For some reason I’ll never understand people seem to knock horror films from the 90’s. Just the notion of doing so is silly to me. Without even putting much thought into it a bunch of great horror titles from that decade immediately jump to mind. The reason I mention this is because I recently watched Stephen Norrington’s Death Machine, courtesy of a wonderful German Blu-ray release from Turbine Media. Death Machine came out in 1994 and it’s a movie that likely couldn’t exist in any other decade and its pretty god damn awesome.

Chaank Industries is the world leader in future weapons technologies. Basically they are creating everything that will be used in the next world war. Naturally they’re not the most ethical company around. They don’t care what harm they do along the way. Their sole focus is on the bottom-line. At the end of the day it’s just about making the most money you can. New Chaank chief executive Hayden Cale (Ely Pouget) is determined to change this.

In an effort to clean Chaank up and hold the company to higher standards Hayden begins to dig around. What she discovers is more shocking than she could have ever thought. Not only has Chaank been up to some shady business tactics, but their mastermind in weapon design Jack Dante (Brad Dourif) has been locked away working on something truly sinister. Dante refers to it as “WarBeast,” and it’s pretty much a giant, robot T-rex programmed to kill. Once the T-rex is programmed it will stop at nothing to complete its mission. Fortunately for Hayden a group of eco-terrorists determined to bring Chaank down team up with her to stop Dante and his deadly creation.

Death Machine looks very dated. You see a lot of computers and stuff that is supposed to be high tech gadgetry that looks pretty silly by today’s standards. My guess is most people watching the film today would view that as a negative. I, on the other hand, happen to disagree. Yes, showing this type of technology keeps the movie stuck in a specific time period but I think that’s kind of cool. I love the way people viewed the future in the 80’s and the 90’s. It’s like that episode of “The Simpsons” with Homer in 3D. Death Machine kind of takes place in that same world and I find it to be freaking awesome.

The best scene in the movie comes when Dante unleashes his robotic beast for the first time. He programs it to take out another big shot at Chaank by the name of Scott Ridley (Richard Brake). This scene is incredible. You have this average man in Ridley being chased by a robot T-rex programmed to kill him and stop at nothing to do so. We get a lot of close-ups of Ridley’s face as he runs for his life as well as some first-person shots to put us in his shoes. It almost feels like you’re in a video game as he runs through this labyrinth that is Chaank Industries trying to escape. He cuts down different hallways and into different rooms trying to lose the T-rex but it’s no luck. The T-rex will not be deterred. It’s an incredibly intense and exciting scene.

Adding to the intensity of that scene and the movie as a whole is a pulsating score from Crispin Merrel. It’s this techno-industrial music that feels like it’s just pounding you over the head. It’s just perfect for the movie. It has a very robotic vibe that just meshes perfectly with every visual on screen. Merrel did a wonderful job and as a nice bonus Turbine Media included the soundtrack as with this release. Extra points awarded for that bonus for sure.

The role of Dante is perfect for Dourif. I think because he’s such an icon as the voice of Chucky that he doesn’t always get the credit as a fantastic character actor that he deserves. He’s up there with the best of the best and it’s all on full display in Death Machine. Dante is always the smartest and most unstable person in the room. He could snap at the drop of a hat. Underneath all of it he’s quite vulnerable. Great performance all around from Dourif.

Norrington did a superb job writing and directing. I love when directors reference people and things they like. Norrington was not shy about doing this. As you may have realized by now virtually every character is named after a different genre director. In addition to Dante and Ridley you have Carpenter and Raimi. I love little touches like this. Maybe it’s cheesy but I think it makes the director more relatable. Norrington likes the same people I like!

I do have one complaint about Death Machine. I wanted there to be one really big battle with the T-rex. One piece of weaponry designed by Chaank is basically a robo-suit for the military. You put it on and essentially become a robot. They use this to fight the T-rex, but never have that hand-to-hand combat that I want. This is a fairly minor issue and in no way takes away from the overall enjoyment. Death Machine is still a absolute gem that offers up so much awesome-ness.

Turbine Media did a stellar job with this release. The special features are somewhat on the light side but you do get that inclusion of the awesome soundtrack which is really cool. Most importantly the film looks great. And if a film looks great then there’s really nothing more you can ask for in a Blu-ray release. I highly recommend tracking this one down.