If you had forgotten what it felt like to live in isolation during 2020 due to the global pandemic, Machination may bring back some possibly negative memories if you are one of those who developed a compulsive disorder because of it. If you didn’t have this experience, this movie may give you an idea of ​​what others went through.

Maria (Steffi Thake) is portrayed as woman suffering from anxiety due to a global pandemic. Her job has not given her the opportunity to work from home, so she has to step out of her safe-zone to fearfully face the risk of contracting the virus. After suffering a mental crisis, Maria feels forced to isolate herself at home and avoid going to work, stops socializing with other people even virtually, sees her own home as a source of infection, and begins to imagine things that go beyond of what she gets to read online. At this rate, Maria will come to narrow her options to move forward: confront her fears or let her fears consume her.

Machination tells the 60-minute story of an anxious woman who seems to prefer death instead of life—it’s ironic to hear her desire to be healthy when there are other factors that she favors to possibly end up in a hospital bed. Her situation seems stressful, and she demonstrates it through her apathy, her range of emotions that run hot-and-cold in a matter of seconds, and her dreams that seem to bring her some reassurance and anguish at the same time. To some viewers this might seem illogical when in fact this is sort of an accurate representation of behavior for a person with pathological disorders caused by severe traumatic events.

Even when the story may seem tedious, there is a certain empathy that could be felt towards the character by learning about the events that pushed her to become the complex person she is now. The only detail that seems to cause some conflict in the plot is the supporting characters: they’re obnoxious. It’s clear they have been outlined in such a way to give impetus to Maria’s problems, but it discriminates the development of the main character, letting her drown in her sorrow without remorse.

Machination is an independent film with a low budget— a very low budget— and you can hear it in the quality of the distorted audio due to the lack of microphones to directly capture the casts’ voices and a soundtrack heard louder over anything else making the dialogue unintelligible. In short, sound mixing is an aural nightmare for anyone who wants to watch the movie with speakers or headphones.

Machination is a confusing pandemic product trying to replicate the horror experienced by many during its first couple of waves, even when at times it suggests Maria’s situation to be unique. In the end it deals with a story with which few could identify since it lacks maturity and exposure of its themes to claim relevance instead of treating them lightly and leaving to the interpretation of the viewer the motives of why Maria is falling apart while the world is also shattering.

4 OUT OF 10 FACEMASKS