WHAT THE F**K? And I mean that in a good way.
Joseph Parda’s (5 Dead on the Crimson Canvas) film “Machines of Love and Hate” will have you asking just that. On the surface it is a tale of a mysterious mercenary (David Runco) who arrives at the home of a dysfunctional family causing the skeletons to come a-rushin out of the closet as the family’s mysterious past begins to come into focus… well, more like slightly less out of focus.
A mysterious drifter is injured when he is hit by a car driven by young woman (Tina Krause). As he refuses to go to the hospital, Erika takes him home to the adamant objection of her wheelchair bound father (Milton Haynes) and the perverse delight of her mother (Eileen Daly). It is reluctantly agreed that he can stay the night and get the hell out as soon as he is well. Then things begin to get strange and progressively stranger. Think David Lynch on acid during a full moon.
Suffice it to say that the family has some secrets that they would rather keep as such. Throw in an affair between the drifter and the daughter, a less than wholesome relationship between the husband and wife, mysterious scars, voyeurism, bizarre sex, medical experiments, nudity, blood and a dark past that may tie them all together and what you have is one hell of a film.
Parda’s visual style varies between gritty and dreamlike and he never lets the viewer off easy. There is a lot to take in and your brain may hurt for a bit but it you are not afraid of something weird it is well worth seeking out.
