time Around
Incidents Around the House featured some interesting subtext about how poverty can negatively affect American family dynamics. After all, the main characters were already feeling scared and isolated before the entity emerged from Bela’s closet and began scratching at their emotional wounds. The trailer for the movie, however, depicts the family as being relatively well off before these incidents begin to occur.
I can only imagine that this part of the story was changed so that the family’s fall from grace can be even more dramatic as the mom and dad’s pasts are revealed and Bela falls further into the clutches of the demonic antagonist.
1. Jessica Chastain is Embodying Evil Dead Rise’s Alyssa Sutherland
Mothers turning against their children is one of the most disturbing horror tropes out there (just check out classics like Hereditary and Carrie if you need proof), but it takes a remarkably skilled actress to pull off such a monstrous transformation. This is especially true when both a regular, loving mother and the Other share the screen in the same film.
That’s why I appreciate how Chastain appears to be channeling another evil redhead mother that recently traumatized audiences with her performance. It’s too early to be sure, but I’m fairly confident that Chastain’s character has at least some amount of Ellie in her cinematic DNA – Ellie being the iconic deadite brought to life by Australian actress Alyssa Sutherland in 2023’s Evil Dead Rise.
Let us know in the comments if you think we missed any important details from the trailer, and don’t forget to check out Other Mommy when it hits theaters on October 9!
You must be logged in to post a comment.