Ghost from the Machine is a 2010 supernatural thriller film by Matt Osterman.
Cody is a troubled young man, haunted by the deaths of his parents, who lives with his equally troubled younger brother James, who skips school and has no hobbies but video games and pranks at school. Cody is obsessed with the link between high-intensity electromagnetic fields and hauntings. While buying a power inverter, he meets Tom, a widower trying to move on from his wife's death. Cody's machine works almost as intended, but the wrong ghosts are conjured up...
Not to be confused with Ghost in the Machine.
This film provides examples of:
- All There in the Script: The daycare worker and his mother have a name (Mr. and Mrs Kravitch), but it's never mentioned
- Bittersweet Ending: Cody destroys the machine, causing the ghosts of Mr and Mrs Kravitch to be banished permanently. However, James gets taken away by Child Protective Services. Tom is also trying to rebuild the Machine...
- Death Song: The end credits theme is about letting go of one's loved ones while dying, "sung" by a voice synth.
- Electromagnetic Ghosts: Cody sums it up here:"What are the two things all hauntings have in common? An intense electromagnetic field and a large amount of negative ions."
- He also points out that hauntings are common near power lines. His machine creates a strong magnetic field, allowing the ghosts to manifest.
- Ironic Nursery Rhyme: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
- It Won't Turn Off: Cody knows his machine is working because his radio turns itself back on when he tries to turn it off, and won't be tuned to a new station.
- Gone Horribly Wrong: The machine works; bringing back the dead like it's supposed to. However, it's aim sucks...
- Haunted Technology: Inverted. The machine allows or invokes a haunting, it is not itself haunted.
- Living Memory: Invoked. Cody chews out Tom for stealing the Machine so he can keep coexisting with Grace's "shell". The ghosts act like the people they were in life, and can form new memories, so it's not really certain.
- Momma's Boy: The daycare workers who lived in Cody and James' house were a mother/son duo.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: Conjured by strong EM fields, and are either Living Memory or unaware of having died, wearing Jacob Marley Apparel.
- Tim Taylor Technology: the ghost machine works a little bit with one inverter, causing inanimate migration and electrical phenomena. With two, it works properly.
