MindFlesh |
UK • 2008 • 71m •
   • Directed by: Robert Pratten. • Starring: Peter Bramhill, Carole Derrien, Christopher Fairbank, Roy Borrett, Steven Burrell, Isabella Jade Fane, Lucy Liemann, Clare Routh, Cordelia Bugeja, Charlotte Milchard, Steve O'Halloran, John Grim, Andrew Holden. • Music by: Arban Ornelas.     Chris Jackson is a taxi driver with a childhood trauma. The trauma has made him a portal for obsessions to pass from the mind to the physical world and hence disrupt the world's multiple planes of reality. Extraterrestrials that police the universe threaten to kill Chris' friends unless he conquers his past.
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What our hapless taxi driver doesn't know is that his sightings are the result of heightened awareness or ESP; an ability likely triggered by a childhood trauma involving his mother. His particular ESP is not simply the ability to sense things that most people cannot but it is also the ability to manufacture or create reality. Things begin to come to a head for our taxi driver when after a nightmare curious bruises appear on his abdomen. Then shortly after that, while having a sighting in his car, the experience turns nightmarish as some kind of monster appears. He's so frightened he goes home and frantically tears down his map. Some things, less bruise-like this time, appear on his stomach; lumps of some kind. Reminiscent --to me anyway-- of a sows teats.
Let me take this time to introduce the central acquaintances of our taxi driver (this is important because his condition impacts them). Lyn: boss. Tessa: ex-girlfriend. Tate: friend and fellow cab driver. Slade: friend and deviant cop. About a third of the way into the movie the taxi driver's obsession makes a "tangible" appearance (to him, anyway). He acts like a man in love; more than that, like a humble servant to a queen he worships. The guy is on his knees rolling out gifts he bought for her. "Look, your Highness".."And this as well, my queen".."But I'm not finished o regal one, this as well." He never actually said anything but his demeanor suggested those words. Are you mocking the poor fellow, Boloxxxi? --Yes I am. But also you need to have a glimpse of this man's state of mind at this point in the film.
Our taxi driver's boss, Lyn, gives him a book written by a professor Frank Verdain which explains (in her words) how the trauma of some people who are going thru a difficult period "warps our plane of existence, creating holes for things to cross between our parallel worlds". This scene precedes the materialization of the mystery woman, by the way. At some point, after his indulgences with her (Wink! Wink!), he writes the professor to request a meeting. The request is denied. Desperate, he stakes out the professor and catches him on the street. The professor is none to happy to see him; he's brisk, tells him again his request is denied, and walks away quickly. Well we both know that the taxi driver wasn't going to let it go so easily. He goes chasing after the Prof who's growing increasingly irritable.
"Why me?"..."Why me?" he whines. At some point the professor asks him him if he's f!!cked anyone special lately. The look of embarrassment on our taxi driver's face told the snarling professor all he needed to know. "Congratulations!" he says, "You've been f!!cking your own mind!" and quickly walks away. Red with shame, but still desperate, our taxi driver continues to hound the old man. "How can you know that?"..."Why did she come to me?" By this time the professor is like a pit bull. "Why me?!!"..."Why me?!!"...."Why me?!!" he yells mockingly at our taxi driver. And then answers his own question this way: "God plays dice; it's called evolution!" He advises our taxi driver to give the "goddess" back. Our taxi driver says he doesn't know how. He's warned that he'd better find a way or his friends are going to die. He's told to get rid of his "super nature" or ESP then uses some colorful language and stalks off (That old guy is not shy of his four-letter words, I'll tell you that).
Will our taxi driver do as the professor instructs? --Or will the mystery pu$ of his mind prove too much? Somehow I think you all know the answer. This is a British made film shot to or as a video. So they say "cab" and I say "taxi". No big deal. This is obviously not a big budget production; but they made excellent use of their resources, I thought. I was a bit pessimistic when it started but Mindflesh turns out to be a good paranormal, supernatural, otherworldly-type film. There are some scenes in it though that are not for the squeamish and yours truly does have his instances. And so, yeah, I looked away like a little girl.
Review by Boloxxxi from the Internet Movie Database.
Movie Database