Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

Lawbolisted Powerful

SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Leofwine_draca Aside from a few interesting performances from various cast members, CYRUS: MIND OF A SERIAL KILLER has virtually nothing going for it. You'd be better of going with alternative serial killer titles like HENRY LEE LUCAS: SERIAL KILLER or DEAR MR. GACY as at least these are films which attempt to tell a proper story rather than this nonsensical, made-up amateur-hour attempt.The film begins with an elderly man being interviewed for a documentary about a serial killer. Kudos on the casting director for getting hold of Scream Queen Danielle Harris to play the reporter, but truth be told her acting isn't up to much. However, the subject of the interview is played by Lance Henriksen, who also narrates the story; he's by far the best thing in the whole film and I could listen to his gravelly voice all day. It's a shame that most of the material is beneath him.After a mildly promising set-up in the first half-hour, this turns into a very silly gore flick with one grisly murder after another. It all feels very ho hum and uninteresting, repellent but not disturbing; just a waste of time and effort. Tiffany Shepis and Doug Jones both pop up to offer cameo appearances and lessen the boredom, but this is still one of the worst serial killer movies I've sat through. The most amusing thing about the film is that the whole thing seems to hinge around a final twist that will be obvious from the very first scene.

MrGKB ...no matter how many genre names are attached to it, but especially when they're helmed by an unknown auteur. "Cyrus..." is uninspired and uninspiring, derivative junk, plain and simple. Presented as the tale of a documentary in the making, it offers nothing in the way of surprises or trenchant commentary on either its ostensible subject or anything else.The participation of genre actors like Brian "Charmed" Krause, Danielle "Halloween" Harris, and most pointedly, Lance "Pumpkinhead" Henriksen (never mind bit parts from the likes of Doug "Pan's Labyrinth" Jones, Rae Dawn "Tales From the Darkside: The Movie" Chong, and Tiffany "Night of the Demons" Shepis) is no guarantee of genuine appeal to fandom; in fact, it seems almost as crass as the blatant cribbing of the title from the far, far better "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer." The making-of feature on the DVD is revealing, as the auteur and various actors prattle on about the film as if it were something out of the unextraordinary. I couldn't help but snicker as I observed that theater prowess does not a filmmaker make.Really, the less said about this one the better. It's make-work and paycheck-taking, nothing more. That it went straight to video is telling enough. I'm glad I lost nothing more than a smidgen of time watching it, even if those are brain cells I'll never recover.

gavin6942 A small independent news crew investigates a series of unexplained disappearances in a small Midwestern county.This film will be a treat for those who love horror icons. Brian Krause ("Sleepwalkers") stars as Cyrus, with plenty of screen time for Danielle Harris as Maria and Lance Henriksen as Emmett. Even Doug Jones and Tiffany Shepis show up for a while.This film has received some criticism for not being very original and following old horror movie, especially slasher, clichés. And yes, it does have some. But I think this was sort of the point... clearly the writer-director is a horror fan based on his casting, so he must have been paying homage to his favorites. This is no different than what Rob Zombie did with "House of 1000 Corpses" (though that one was a little too blatant in my opinion).The film claims to be based on true events, which I strongly suspected was completely false. I called out director Mark Vadik on this, and he set the record straight: it is, in fact, based very loosely on the life of serial killer Fritz Haarmann, with some background details of other serial killers thrown in. So, I suppose, we have to let this slide. (I strongly urge you to look into Haarmann's story -- it is pretty graphic, and a closer telling would be an amazingly demented film.)Vadik also informed me that the claim of the film being banned in six countries is true. They are ones you might expect -- United Arab Emirates and the Middle Eastern countries -- but this is still a cool claim. While any number of reasons could be behind the ban, there is one sequence involving breast feeding that likely got some people's heckles raised.Check this one out. This is a breakout role for Brian Krause, who was already a big star from "Charmed". He spent much time researching killers -- particularly BTK and the Green River Killer -- for this role, and even did much of the second unit directing, picking up important shots of death scenes. His work is subtle, but the reason the film is good rather than forgettable.

devotchka13 If you let go of the fact that what you're watching isn't going to be a blockbuster, you may actually enjoy yourself with this film. Yes, it's a B-grade horror movie, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's bad (though many usually are). Here goes nothing:The story centers around Maria (Danielle Harris), a reporter, and her cameraman, Greg (Corey Gibbons), who are investigating a series of disappearances/killings, tipped to be done by a man named Cyrus (Brian Krause), "The County Line Cannibal". The movie starts off with the two of them traveling to a small, Midwestern county to speak to Cyrus's best friend Emmett (Lance Henriksen) who possesses eerily intimate knowledge of Cyrus's killing methods, and recounts the tales of the County Line Cannibal's final 7 victims to the small crew, explaining the disappearance of three young college girls the reporters were initially investigating. I have to admit, I did like this movie - a lot, and I generally don't like B-grade movies at all. The entire reason I hired this movie initially was for Danielle Harris (who's part is significant only at the beginning and in the final moments, but she is scattered about the course of the film) and I didn't expect much from this, but I genuinely enjoyed it. It was bleak and gritty and it was realistic (as it should be, being based on a true story and all). People are too caught up in immediately hating horror movies these days they make the premature decision to hate something before they've given it a chance. The acting from Krause, Harris & Henriksen was splendid, and the others (being relative newcomers) didn't do too shabby a job with their parts either. It takes a while for the movie to pick up the pace in the beginning but your patience will be rewarded. If I'm honest, in the last 10 minutes of the film, the 'twist' becomes rather obvious, but rather enjoyable none-the-less. If you're being realistic about what you're seeing here, and don't go in expecting it to be something that it's really not, you'll enjoy it. Expecting it to be something exceptional or a new step up in horror, and you'll just go home disappointed. It's nothing new, it's nothing terribly original, but it's entertaining and in a way, thought- provoking: "Who do I feel sorry for, the victims or Cyrus?". The answer's not as cut and dry as you think it is.Rating: 7/10