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.
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.[2] 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, Tennessee university killing 13 people and blaming his action on Cogburn's only book. 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 DuKent demanding that the letters stop.
Cogburn's paranoia and alcohol consumption grow. He goes to meet the shooter, Dwight Tufford, in prison using a fake name. Tufford manages to escape from prison then arrives at Cogburn's house where Cogburn manages to kill him.
In the end it turns out that it was actually one of Cogburn’s students from when he worked as a creative writing teacher that wrote the book; the student in question, Elijah Barrett, suffered a mental breakdown and set himself on fire after he completed the book. Cogburn himself had received multiple rejections from publishers for his own writing, which they deemed mediocre and uninspiring, so Cogburn published the book in his own name once he heard that the student's family were turning off life support. After the student, Barrett, writes a second book, The Divine Apostate, in Cogburn's name, he attempts to kill himself again in a fire after forcing a confrontation with Cogburn, but Cogburn crawls wounded from the blaze and posts a letter to his agent confessing that he did not write The Infernal Machine.
Filming took place over five weeks in Algarve, Portugal, in Portugal’s Moviebox Studios, and on locations in and around the town of Loulé. Paramount Pictures acquired worldwide rights to The Infernal Machine in October 2021.[3] The film was financed by executive producer Jack Christian's financing firm, Filmology Finance.[1]
Reception
Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, 46% of 13 critics gave the film a positive review, with an average rating of 5.5/10.[4]
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