The Lawnmower Man (1992)
The 1992 science fiction horror film The Lawnmower Man is perhaps best known for having absolutely nothing to do with Stephen King’s 1975 short story, The Lawnmower Man. In the original King story, a man hires a new grounds-keeping company to mow his lawn; he promptly discovers that his new gardener is a cultist to the trickster god Pan (who also happens to mow the lawn buck naked with a sentient lawnmower). Our erstwhile protagonist refuses to abide by these new terms of service, and the cultist promptly murders him by ordering the lawnmower to chop him into pieces.
If anything, the movie version is… weirder, and is closer to Of Mice and Men. A scientist with ties to the military-industrial complex gives a simple-minded gardener intelligence-enhancing treatments; this makes the subject so smart he somehow develops psychic powers, goes on a murder spree, and eventually declares his intention to become a god made of pure energy. He’ll accomplish this by escaping into the computer, of course. Humanity’s sick new deity then announces his birth by making all the phones on the planet ring at once, which is kind of like Facebook notifications if you squint your eyes and think about it.
