The Mind’s Eye
Director: Joe Begos
Writer: Joe Begos
Cast: Graham Skipper, Lauren Ashley Carter, John Speredakos, Larry Fessenden, Noah Segan, Matt Mercer
Part of: /slash Filmfestival
Seen on: 1.5.2016
[Review by cornholio.]

Plot:
Zack Connors (Graham Skipper) and Rachel Meadows (Laura Ashley Carter) are not only in love, they also both share the same gift: they have telekinetic powers. That makes them a target for Dr Michael Slovak (John Speredakos) who wants to harness their powers. After an incident, they had to separate, but they are reunited when Slovak catches them both. Together, they try to make a break for it.

The Mind’s Eye sticks to a straight-to-VHS-80s aesthetic but then it can’t seem to decide whether it wants to reproduce that look and make a serious action film or whether it’s a persiflage of those films and meant to be funny. Thus it outmaneuvers itself: for the former, it’s simply ridiculous, for the latter it’s not funny enough.

I know the 80s are currently very fashionable and people like to play with the pop culture of the time, be it formally with the effects and the direction, or regarding the content or simply the retro(futuristic) aesthetic. I know that personally, I’m simply not attached enough to the 80s to care too much for it. I will always have a harder time with those films because more often than not, they just don’t get nostalgia bonus points from me.

And it seems that without those, The Mind’s Eye has one thing and one thing only to offer: the gore effects. And while I appreciate those generally speaking and there is certainly no shortage of them in the film, that alone just isn’t enough to make me love a film. Especially since they really do get out of hand the longer the film goes on. It’s fine to laugh about gore, but it didn’t seem to fit with the rest of the film.

And that’s my major beef with the film: starting with a serious film and changing gear midway through and make it into a comedy is a very weird choice and one I, personally, couldn’t go along with. And if it wasn’t a gear change and Begos was actually serious about it (or thought the first half was funny, too), then it completely passed me by.

Additionally I simply did not care for the characters. Or the story. Or any of it, really. And without that, the film just doesn’t work at all.

Summarizing: Nah, skip it.