The Infernal Machine

Reclusive and controversial author Bruce Cogburn is drawn out of hiding by an obsessive fan, forcing the novelist to confront a past that he thought he could escape, and to account for events set in motion by his bestseller decades earlier. Cogburn's search for who is behind the manipulation and mental torment he encounters leads to an emotional roller-coaster ride full of fear and danger, where things are not always as clear as they seem to be, and where past deeds can have dire consequences.

A lot of this reminded me of "Unhinged" (2020) with Guy Pierce here delivering a strong and characterful performance just as Russell Crowe did back then. Again, like that film, the rest of this story is weak and far-fetched, though. Pierce is reclusive British author "Cogburn" who finds himself being pursued by researching novelist "William DuKent". Initially hostile, for some reason he takes to calling this man from a local phone box and leaving his machine messages telling him to get lost. (Just quite why he doesn't just ignore him... well?). Anyway, this persistence unleashes in the writer the need for a dog and a bottle, and it's after a little too much one night he encounters a local law officer "Higgins" (Alice Eve) and the story lurches from a curious and intriguing personality analysis to a pretty ridiculous mystery centring around a mass shooting 25 years earlier in Knoxville for which "Tufford" (Alex Pettyfer) was incarcerated for life in a super-max prison. As the story starts to unfold, it becomes clear that strings are being pulled and that "Cogburn" is being manipulated. By whom and what for? Well we do find that out, but by the time we do the story has completely lost it's initial potency and become really quite contrived. Pierce does deliver well - he really does, but the squeakily-voiced Pettyfer exudes all the menace of a wet tea bag and the denouement, though quite revealing, is all just a bit poor.