The Mind's Eye

I'm a very big fan of low budget Sci-Fi films, and this one was quite impressive.

If you ever seen the David Cronenberg film, Scanners, it's very, very similar to that experience, The effects are simple and effective, and a good use of both visual and sound effects to make the psychokinetic powers seem eerie.

It's a good set of interesting characters with the best one being the guy who played the main antagonist, Slovak. He starts off sane and gets crazier like a super villain as the movie progresses.

The Mind's Eye follows Slovak as he hunts down and experiments on the ever growing population of psychokinetic people, in hopes of gaining great power from them, only to have to chase down a few of them who had escape his clutches.

I'm also a sucker for movies that allow me to reminisce over my 80s upbringing with a look and a soundtrack that remind me of that era (The film actually takes place in the early 90s)

It's a stellar production.

http://cinemagardens.com

Imagine if David Cronenberg had just a 100 IQ. This then is what Scanners would've looked like. It doesn't suck, but it's not all that impressive either.

Unlike Scanners, there is no cerebral subtext. What you see is what you get and nothing more. One thing that drove me sorta nuts watching it is that the characters will announce that some course of action is not a good idea and then proceed to do just that. They also engage in fights to the death, where they get the upper hand, but then do not finish off their opponents. Guess what happens.

The lead actress and the score are pretty good. Plus, the general storyline is interesting, the foreboding atmosphere is well maintained, and the practical gore effects are impactful. All in all, I'd probably rather just rewatch Scanners, but that said, you could do a lot worse than watching this homage/ knockoff/ what-have-you.

Almost a competent film, there isn't an original thought in this movie. Whoever made it saw Scanners and said, Hey rather than do yet another low budget zombie movie, let's do Scanners. And that's what they did. It almost a paint by numbers recreation of Scanners right down to the mind off (face off) at the end. Not horrible. But not good either.

As a child of the 80's, I grew up with these kinds of films; films about people with special powers and government cover-ups. This film does a great job of evoking that same feeling, with a decent script and a pretty decent SFX budget. The acting, however, was beyond hacky, and really marred the integrity of the film. Almost everyone involved in this movie was just awful, with overacting and poor delivery abundant in every scene. It was like watching a student film at times, with people who have no business being in front of a camera. With a more talented cast, this would have been a worthy addition to 80's horror films. As it stands, it is a decent film with some really bad talent attached to it. Watch it for the carnage and gore, but be advised, you will be rolling your eyes every time someone attempts to deliver their lines with a straight face.

Here's a first for yours truly: a review of a yet-to-be-released film that's currently making the festival circuit. The 'secret movie' and highlight of Brooklyn's Nitehawk Cinema's Halloween 'Nite to Dismember'celebration turned out to be director Joe Bego's follow-up to "Almost Human," the very 80's (particularly Steve Moore's wall-to- wall electronic soundtrack) "The Mind's Eye." What "Turbo Kid" is to 80's post-apocalyptic movies "The Mind's Eye" is to David Cronenberg's "Scanners": a contemporary homage that looks/sounds like the genuine article, right down to the ugly-looking logo of the institute at the center of the intrigue. Per Begos' representative at the screening, the director's aim was to make the sequel/follow-up to "Scanners" that he feels the actual "Scanners" sequels didn't live up to. It takes an awful lot of trouble for "The Mind's Eye's" psychokinetic characters to flex their mental muscles. A simple ax or gun seems to do the trick better for most of the film. Even though it mercilessly teases early on that big exploding heads and psychokinetic duels are coming, it's not until the final act that "The Mind's Eye" truly goes berserk in a good way. You know, like "Rabid" and "The Brood" and, yes, "Scanners."

Personally I feel "The Mind's Eye" has some shortcomings in the casting of its leads. Either that or Begos deliberately went with actors that feel miscast (Graham Skipper) or way over the top (John Speredakos) to match similar bad casting in Cronenberg's late 70's/early 80's films. That would be an even more meta tribute to the Canadian master of body horror than the "Videodrome"-like opening titles/fonts that start the movie. At least the supporting cast is populated with low-budget horror luminaries, from Larry Fessenden ("I Sell the Dead") and Jeremy Gardner ("The Battery") to Noah Segan ("Starry Eyes") and Lauren Ashley Carter ("The Woman"). For a 2015 low-budget film that sets its story in the early 90's (which makes it feel closer to Cronenberg's prime decades) the action is decent and the deaths/gore off-the-charts groovy, something "Scanners 2 & 3" definitely skimped on. For fans of body horror missing the old Cronenberg now that the genuine article is doing mostly psychologically-heavy stuff (not that I'm complaining), "The Mind's Eye" will make for a pleasant and entertaining evening's entertainment. Me and the Nitehawk Halloween crowd really dug it.