Macabre...ish Horror Review: Hardware
Hardware, 1990/ 94 min. Post apocalyptic scavengers make their living by combing the irradiated wasteland. One of them Mo (Dylan McDermott) unearths an old robot and collects the parts and deals with the local junk dealer, Alvy (Mark Northover). The skull is a Christmas gift for his reclusive girlfriend, Jill (Stacey Travis), who’s a metal sculptor. She eagerly accepts the skull and adds it to her sculpture. She hasn’t seen him in a long time.
After an argument about the government’s sterilization program, they go to bed with their truly disgusting, perverted neighbor, Lincoln (William Hootkins) watching and taking photos.
Later, after the dealer researchers the robot and discovers it to be Military classified experiment, MARK 13. It can recharge itself from any power source, reassemble itself and is weaponized. He smells a big pay day and wants Mo to return with the robot’s parts. Mo returns but without the robot, which recharges itself with the building’s power block and reassembles itself out of her sculpture, from Jill’s quarters. And when he returns to the junk shop, he find’s Alvy dead. A result of a cytotoxin.
Back at Jill’s place, the minute she moves in bed, the Mark attacks her with a saw but she’s fast and leaps out of the way. The ever watching perv, Lincoln, comes over and tries to make a move on her in that moment, coming on super strong. He decides to be the hero and help. He’s killed by the droid because he can’t resist re-opening her blinds so he can see her better from his place.
This machine kills anything that’s alive and moving and Jill fights it with a saw and then tries to blow it up with a breached fuel tank. This android takes a lot of damage and just keeps coming.
Most of this British sci-fi movie takes place in one building and we only see about 20 people in the entire movie. Most notably, Lemmy and Iggy Pop! It’s pretty good for what it is. And the Mark 13 is pretty impressive as an adversary. The movie is also gritty and has plenty of trippy effects and super gory where there is gore.
There is suicide, adult scenes and nudity.
Also, this story was taken from a British comic 2000 AD, a weekly sci-fi comic anthology. Unfortunately they were not given credit and successfully sued the film makers. Steve McManus and Kevin O'Neill had their names added to the writing credits.
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