Red-Barracuda
This low key drama is about medical experiments in the American military where a form of mind control is being developed which involves brain washing of violent individuals to make them 'good'. An unruly young soldier is sent to the facility where these techniques are being developed for conditioning.The most significant thing about The Mind Snatchers is that it features a young Christopher Walken in an early starring role. He is certainly the best thing about the film. His intensity is evident at this early stage and he carries the movie really. While the plot-line has some definite similarities to A Clockwork Orange, whose success I am sure led to this stage play being filmed, it is much less cinematic and pretty under-stated. It's a little too stage-bound for its own good to be honest and a little bit bland overall. It's a shame because there is certainly the basis of something quite good here but the uninspired direction means that it is not entirely successful. Its low budget probably restricts it in some ways but I have seen other similarly cheap sci-fi films from the 70's that engage the viewer more. Still, it's interesting enough for a watch and Walken is very good. It also features Ronny Cox from Deliverance as a sex offending inmate in line for corrective surgery.
MARIO GAUCI
Interesting but hardly original drama with sci-fi leanings – though not quite the "horror"/"chiller" described by the ads! – involving the brain-washing of violence-prone subjects by the system (which must have seemed particularly trenchant at the time of the Vietnam war).At this juncture, however, the movie feels quite dated – if reasonably intelligent and compelling nonetheless. Being also relentlessly talky (not surprising, given its stage origins) and low-key in nature, there's a conspicuous lack of cinematic inventiveness – which doesn't really allow for a sensible comparison with Stanley Kubrick's stylized treatment of the same theme in A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (1971)! Still, it has some undeniably powerful moments – and the small cast is impressive: Christopher Walken (relatively inexperienced for this type of demanding role, but quite good in his Method approach to it); Joss Ackland (as the requisite mad scientist); Ralph Meeker (as the equally inevitable, and callous, military overseer); and Ronny Cox (as a fellow inmate of Walken's who, after much soul-searching, willingly submits to the dehumanizing experiment).Incidentally, the play was filmed under its original title – THE HAPPINESS CAGE – but this got changed (in case it was mistaken for an ode to hippiedom) first to the sci-fi friendly and, in retrospect, more appropriate THE MIND SNATCHERS and eventually to the horror-oriented (and, consequently, wholly misleading) THE DEMON WITHIN!
Matthew Janovic
"Mindsnatchers" is a really scary-film. Why? Because it is a fictional story of a scenario that was and is real. Beginning in the 1950s, with the CIA's successful MKULTRA program of hypno-assassins, we can assume that is has continued into-the-present. Why do it? Our political, economic and military leadership seemed to feel the answer was "why not?" America was unchallenged in power after WWII (the only man standing), an almost supreme force in the immediate aftermath of war. The situation is similar today, but with a few key-differences, mainly that we are a declining-power.With our present "rendition" of suspected-terrorists in secret, illegal-prisons throughout the world, one has to wonder if any of these individuals are being brainwashed too. One also has to wonder if so-called "terrorism" has any direct-connection to mind-control programs that have backfired. The legendary Muslim heretic, Hassaan I Sabah, utilized drugs and a form of hypnosis in creating the world's first-known assassins ("Hashishins" being the root-word), and some historians note there were accounts that his reach extended as far as Paris. You could say he was the Osama Bin Laden of his time. But we do assassination too, to our shame. We are virtually alone in this practice, internationally.From 1957-1961, the CIA conducted mind-control experiments at the Allan Memorial Institute in Montreal, with the aid of the Canadian government (surely, noticed by David Cronenberg). We know all of this from the aftermath of Watergate, which caused the creation of the Church Committee (1975-1978). The Church committee investigated illegal-activities of the American intelligence community, which released a flood of formerly classified-documents. MKULTRA is indisputable, it happened, and bits of the story leaked-out before the Church committee (and the NSA, CIA & our press) could bury them. It should be noted that there was also intense-cooperation with the Pentagon, and this is where the story of Mindsnatchers takes-place.It's a really engaging-film, and you really care about the characters, even when they do horrible things. Of course, this is Christopher Walken's film, he is both hilarious and believable as a non-conformist G.I. with a bad-temper. The comparison between the film and "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", and "A Clockwork Orange" are apt, but the film stands-on-its-own as being very original and disturbing. It is not a copy of either movie, as "Cuckoo's Nest" came-out in 1975, and "A Clockwork Orange" and Mindsnatchers were definitely in-production simultaneously.Also chewing-scenes in this film is a younger Ronny Cox (Robocop), who is excellent as a crazy redneck inmate of the secret facility in Germany. An interesting-twist is the film's connection with other experiments in free-will and obedience-to-authority (the Milgram experiment), and the applications of electroshock for-compliance.Yes, we have brain-implants, even ones that induce-pleasure in the test-subjects. To say these scenes are depraved and disturbing is an understatement, especially knowing that they happened. On top of this is the character of the controller/Doctor: he justifies his experiments as "voluntary", and "for the greater-good", so this is also a tale of medical and scientific-ethics. Interestingly, the Doctor also has a "controller" in the character of "the Major"--it appears the Major has lied-to the Doctor about how "voluntary" the program really is. So, this is also a tale of medical and scientific-ethics.All-in-all, a very good film that is oddly-entertaining, while being absolutely unsettling. It is strangely informative, too. "Mindsnatchers" delivers, and-then-some. Image entertainment has a very-good DVD available, and it has some great extras too. The transfer is not perfect, but appears to be from the best available-sources, just not the original-negative. This was an extremely-cheap film, but it rises-above this fact by some really assured directing, acting, and writing. The score is a little cheesy at-times, but it has some excellent electronic-cues that are effective for the time. You could do-worse, like watching the Final Destination franchise, or Snakes on a Plane. Depraved.
Scott-42
A bit talky, but certainly well acted and thought provoking.Walken, looking all of 19, does his usual standout performance in this ethical drama. While not without it's drawbacks - the pace is a bit slow at times and the score is annoying, the questions raised about the ethics used by both the well-meaning Doctor and the frightening military will certainly cause future reflection.
