Mindflesh (2008)
Mindflesh is one of those films that seemed to have a mesmeric hold over me. Playing out as a sensory nightmare, i found the film enchanting from the very start. The actual story about a taxi driver with issues from a disturbing childhood that enable a portal to be created for his obsessions to pass from the dream world to reality, is almost secondary to the visual stimuli on the screen in front of you. The film at heart is a study of loneliness and suppression, encapsulated by demonic sex with a creature from another plane as the fabrics of reality blur. Brilliantly filmed, the aforementioned blurring of reality is onscreen from the beginning as Chris, our taxi driver, glances at everyday objects and situations and the camera gives us an odd ripple effect which was slightly annoying at first but as you begin to understand the story actually becomes quite hypnotic.
The film at times is downright disturbing. In the early scenes Chris appears to be growing nipples from his stomach to which something otherworldly likes to attach itself, this is in the first five minutes, after that we have a perverted detective who masturbates over crime scene images of a woman whose breasts have been horrifically sliced off. A beautiful naked woman who moves between the metaphysical planes to satisfy Chris's obsessions, before keeping him captive on the kitchen floor and ****ing him senseless amid his own piss, shit and vomit. From then on it becomes more surreal, and mentally and visually provocative to an extent where you just go with the flow.
Trying to say Mindflesh is like other films is difficut as i really don't think it is. I suppose Hellraiser and Videodrome could be considered an influence, but on the whole Mindflesh is a seductive piece of ambitious, original horror. It's a challenging film no doubt, and there were parts i didn't fully grasp on first viewing, it didn't really bother me though as hopefully these concepts will become clearer with repeated viewings, of which there will be many.
The dvd features a director's commentary and a ninety minute production diary.
Highly recommended.
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