Mindwarp (film)

Mindwarp
Directed by	Steve Barnett
Produced by	Norman Jacobs Steven Jacobs Alexandra Reed
Written by	John Brancato Michael Ferris
Starring	Bruce Campbell Angus Scrimm Marta Alicia Elizabeth Kent
Music by	Mark Governor
Editing by	Adam Wolfe
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Running time	91 min
Country	USA
Language	English
Budget	$1,000,000 (estimated)

Mindwarp (released as Brain Slasher outside the USA) is a 1992 post-apocalyptic science fiction movie, starring Bruce Campbell as Stover, Angus Scrimm as the Seer, Marta Martin (credited as "Marta Alicia") as Judy, Elizabeth Kent as Cornelia, and Wendy Sandow as Claude. ^[1]

The film is notable as one of three produced by Fangoria Magazine's short-lived Fangoria Films label.

In contrast to Fangoria's immersion in the horror film genre, this movie is science fiction - although some elements are extremely gory and emotionally shocking.^[2]

Mindwarp was filmed on location on the stamp sand and copper mining ruins in Gay, MI.

Plot

The film borrows plot elements and themes from Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior and The Time Machine. It takes place in the year 2037, after the loss of the ozone layer has left most of the planet a desolate wasteland scattered with highly radioactive Death Zones, except for several areas which still flourish.

The human population has been reduced to Crawlers, cannibalistic human underground dwellers, ugly mutants who have lost their intelligence, who speak only in grunts and mine garbage dumps. A few are Dreamers, who live in Inworld, a sealed biosphere maintained by the central Infinisynth computer. They spend all their time plugged in via an implant in their necks, living through virtual reality fantasies.

The heroine, Judy, who lives with her mother. She has gradually become less satisfied with the life they have. After an unsuccessful attempt to talk directly to her mother, Judy manages to penetrate her virtual reality to wake her up. Judy interrupts the dream, but she causes her mother to die in the real world.

For interfering with dreams of other users, Judy is exiled from Inworld. She is saved from the Crawlers by Stover, who believes he is the last "normal" human being still living on the surface, protecting himself from the deadly ultraviolet, radioactivity, caustic ground water, and Crawlers, while subsisting on a diet of small animals. The two are captured by the Crawlers, however, and brought to their underground village, where Stover is set to work mining the garbage dump and Judy is saved by the Crawlers' leader, the masked Seer (who is intelligent and can speak), from being butchered. The Seer's consort, Cornelia (also intelligent, can speak and is very beautiful), is jealous of the Seer's intentions towards Judy; her attempt to infect Judy with a mutant leech-like parasite fails, however, and the Seer has Cornelia's slave/foster daughter Claude, another Inworld runaway, crushed by an elaborate meat grinder constructed from salvaged parts. It is a quasi-religious ritual attended by the Crawler population, who all drink Claude's blood.

In the meantime, Stover used a food processor blade he found in the dump to escape and free Judy, only to be recaptured. He is thrown into a half submerged cage where he is attacked by many of the mutant leeches. The Seer, meanwhile, reveals to Judy he is her father, excusing his actions by claiming he did what was necessary to survive. He wants Judy to follow in his footsteps. Initially, she is ambivalent, but becomes fully resistant when he reveals the second part of his plan: the two of them will breed a race of healthy children to continue leading the Crawlers. She escapes and liberates Stover, scraping off the parasites with a sharp blade. The two are captured yet again and the Seer convenes another ceremony to put them into the grinder. Judy overcomes him and feeds her father into the machine, causing the Crawlers to proclaim her as the new Seer. By that time Stover, who seemed to go insane from the leech infection, tries to convince her to stay and accept the leadership as well.

Judy escapes to the surface with Stover chasing after her. When they stop and talk, Stover (infected by the leeches) suddenly vomits leech larvae onto her. Then she wakes up back in Inworld and realizes it was all an Infinisynth simulation; she is then confronted by her father, who is in actuality the old Infinisynth operator and wants to hand the position down to her. Judy wakes up again back in her old room, living with her mother. The ending leaves the question whether the handing of the Infinisynth operator position over to her actually happened or was only a simulation created by her subconscious mind.

References

1. ^ Mindwarp at the Internet Movie Database
2. ^ MINDWARP Moria.com Science Fiction, Horror and Fantasy Film Review

External links

• Rotten Tomatoes Mindwarp page
• Mindwarp at the Internet Movie Database