Horror Movie Review: Machination (2022)

From the directing, writing and producing team of Sarah Jayne Portelli and Ivan Malekin, Machination is a psychological horror/thriller that stars Steffi Thake.

She plays Maria, a germophobic woman who is living in one of the most arduous times for humanity, the COVID-19 pandemic.

Yes, this is a movie that doesn’t just use the real-life pandemic as a backdrop, it is a character in itself. A looming and constant threat that hangs over this movie like a death shroud. That all of us, in the entire world, have been impacted by the events of the past few years just makes the story feel all the more real.

The COVID-19 pandemic isn’t Maria’s only problem though as the isolation, her anxieties and fear of getting sick is combining with childhood trauma. Repressed trauma that is pushing her to the brink of schizophrenia.

This movie is all about Maria, it’s her film and Steffi Thake does an excellent job of portraying her weakening mind and fractured mentality. From watching her do her daily clean-down ritual after going outside. To seeing her panic when someone coughs near her. To seeing her avoid all human contact and lock herself away. It’s the descent that makes Machination such a compelling and horrifying watch. Especially as, we the viewer, begin to unpick her trauma through hallucinations and dreams.

Machination is a slow burn of a movie, one that really builds up tension and lays on heavy atmosphere. It’s never boring, partially because Maria is so watchable and partially because the big picture is slowly coming into focus.

You won’t feel good come the end of this film but you will be satisfied with the story told. Even more so as it is quite tight and concise. Its short runtime could have resulted in a lot of unanswered questions but credit where credit is due, we get the answers we want and any that are left open, are left open for your imagination to fill in.

The end result is a very substantial and brooding psychological horror movie. If you want to find out some more about it, check out our interview with Sarah Jayne Portelli and Ivan Malekin below.