Independent Films, Film Profiles

Ghost in the Machine (film)

Ghost in the Machine (also known as Deadly Terror) is a 1993 horror/science fiction film from 20th Century Fox.The film is about a fictional serial killer named Karl Hochman (Ted Marcoux), who is known as the "address book killer." At the beginning of the film, he is nearly killed by a head-on collision with a truck. At the emergency room he is placed in a MRI machine, when a surge, caused by an electrical storm, transfers his mind into a computer. As a network-based entity he plots to continue his killing spree, using the electrical grid, appliances, and the computer network.He obtains the address book of Terry Munroe (Allen) and begins to go through the list to kill off her friends. (In the film she has a son, Josh, played by Wil Horneff.) Aided by computer hacker Bram Walker (Mulkey), however, they manage to fight back and defeat the killer by introducing a computer virus that traps him at a physics laboratory. Hochman is forced to escape, existing in a form similar to the holograms in the Star Trek: The Next Generation holodecks. The heroes then proceed to activate an atom smasher which appears to draw in the killer and destroy him.