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Monday, July 7, 2014

Mindkiller

Watched June 23, 2014

1987
Starring: Joe McDonald, Wade Kelley, Shirley Ross, Kevin Hart

The only thing I could I remember from my first viewing of Mind Killer several years ago was Swingles, the super awesomely named singles bar. This was yet another VHS that I unloaded on Jen when I moved across the country and it came around again so we could decide whether it's a keeper or not. I also remember this movie being really poorly lit, but on a second watch I determined I first saw it when my TV was dying and was making every movie appear very dark.

Warren (Joe McDonald) works in the research materials section of a library located deep in the basement. He is obsessed with meeting women but has a hard time with it. He watched a movie entitled How to Pick up Women and tries to learn some time tested techniques. He takes his new moves to Swingles, his local singles bar. Warren's roommate Brad (Kevin Hart) is a more confident guy and has no problem taking home ladies of his choosing. This only make Warren more frustrated.

A new researcher, Sandy (Shirley Ross) is hired at the library and Warren is instantly in love. Unfortunately, Sandy has a policy of not dating co-workers. While pulling some old research papers Warren finds a very interesting case study of a man who developed telepathic powers. Warren stays up all night reading the paper and once finished feels like he has unlocked the power of his mind.  Warren can both manipulated machines and people. He seduces the women of his choice at Swingles, but he still longs for Sandy. He begins to manipulate Sandy and they go out together, but even with Warren's power Sandy knows that something is wrong. Warren invited Sandy over for dinner with Brad along as well. Even with his new found telepathic powers Warren is still really inept with social skills, but he has become a much better cook. Brad and Sandy really hit it off with genuine affection even though Warren is convinced that Sandy likes him. 

Warren's other co-worker Larry (Wade Kelley) reads the research paper and soon is using the powers himself, but he researches it further and finds out what happened to the author of the paper. It turns out that the paper was written by a local scientist who used to live with his mother. His mother is still in the area so Larry goes to talk to her. She has gone crazy because she saw what the power did to her son and how it ultimately killer her son. Larry tries to get to Warren to tell him the danger of using the power but it's too late. The power has already mutated Warren's brain and turned him into a monster. Monster Warren only wants Sandy for himself so he tries to kill her, luckily Larry has it figured out and saves the day.

The brain monster effects are pretty cool and gross. Warren is definitely an unattractive and awkward guy so I could see him using his power for evil and letting it get the best of him. Larry uses his power to seduce a woman by listening to coyote howls. His fascination with coyotes doesn't seem to play out or add to the plot. Better than I remember it but it's still pretty weird. Swingles stands up to the test of time as a cool place to meet people, just be careful if you see a spilled glass right itself.

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