'The Lonely Man with The Ghost Machine' Conjures a Mad Vision Soaked in Cosmic Weirdness [CFF 2024 Review]

​Many of you may know indie horror favorite Graham Skipper for his many roles in films such as Almost Human, Scare Package II, or an entertaining bit in Suitable Flesh, but the actor is also a talented writer/director. His third feature, The Lonely Man with The Ghost Machine—having just played at the Chattanooga Film Festival—may also be his best. A poignant tale about one man’s loneliness at the end of the world, the film highlights Skipper’s abilities both as an actor and a filmmaker. Pulsing with heart and a cosmic eeriness, it’s the sort of vision that puts the audience in a hypnotic trance, led by a brilliant performance from Graham that is simply irresistible.
 
Wozzek (Skipper) is a man who has found himself all alone at the end of the world after his wife, Nellie (Christina Bennett Lind), is eaten by the vicious things that have invaded the planet. In an effort to bring her back, he has built what he dubs “The Ghost Machine”, an invention that allows Nellie to return each night, though without motion or speech. The more Wozzek uses the machine, the closer he believes he is to resurrecting her fully. But along with her comes a new stranger (voiced by Paul Guyet), a sinister presence who lurks outside Wozzek’s cabin door and questions why he goes on living. Unsure if he is losing his mind, he continues his experiment, believing that his only chance at happiness is bringing his wife back to him.
 
During an introduction to the film, Skipper described The Lonely Man with The Ghost Machine as a deeply personal production. That sweat, blood and tears commitment can be felt from the actor throughout the entirety of this affecting dream from another dimension. When we first meet Wozzek, he is a man living alone in a cramped cabin in the woods. Haunted by visions of his wife’s final moments before being devoured. Desperate to do anything to be in her company again. Largely a one-man-show, Skipper leaves it all hanging out in a daring performance that carries the film on unwavering shoulders determined to deliver his vision. His is a sobbing, screaming, violently shitting and man-meat beating role that taps into the very depths of loneliness with dramatic ease. There is nothing Graham seems unwilling to do to sell the madness of his character, and that makes The Lonely Man with The Ghost Machine an alternatively hilarious and tragic story that’s impossible to look away from. Have no doubt, this is Skipper’s best performance to date.

​Glowing as his portrayal is, Skipper isn’t the only star to shine here. Both Lind and Guyet also sparkle with hypnotic performances that suck the viewer into the strangeness of this single-location piece. Flashbacks to Lind from before death give insight into a different sort of loneliness eating her from within the inside out, while Guyet’s mysterious character bares a sadness creeping into his otherwise insidious ramblings. Beginning to end, The Lonely Man with The Ghost Machine is an introspective reflection on the consumptive nature of grief. Its ravenous hunger. The damage it causes. The hope it destroys. Skipper hammers this point home by displaying Wozzek’s world in black and white when he’s by himself, and in color when he’s not. Alone, his life is empty. In the company of someone else, everything comes alive. The filmmaker approaches his film with refreshing abandon, often turning the image upside down or toying with it in other ways to express the crumbling mental state of Wozzek. Some may find Skipper’s film “uneventful” in that it mostly contains conversations with the poor soul at the center of it talking to himself or others, but it is never dull thanks to absorbing portrayals and sharp dialogue that cuts deep.
 
As for those munchie monsters, Skipper makes the wise decision of keeping them as in the dark as possible, both literally and figuratively. Like the creatures of Krasinski’s A Quiet Place, we aren’t really given much information on what they are or where they came from. Comparable to death itself, they arrive unexpectedly and without reason, upending Wozzek’s life in an instant. Perhaps limited by budget, the filmmaker incorporates what comes down to a large hand puppet designed by Christina Bryant to stand in for the beasts. While that may sound silly—and it certainly is depending on how willing you are to buy into it—Bryant’s creepy creation offers another layer of charm to the film. Where smaller productions would usually throw in some cheap CG and call it a day, Skipper opts for something that feels tangible yet alien, adding to the unsettling vibes of the experience. Cinematographer Ken Whiting also frames the thing just well enough to keep it from pulling the audience out of the film too much.
 
Logical explanations and believable effects aren’t what matters in Skipper’s film, however. The Lonely Man and The Ghost Machine is a mad dream soaked in cosmic weirdness and sprinkled with horror. Pulled from the depths of the filmmaker’s soul, it feels like something only Graham Skipper could make, but with a universal message that asks the audience to appreciate the good we have in life or risk losing it forever.

By Matt Konopka