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Automatons (2006)
Personally I find it a bit unfortunate that a lot of very ambitious low budget projects that I see just end up being a mess. Now sure, you can see the love that a filmmaker could have for a certain genre or style of movie, but not many of them have the skills to be able to pull them off with such a low budget. So when I was reading the back of "Automatons" I really thought that I was in for another example of ambitious filmmaker with no budget that just couldn't make it happen. But when I started watching this one I'm sure you could understand my surprise when the movie not only made it happen, but surpassed the expectations that I had prior to watching it.
"Automatons" is the story of what looks to be close to the last woman on earth. She lives in a shack like structure with her mini army of robots. At the time, robots have turned on their human counterparts and have basically waged a war on all humans. It's a post apocalyptic story in which robots seem to be running the earth or at least are the dominating "species" on the planet. The only hope is The Girl and the fact that she can build up the core of robots to go out and fight the battle for her. The only problem is that whoever is leading the robots in the first place is fully aware of her existence and is trying to gain mind control of her robots on a day to day basis.
I thought that this one was very interesting as I got vibes of movies/stories like Richard Matheson's "I am Legend", Lynch's "Eraserhead", as well as something like "Tetsuo: The Iron Man" as well. The movie has some pretty impressive technical stuff going on as well because it's completely shot in black and white and looks like it was shot on the film stock of some 1950's sci fi flick that would be playing in your local drive in theater. But if you read the liner notes that come with the DVD it's a much more telling story than just trying to duplicate that look. See director James Felix McKenney was a huge fan of watching Creature Feature stuff as well as plain old robots. So he decided to make a movie that reminded himself of the things he watched as a kid, even down to the shoddy production considering most of those movies were seen on a TV set with an antenna instead of the cable quality we've gotten used to years later. Not only is it a fitting homage to films of that time, but it also has something to say about the current political structure we have today, without being totally in your face about it. Now of course it's all there in front of you, but I never felt that the movie was being obnoxious about it.
Something else that I really enjoyed in the movie was the shoestring budgeted effects. Most of the robots in the film are either puppets or people in costume. Also the robots all look like they would have in a 50's flick as they are little more than cardboard and aluminum. But for some reason this all works in the grand scheme of things, which really surprised me. I thought the atmosphere was rather clostrophobic and congested and it really adds to the sense of dread in the film. All of that mixed in with the fact that the robots aren't impressive looking give the movie a charm all on it's own.
It should also be mentioned that Angus Scrimm who is best known for his role as "The Tall Man" in the Phantasm series of films stars in this one as well as a rather interesting character. See Scrimm plays The Scientist, a man who is on the forefront of the robot wars. He's nothing more than a talking monitor head in the film but it works and works well. His character is basically the only human contact our lead character has and with the separation (with him being on a monitor) it's an impressive performance.
Overall I would say that "Automatons" is not only just a good movie, but it's also more than a homage as well. It's one of the most impressive independent projects I've seen in a long time and I can guarantee that's because this was a labor of love for James Felix McKenney. But I can't stress enough that this movie is much more than a homage, as it stands to be one of the most skilled and ambitious shoestring budget movies I've seen to date. It's just McKenney's love for this type of film that makes it that much more enjoyable.
Rating - ***
-Ed Demko
