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.

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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.

Too often I make the mistake of being captivated by a film's poster. The amount of movies I've seen based purely on their poster is higher than I'd care to admit. And alas, once again I've made the mistake. 'The Mind's Eye' has a clever, eye-catching poster indeed, but the film can in no way live up to it. In fact it doesn't even come close. It's a snoozefest. Evidentally psychokinesis does not make for a very good film subject.

The entire plot revolves around an insane doctor who wants psychokinetic powers for himself. Though the audience can't help but wonder, why? What exactly is this going to add to your life? What about having these powers could possibly be worth the effort and sacrifice you are clearly going through to get them? It just doesn't make any sense. Then add in the fact that the two protagonists are about as unlikable and dull as film characters come and you're left with a pretty unwatchable product. Director Joe Begos seems aware he doesn't have the strongest script (dispite having written it himself) and seemingly tries to make up for in the final third with excess gore, but even that falls flat with a lack of originality. There's really not a whole lot to see here.

If this feature stood on it's own, it might have made a weak 4 on my list, but as a rip off of the 1981 classic it barely gets a 2. So let's settle then on 3.

Though the story line deviates from David Cronenberg's Scanners, this feature is a clear rip off from Scanners with very obvious parallels – even a classic reference to the forced veins on the face of Michael Slovak, the deranged scientist.

Someone clearly forgot to tell this movie maker though that if you are going to try and emulate the style of a legendary director like Cronenberg, one should probably at least try and come up with an original idea or study the thematic content of that particular director before putting out a half-bred attempt to cash in on a new generation that would not know the classic.

But with a very weak story line, a complete lack of thematic content, an over obvious choice to emulate Cronenberg's style and an insulting lack of innovation and originality, the best thing about this film is the B-grade special effects that is slightly nostalgic of early Rob Zombie films.

This entire film was very slow. Nothing really happens besides some brief action every now and then. The acting is mediocre at best and the plot is very derivative. The only good part is the film's third act, which features some cool gory kills. The effects aren't the best but they're definitely gory enough to prevent the movie from being a complete waste of time. If the only reason you want to watch the movie is the gore, then skip to the last 20 minutes, you won't miss anything.