How do you make a "realistic" movie about reanimation? In all honesty you can't, but you come closest by presenting characters with realistic reactions and motivations in an implausible situation. In most movies, the reaction to a loved one's unexpected return is most often horror or joy. The reaction could well be sadness and confusion. This is more subtle and thought provoking and more difficult to make interesting, but I think this film succeeds in that respect. The messages are subtle, the presentation of a well worn plot device was original, the acting was believable.If you need gore in a reanimation movie or pies in the face in a comedy, skip this movie. But if you want something to think about for a little while after the closing credits you may enjoy this.

I find it frustrating that so often truly great independent genre films are poorly reviewed on IMDb or Amazon because they fail to follow the genre conventions established in Hollywood films.For example, if "horror" to you means violence, blood, and gore--especially torture, rape, and exploding genitalia--then this film is not a horror movie. Similarly, if "sci-fi" to you means aliens, patriotic/ military subtext, and tentacle sex, then this film utterly fails as a science fiction film. Finally, if by character development or depth you mean something like protagonist A starts out as a good guy but eventually eats kittens or love interest B starts out as the girl-next-door but is revealed to be an S&M dominatrix by the third reel, then these characters are neither very well developed or sufficiently deep. However, while there is nothing wrong with people making or enjoying popcorn-munching, lowest-common-denominator genre films, there is another way to make great, entertaining films.Phasma Ex Machina takes that other approach delivering believable responses from believable characters to unbelievable events. Suspend your disbelief and ask yourself if you'd really want the love of your life returned from the dead or your grand-daughter resurrected after twenty years? Ghost from the Machine succeeds in exploring how real people might learn real answers to these and other questions without descending into moralizing or allegory. Similarly, it succeeds in being genuinely creepy--and even frightening--without resorting to fake blood and orchestration-based jump scares. The film succeeds at these goals largely because its actors and locations aren't the usual Hollywood caricatures. The relationships depicted might strike us as underdeveloped or thin specifically in that they resist any attempts to hit us over the head with their supposed "depth." The events seem real even while the premise is spectacularly unlikely precisely because these characters inhabit a believable universe not dissimilar to our own.Yes, the sex scene is awkward to the point of making us look away, but much like The Sessions (2012), it is so because it lacks the normal Hollywood glitter and slickness. Yes, the machine is merely a macguffin that occasions an exploration of real loss and tragedy. Yes, the inclusion of the former-pedophile-who-ran-a-daycare--and just happens to have lived in your house--subplot seems to push the limits of coincidence. However, even this can be overlooked if you are willing to admit that every house has probably had somebody distasteful living in it at some time or another in the past. If you want to be genuinely frightened, abandon your tinsel-town preconceptions and check out this great film.

For a low budget, independent movie from an inexperienced director/writer, I thought this was actually pretty enjoyable. The plot is a bit of a rehash of the old mad scientist trope, but this time the mad scientist is a young adult who can't let go of his dead parents. Feeling guilty and responsible for their deaths, he embarks on a single-minded quest to contact them, using some pseudo-scientific theory involving electromagnetic fields. I guess they figured that audiences might get confused about EMF, so they dedicated several expository scenes on the science behind the kid's invention. Unfortunately, this does slow down the pacing a bit, but, unlike Primer, from which this movie seems to draw some influence, they managed to keep the technobabble to minimum. Like Primer, the invention is basically a MacGuffin, a black box that serves to advance the plot and draw the focus of obsessive behavior. Unlike Primer, the themes aren't as explicit, nor is it quite as compelling, though I fail to see why the rating is quite so low as it is (hovering around a 4, at the time of my writing). I'd say that it's pretty decent and probably worth a view for fans of supernatural thrillers. There's no gore, profanity, or nudity that I can remember, though there's a little violence and atmospheric tension. That makes me wonder if maybe it was aimed at younger audiences, especially seeing as how the leads are all fairly young. Still, I think it works fine for older audiences, as long as they're not expecting it to be a gory horror movie.

Have you ever stood completely still in your house and felt the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end, or felt a sudden burst of chilled air in an otherwise warm room? Maybe what you are feeling isn't just a random altering of sensations, but rather a supernatural occurrence correlating to electronic emissions in power lines in and around your house.Now, what would happen if say, you were an expert electrician whose knowledge of all things electrical is equaled only by your passion to resurrect your recently deceased parents by means of something resembling a large home stereo? You don't need a degree in electrical engineering to know that going against nature or bringing back something – especially through the use of science – you're not supposed to will and can only end badly. Lest we forget the lessons learned in Jurassic Park? Speaking of Spielberg's dinosaurs, it's no spoiler to say that director Matt Osterman's Phasma Ex-Machina doesn't have a T-Rex, a high speed chase, or even Jeff Goldblum for that matter. But what this film does have is an original ghost story script with just enough menacing moments to leave you with an eerie creeped out feeling when all is said and done. It also has a refreshing and more true-to-life (even in the supernatural realm in which it lives) ending seldom seen in bigger budgeted more conventionalized Hollywood type films. It would be interesting to see what this young filmmaker could do if given a bigger budget. I for one am looking forward to seeing what else he has to offer.