Verdict
Summary
Great score and the tone is nice and grim.
Plot: Zack Connors and Rachel Meadows were born with incredible psychokinetic capabilities. When word of their supernatural talents gets out, they find themselves the prisoners of Michael Slovak, a deranged doctor intent on harvesting their powers. After a daring escape, they are free from his sinister institution, but the corrupt doctor will stop at nothing to track them down so that he may continue to siphon their gifts for his own use.
Review: A drifter on a long stretch of road is picked on by some cops (should remind you of First Blood), but instead of going quietly, the guy strikes back … with his mind. It becomes immediately clear that Zack Connors (played by Graham Skipper) is imbued with psychokinetic powers, and after he’s knocked unconscious he wakes up in a locked down facility run by the sadistic Dr. Slovak (John Speredakos) who has been hunting him down for months, if not years. Already ahead of the game, Slovak has also captured Zack’s girlfriend (also a psychokinetic) Rachel (played by Lauren Ashley), and Slovak is using them both (and maybe others too) to harvest their DNA to become a psychokinetic himself. Constantly injecting himself with a home-made serum, Slovak becomes a powerful nemesis against Zack and Rachel who break out of their confinement and seek solace with Zack’s estranged father (played by Larry Fessenden), leading to an apocalyptic confrontation between Zack, Rachel, Slovack’s endless henchman (and a one-eyed assassin, played by Noah Segan), and Slovak, who has become a grossly empowered mutant of a man, intent on creating doom for the world.
From the team (writer and director Joe Begos and star Skipper) who brought us the mediocre body horror flick Almost Human, The Mind’s Eye is another excursion in the body horror category in the vein of Cronenberg, but Begos is to Cronenberg what Rob Zombie is to John Carpenter. He’s doing his own thing in the right genre, but he’s not quite found his footing yet, despite knowing what he likes. The Mind’s Eye has some good stuff going for it (the synth score by Steve Moore is the best thing about the film, and the tone is appropriately grim and lo-fi), but it’s an assault on the senses and the creative team behind and in front of it have some even harder work ahead of them to propel them into the real-deal stratosphere of the greats. It’s a step in the right direction for them, and for that it’s worth taking a look at.
The Mind’s Eye will be released onto Blu-ray and DVD from RLJ on October 4th, and comes with several notable special features on the disc. There are two feature length audio commentaries, and a making of feature.