Mindwarp - Futuro virtuale

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.

Chaucer this ain't! Mindwarp is a low budget horror flick that makes no pretensions, and delivers no surprises. Starring the always reliable Bruce Campbell, and a very weak Marta Alicia, the movie is your basic post-apocalyptic romp with monsters, mutants, evil wizards, etc. Higher on the gore content than many of its compatriots, the movie also lacks the tongue in cheek humor that makes some of these flicks fun to watch (Sam Rami's Army of Darkness comes to mind).

The movie does elicit good performances from Bruce Campbell, who has made a successful career fighting heavily made up extra's in movies and Rami's Herc/Xena series. Campbell knows the score and delivers the deadpan hero mode needed to make these pictures bearable. Surprisingly good back up work by supporting actors Angus Scrimm and Elizabeth Kent, doing something with very little in the dialogue department, also add to the film. The one big problem is the female lead, Marta Alicia, who has obviously forgotten that she is no longer in Grade 10 drama, and delivers her lines in a one note (ie. - whiny) tone. Forgetting that her major role is to scream, look frightened, and lose most of her clothing at strategic intervals, Alicia instead appears to be trying to ACT, mainly by looking annoyed and whining a lot.

Overall, the flic ain't bad. The writing is better than expected, with several plot twists at the end and even a hint of an Electra complex (shades of Freud) along the way. The special effects aren't, and the budget was obviously stretched in the makeup department, as most of the 'mutants' look like trick or treaters wearing Holloween masks from Walmart.

I rented this at Blockbuster for 99 cents. That's about the right price.

For most of the movie, the pretty female lead (who has some rather admirable musculature in her arms) is exiled from her apparently post-apocalyptic underground lair where most time is spent in virtual reality, to the barren Earth's surface, mostly sand and snow. Mutated human beings try to capture her, but Bruce Campbell saves her. However, they both get captured and pulled under the Earth's surface where Campbell is put to work mining for pre- apocalyptic items like Cuisanart blenders, and she has more in store for her than that.

However, that's not where the movie starts or ends. It is bookended by some confusing scenes in the underground lair and in the virtual reality. It's unclear what's real and what's not, and I didn't understand the ending at all, I'm afraid.

For those looking for gore, there is some and it is pretty good, but I wouldn't say there's a lot of scenes with it.

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.

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.