Richard Stanley's Hardware wastes no time at all informing the viewer about this post-apocalyptic world, instead opting to immerse the viewer and let them figure out the intricacies of this world as the story progresses. This is a terribly underrated Sci-Fi horror film which is crafted with ingenuity and enthusiasm to the point that the budgetary constraints only add to Hardware's charm. It's essentially about Moses, ex-military, who discovers a pile of droid parts in "the zone" which turn out to be a dismantled prototype of a new battle droid. Chaos ensues. You can tell that Richard Stanley came from music videos cause this film is absolutely loaded with style and atmosphere. The film heavily uses music and editing in a succinct, stylized way, aiding in the creation of unique and robust atmosphere that makes Hardware unique. Strangely enough, the sex scene is a great example of this, with a synth score immersing the viewer in this strange erotic sequence, Stanley syncs the score with white and blue strobe lights that illuminate the action, making it one of the more memorable sex scenes in recent memory. Hardware is full of these types of sequence, the lighting an use of color, particularly red, used by Stanley gives the whole film this strange dark, post-apocalyptic feel. Hardward is dirty, bleak and somewhat sleazy, thanks mostly to a character who is the neighbor of Moses' girlfriend. Let's just say he likes to watch, which inevitable leads to one of the best death sequences when the aforementioned voyeuristic neighbor meets his maker. While not loaded with violence, Richard Stanley's Hardware is a creative and unique vision of a post-apocalyptic world, being another under-appreciated gem from Richard Stanley.
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AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
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