Mind Ripper Blu Ray

Shot in Bulgaria and Canada, with a "Wes Craven Presents" caption--that doubtless has something to do with the producer being Craven's son--Mind Ripper started out as The Hills Have Eyes, Part 3 but turned into yet another re-run of the plot about the genetically-engineered super-being-cum-brain-eating-monster who gets loose in an underground research station and slaughters scientists one by one in grisly fashion. After most of the original cast members are killed, craggy Lance Henriksen turns up with his family to provide a fresh set of characters to be chased, menaced,... jumped on, cranially sucked and splattered. The monster, acronymed THOR (Dan Blom), is a would-be suicide volunteered for a new serum created by the sinister GenTec Corporation. He turns into a bald steroid case with yellow contact lenses and a Cronenbergian brain-leeching tentacle tongue, and meagre attempts are made at wringing pathos out of his plight (uniquely, the monster has an irrelevant dream sequence in which he is killed by the heroine). It's competent but formulaic stuff, with reliable Henriksen carrying more than his weight at the head of a cast of then-unknowns, some of whom (Giovanni Ribisi, Natasha Gregson Wagner) have gone on to improve their careers. On the DVD: there are frame captures passed off as a photo gallery and the trailer; and the picture is fullscreen. But what else can you expect?--Kim Newman [show more]

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