Love Machine (4½ Stars)

This is the 16th film directed by Dean McKendrick, made in 2016. It's the second of his erotic thrillers. If anything, it's even darker in character than his previous film, "Model for Murder".

There have been a series of murders (of which we only witness three in the film). Men are found dead, and their wives are missing. There's no consistent murder method. One man has had his chest punctured with a corkscrew, another man has been battered with a baseball bat. The only thing that links the murders is that the men are all naked, and they all visited the same psychiatrist for marriage therapy.

Dr. Stephanie Bradshaw, played by Jennifer Korbin in her final role, is a woman with a dark past. Six years ago her drunken husband beat her daughter so badly that she's been in a coma ever since. Now she's sworn revenge on all men. She's invented a machine that cures sexual frigidity, but it also awakes homicidal urges. Married couples come to her when the passion in their marriage has died, and her machine really does make women want sex again, but they also have the urge to kill their partner during sex. That's not a Love Machine, it's a Black Widow Machine!

I love this film. It features a cameo appearance by Christine Nguyen, but she isn't one of the killers. That's a pity. When Alice Haig (pictured above with the gun) is asked in therapy what her biggest sexual fantasy is, she says it's Christine Nguyen in the shower, and we're shown a five minute scene with Christine soaping herself. Funny. I thought only men had fantasies like that.

This film is no longer available on DVD, but it can be watched online with Amazon Prime. Unfortunately the running time listed at Amazon.com is only 52 minutes, whereas the film lasts 81 minutes on the DVD, so I assume it's been censored.