The Mind Snatchers

soldiers with facial hair? With a name like "The Mind Snatchers", I naturally assumed this was a film about space aliens abducting and scrambling the brains of folks. However, the film has absolutely nothing to do with this but is instead a slightly paranoid but thought-provoking film about psychiatric ethics.

The film begins with a VERY obnoxious and angry soldier, Pvt. Reese (Christopher Walken) bullying and mistreating everyone. He's soon arrested by the military police and incarcerated for psychiatric tests to determine what his issues are. They diagnose him with a personality disorder (no duh!) and schizophrenia--and, without his permission, they ship him off to a very strange hospital where there appear to be only three patients. One is SERIOUSLY disturbed and a total mess. Another (Ronny Cox) is a sex offender. And, the third is Reese. What is this all about? No one tells Reese and he's left to wonder. And, through the course of the film, it becomes more and more apparent that the military is planning on doing some sort of insidious mind-control experiment on them!

Despite a low budget and that the film is inexplicably set in Germany (I think this was due to funding), the movie has a very compelling script and has a lot of interesting things to say about abuses within psychiatry where, it seems, the end does justify the means. A very good and unusual film to say the least--and an interesting early Walken role. Well worth seeing, though I doubt if the average person would enjoy this. Me, with my background in psychology, I loved it and thought it brought up some very interesting concerns.

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.

I saw this movie under the "Demon Within" title. I believe the movie was based on a play and at times, it shows. The movie is slow in some parts, but overall is good. The character of Ronny Cox is often annoying. However, he does a good job in portraying the pity of a man losing his mind. Walken gives an non-typical performance of a comparatively straight-laced man who never really loses his mind but instead has it robbed from him. It is not really worth a long search. But if you do come across it, check it out.

Based on a play "The Happiness Cage" by Dennis Reardon

A German scientist works on a way of quelling overly aggressive soldiers by developing implants that directly stimulate the pleasure centers of the brain.

Joss Ackland did an excellent portrait of Dr. Fredrick our German scientist. You may remember him as C. S. Lewis in "Shadow Lands" (1985).

The movie has a constantly annoying background musical theme that distracts from this movie that feels more like a play. There is even a long Ayn Rand type speech on the morality of electrodes.

Using subtitles can correct for occasional Mumbling.

The advantage of the DVD is that the picture is a lot clearer and brighter without those annoying dark spots that you have to guess what is happening.

A young Christopher Walken brings his typically dynamic presence to this low key drama with a touch of sci-fi. He plays Private James Reese, an aggressive young soldier stationed in Germany who gets in trouble one too many times to suit his superiors. So they ship him off to a hospital in the country where Dr. Frederick (Joss Ackland), the man in charge, has come up with an experimental way to suppress hostile behaviour. Reese doesn't trust Frederick, and is suspicious of the whole set-up and location. The Army, represented by a Major (Ralph Meeker), is overseeing the whole thing and of course doesn't want anything jeopardizing their efforts.

Those new to this film, such as this viewer, may be caught a little off guard with the nature of this film, which the advertising tries to sell as a horror movie. Well, there's some scary stuff in this story (based on the play by Dennis Reardon), but this is definitely not a horror movie in the traditional sense. It's quite deliberate in its pacing, and is very talky, so it may test the patience of some audience members. Still, it's often amusing, and interesting. A lot of the running time is devoted to portraying the evolving relationship between Reese and his live wire fellow patient Boford Miles (an incredible, standout performance by Ronny Cox). Miles is a very troubled individual, as we see from the kinds of things that he gets up to. It's a saddening moment for the character when he finally relents to being subjected to the experimental procedure, and you feel quite bad for him.

Ultimately, the plight of these characters makes for fairly compelling material. The actors are all wonderful; Walkens' trademark personality shines through at some points, although he also gets a chance to do some really serious acting, in what was one of his earliest movie roles. Cox (who was also a relative newcomer to film, having made "Deliverance" previously) is excellent and he and Walken work well together. Ackland and Meeker are both solid as the well-meaning and not so well-meaning antagonists, character actor Marco St. John has a lively role as a jovial orderly, and Bette Henritze is touching as kindly nurse Anna Kraus.

This may not be anything truly special, necessarily, but it's still potent and involving entertainment and fans of Walken and Cox will almost certainly want to give it a look.

Seven out of 10.