Hack blockbuster director Renny Harlin serves up a deliciously intense thriller that often tips over into horror territory, but always remains kinetic on the action front. 'Mindhunters' is one of those perfect blends of the aforementioned genres and it often manages unbearably exciting because of it.
Wayne Kramer director of the sick but excellent crime mess Running Scared (2006) penned the story to Harlin's film and much of his thirst for graphic gorefest is quenched at various points in the plot. It centres around a group of seven trainees in the FBI profiling programme who undertake a final examination of sorts in which they are shipped off to an island for a crime scene simulation. "I want a profile of the killer on Monday morning," says their instructor, played by Val Kilmer, who leaves clues for the trainees.
So begins an exhilarating journey of "whodunit?" that escalates when the murders stop being simulated and become real especially when the murder starts killing off the trainees one by one. The trainees constantly pend between victim and suspect as they turn on each other, suspecting the other and fall prey to paranoia more often than murder. It becomes a psychological case study not only looking at what happens to them during these dire circumstances but why it is happening and why they are acting they way they do. Kramer's strength was never in characters but his writing always remains smart and intricately sketched enough as to not fall apart at analysis. Best of all, here it demands and absorbs our attention.
Mindhunters truly begs the question: how good are YOU at murder profiling? It constantly keeps you on the edge of your seat and on the edge of startling new revelations, tirelessly lashing out twist after twist. It is difficult not to spoil anything, so I will leave the plot at that. Rest assured that some turns come as splashes of water in your faces and other come as mandatory horror turns. On that note, Mindhunters undoubtedly ticks off a few too many dutiful horror clichés from the formula ("I have an idea. Let's split up!") but it always does so with panache and the fast pace leaves little time for reflection of its quality its kinetic and sense-of-immediate-danger speed altogether mask these types of missteps, which Harlin does best.
Yet it needs to be said that it boasts of no super performances and no revolutionary approaches to any of the genres it so otherwise aptly blends. The dialogue is also shameless plot-fodder. Nevertheless, a worthy addition to Harlin's resumé (which I'm aware isn't saying much, but so what?). It certainly kept me far more entertained than it should have during the course of 1 ½ hours.
7 out of 10
Wayne Kramer director of the sick but excellent crime mess Running Scared (2006) penned the story to Harlin's film and much of his thirst for graphic gorefest is quenched at various points in the plot. It centres around a group of seven trainees in the FBI profiling programme who undertake a final examination of sorts in which they are shipped off to an island for a crime scene simulation. "I want a profile of the killer on Monday morning," says their instructor, played by Val Kilmer, who leaves clues for the trainees.
So begins an exhilarating journey of "whodunit?" that escalates when the murders stop being simulated and become real especially when the murder starts killing off the trainees one by one. The trainees constantly pend between victim and suspect as they turn on each other, suspecting the other and fall prey to paranoia more often than murder. It becomes a psychological case study not only looking at what happens to them during these dire circumstances but why it is happening and why they are acting they way they do. Kramer's strength was never in characters but his writing always remains smart and intricately sketched enough as to not fall apart at analysis. Best of all, here it demands and absorbs our attention.
Mindhunters truly begs the question: how good are YOU at murder profiling? It constantly keeps you on the edge of your seat and on the edge of startling new revelations, tirelessly lashing out twist after twist. It is difficult not to spoil anything, so I will leave the plot at that. Rest assured that some turns come as splashes of water in your faces and other come as mandatory horror turns. On that note, Mindhunters undoubtedly ticks off a few too many dutiful horror clichés from the formula ("I have an idea. Let's split up!") but it always does so with panache and the fast pace leaves little time for reflection of its quality its kinetic and sense-of-immediate-danger speed altogether mask these types of missteps, which Harlin does best.
Yet it needs to be said that it boasts of no super performances and no revolutionary approaches to any of the genres it so otherwise aptly blends. The dialogue is also shameless plot-fodder. Nevertheless, a worthy addition to Harlin's resumé (which I'm aware isn't saying much, but so what?). It certainly kept me far more entertained than it should have during the course of 1 ½ hours.
7 out of 10