Mindwarp

I normally hate post-apocalyptic science fiction, but I'll make an exception for Mindwarp. Despite gratuitous gore and a cast with some weak members, the film manages to be entertaining. Good use is made of a low budget, and an intriguing (if ugly) world is created. If you're a science fiction fan, this movie should be at least a little more satisfying than most genre entries.

Mindwarp is just great! Its just one of those fun movies that are just entertaining from start to finish. IT's very original and has a quick pace that doesn't let up. The cast led by Bruce Campbell(Evil Dead), Angus Scrimm(Phantasm), and unknown Marta Alicia is great. I have no clue who she is, but Elizabeth Kent of plays the supporting role of Cordelia is awesome! If your a fan of gory sci-fi/horror than I totally recommend Mind Warp. It is hard to find and I first saw it when I was 11 and couldn't find a copy again until I was 17. This film should have gotten the attention it deserved! See it today!!!! JUST DON'T TAKE IT SERIOUSLY

First time I saw Mindwarp on the TV, I kinda hated it. Mostly because I thought it was a cheap and gaudy film, made grotesque by the excess of blood and gore, with ideas that were interesting but never profound. Despite disliking the film, however, it stuck with me, partly because it did have scenes and ideas that were inherently interesting and worth watching, and mostly because this is actually one hard film to find on home video. I have never seen a DVD release for this film; it's currently only available on VHS, or, shockingly, as a limited-edition Twilight Time Blu-Ray. That brief showing on TV was my one and only exposure to this movie, up until I got my mitts on Blu-Ray #471 of 3,000.

To be fair, the movie makes for a fine piece of pulply schlock sci-fi, the likes of which could make for a great comic strip in the Heavy Metal magazine, or a short story in some anthology. As a film, it has some promise; the bulk of it takes place in a nightmarish post-apocalyptic wasteland, full of bloodthirsty cannibals, parasitic fish, and sick cults. This hard-edged adventure is book-ended by a really slick bit of utopic cyberpunk, for even though the world has been nuked, a number of inhabitants spend their time in a virtual dream-world. Sound familiar? It makes me wonder if Mindwarp could have been an influence on the Watchowskis when writing The Matrix saga...

The film is neat, and its story is inherently sound. What makes it work are its characters; it is interesting to watch the main heroine get a serious dose of reality when she's expelled from her utopic home and forced to confront the harsh realities of a nuclear wasteland. Things come in full circle by the end, thanks to a neat little plot twist, but the overall message never felt right to me (almost an antithesis to The Matrix, which was all about liberation). That's really the only problem I see with the plot: a certain lack of refinement, for despite the key themes of reality and fantasy, and the coming of age, the film seems really small in scale and it seems like some things could have been better.

The film is as I remember: gaudy and ugly. It's filmed with adequate photography and editing, but most of the settings, props, and locales appear cheap, drab, and somewhat ugly. Even the futuristic scenes in the utopic city are rather ugly-looking. Acting and writing are rather weak all around; Bruce Campbell is a pretty standard hero guy here. Despite a few iffy lines, I was rather fond of Marta Martin. Angus Scrimm steals the show throughout. Music for this film is rather gaudy too.

To me, this film has always been the pure definition of a B-movie: cheap, ugly, gory, strangely hard-to-find, and strangely somewhat hard to forget. For those who have an interest in such low-grade cinema, or are a fan of the actors, or just want a good piece of trashy pulp sci-fi, Mindwarp should be worth a look, if you can find it.

3/5 (Entertainment: Pretty Good | Story: Average | Film: Poor)

The story in Mindwarp is interesting but the budget for this movie was just too low. It's a pity because it had potential to be a good sci-fi post apocalyptic horror movie but now it's just a bit cringing to watch. Maybe one day they will remake this one with a decent budget and then we could have something. The costumes, masks and other attributes looked like they've been purchased in the cheapest costume shop, the acting is mediocre and that despise I like Bruce Campbell normally. It looks like he always plays in stuff where at one point somebody gets his hand chopped off. I wished I liked this movie more, but even for a distant 1992 movie it still looks too amateuristic.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I believe that director Steve Barnett's low budget B-movie Mindwarp was an influence on Cronenberg's excellent eXistenZ AND the groundbreaking sci-fi action classic The Matrix. Of course, it's nowhere near as good as those films, but the similarities are hard to ignore.

Like eXistenZ and The Matrix, the main character, 'dreamer' Judy (Marta Martin), plugs into a virtual world which is impossible to distinguish from real life. Like eXistenZ and The Matrix, the body requires a 'port'-an interface with which to connect the human mind to the digital realm. And like The Matrix, the real world seems a lot less appealing than the computerised alternative, where you can live out your fantasies.

Unfortunately, Judy's electronic existence comes to an end when she is granted her wish to experience reality and is exiled to a post-apocalyptic world where cannibals roam the wastelands. It's not long before flesh-eating mutants have Judy trussed up ready for slaughter, but help comes in the form of passing good samaritan Stover (Bruce Campbell), who saves her from a grisly fate and takes her to his home. From this point the film becomes rather repetitive as Judy and Stover are captured by the cannibals and taken underground, where they escape, get captured, escape again, and get captured again.

There's a fair bit of gore to liven up proceedings, and horror icon Angus Scrimm turns up as the leader of the cannibals, who has created a form of religion to keep the mutants in hand, but it does get pretty tedious. The film rounds things off with a not-totally-unexpected twist ending.

5.5/10, rounded up to 6 for iMDb. Better than Alien Apocalypse, but not by much.