It’s easy to forget that before “The Matrix” we had movies built on the idea that we might be living in a false reality. 1992’s sci-fi/horror film “Mindwarp” is one such film.
If you’ll allow me a tangent, let’s explore this theme, which goes back to Plato and his shadows on cave walls, or similar observations found in Asian philosophy. At some point, humans became aware that our sense of reality comes entirely through our senses. If the senses can be fooled (and they can; see hallucinations, schizophrenia, tricks of the eye, etc.) how do we know what is real?
Does Mindwarp, a 1992 sci-fi film produced by Fangoria Films, dive deep into the thicket of these metaphysical ruminations? Uh, not really. It does have lots of blood and gore, though.
We start out meeting Judy, a svelte twenty something who lives in the sort of sanitized dystopia we saw in movies like Logan’s Run—lot’s of white, smooth surfaces. The inhabitants there connect to Infinisnyth, a kind of virtual reality program pumped into their brains. But Judy, like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz (Ha—I just got the Judy Garland reference!) yearns for something more, and she finds it when she is dumped into the hellish, post apocalyptic landscape outside her city. There she meets Stover, a Mad Max style vagabond played by Bruce Campbell. And then, uh, I dunno, cannibal mutants, weird cults and other stuff.
About halfway through the film, I was bored. For a Fangoria film, it was low on gore. Then a character gets exsanguinated and their blood is drunk via skulls and things picked up. In fact, the gore and monster make up was pretty impressive from then on out.
Campbell has lots of fun with his role, and the star Marta Alicia wasn’t bad. She looked familiar, but I looked her up and nothing she’s done stands out in my mind. Also, Angus Scrimm, famously of the Phantasm series, has a prominent role.
After a dry start, Mind Warp turns into a fun little movie.
Side note: In the same way we have the term “steam punk”, I feel we need a term to describe the Mad Max post apocalyptic technology aesthetic. Gas powered torture devices and the like.
Best line: “Well, my little brain screwed bitch, this does change a few things.”
