''The Infernal Machine'' is a 2022

psychological Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between t ...

mystery thriller Mystery, The Mystery, Mysteries or The Mysteries may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters *Mystery, a cat character in '' Emily the Strange'' Films * ''Mystery'' (2012 film), a 2012 Chinese drama film * ''Mystery'' ...

film written and directed by Andrew Hunt. It is based on a story written by Louis Kornfeld. The film stars

Guy Pearce Guy Edward Pearce (born 5 October 1967) is an Australian actor. Born in Ely, Cambridgeshire in England, and raised in Geelong, Victoria (Australia), Victoria in Australia, he started his career portraying Mike Young (Neighbours), Mike Young in ...

Alice Eve Alice Sophia Eve (born ) is a British actress. Her movie career includes roles in ''She's Out of My League'', ''Men in Black 3'', ''Star Trek Into Darkness'', and ''Before We Go''. She has had recurring roles on the TV series ''Entourage'' and ' ...

Jeremy Davies Jeremy Davies (né Boring; born October 8, 1969) is an American film and television actor. He is known for playing Ray Aibelli in ''Spanking the Monkey'' (1994), Corporal Upham in ''Saving Private Ryan'' (1998), Snow in ''Solaris'' (2002), Bil ...

, and

Alex Pettyfer Alexander Richard Pettyfer (born 10 April 1990) is a British actor and model. He appeared in school plays and on television before being cast as Alex Rider, the main character in the 2006 film version of ''Stormbreaker''. Pettyfer was nominated ...

. ''The Infernal Machine'' was released in the United States on September 23, 2022, and in the United Kingdom on December 2, 2022, by

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...

Synopsis

Bruce Cogburn, a reclusive and controversial author of the famed book ''The Infernal Machine'', is drawn out of hiding when he begins to receive endless letters from an obsessive fan.Cogburn has lived in self-imposed isolation for 25 years in the American southwest. He was driven there in 1981 by the actions of a young man who began shooting in a Knoxville TN university killing 13 people and blaming his action on Cogburn's only book called The Infernal Machine.Then letters show up in his post office box from William Dukent a writer seeking an interview with him. Cogburn travels 45 minutes to the nearest phone booth to leave increasingly threatening phone messages for the writer demaning that the letters stop. Cogburn's paranoia and alcohol consumption grow. Cogburn goes to meet the shooter in prison using a fake name. The shooter manages to escape from prison. The shooter arrives to Cogburn"s house. Cogburn manages to kill him. In the end it turns out that it was actually one of his students when he worked as a teacher that wrote the book.

Cast

as Bruce Cogburn *

as Officer Laura Higgins *

as Dwight Tufford *

as Elijah Barett

Production

Filming took place over five weeks in

Algarve, Portugal The Algarve (, , ; from ) is the southernmost NUTS II region of continental Portugal. It has an area of with 467,495 permanent inhabitants and incorporates 16 municipalities ( ''concelhos'' or ''municípios'' in Portuguese). The region has its ...

, in Portugal’s Moviebox Studios, and on locations in and around the town of Loulé.

acquired worldwide rights to ''The Infernal Machine'' in October 2021. The film was financed by executive producer Jack Christian's financing firm, Filmology Finance.

Reception

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, 46% of 13 critics gave the film a positive review, with an average rating of 5.5/10. Ewan Gleadow of ''Cult Following'' wrote positively of the film, praising Guy Pearce for having "finally found comfort and quality in a performance that should hopefully buffer his star that little bit more."

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Infernal Machine (2022 film), The 2022 films Films shot in Portugal Films shot in the Algarve Films about writers American psychological thriller films