MY CALL: This was surprisingly not bad at all. I mean, it’s not conventionally good. But not bad! Strong recommendation for aficionados of lower budget Sci-Fi of the era. MORE MOVIES LIKE Mindwarp: For more Sci-Horror of the era, consider Screamers (1995), Nemesis (1992), Hardware (1990) and Moontrap (1989).
In the year 2037, people live virtual lives. Infinisynth is like the Total Recall (1990) vacation simulation business, but for daily life. Rebelling from the generally preferred virtual life of the future, Judy (Marta Martin) finds herself expelled from the system. After accidently taking part in the death of her mother (in both the virtual and real world apparently), she is abducted, drugged, and awakens buried alive in the apocoscape that is the outside world.
The crucified remains of other Infinisynth deniers smacks of the apocalyptic future of Cyborg (1989). And like Total Recall’s (1990) Mars, the land is populated by mutants. These hideous, cannibal mutants cruise around the badlands on tractors modified into war machines a la The Road Warrior (1981). And while I’m peppering in all the apocalyptic movie references I can, you might even notice some Steel Dawn (1987) influence in here. So yeah, this movie is highly derivative. But that doesn’t mean it’s not worth our time.
Judy is rescued by our survivalist hero Stover (Bruce Campbell; Waxwork II, Escape from LA, Moontrap, Black Friday, The Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2), who provides our backstory exposition of how this world came to be. The delivery is surprisingly told with a very straight face. In fact, this movie seems to be rather seriously composed. But its budget is humble enough that it comes off rather hokey in scenes of horror and violence.
Stover and Judy are captured and brought to the mutants’ subterranean lair, which is largely a mining operation for human “artifacts” like car parts and kitchen appliances. These Morlocks are led by the Seer (Angus Scrimm; Phantasm I-V, Chopping Mall, Subspecies), a messiah from another world who brings the mutants hope.
For such an odd, cheaper movie, the efforts on the blood and gore are pretty good even if the action is quite clumsy. We wander into mutant babies, threats of incest, cult leaders, leech-like aquatic parasites, and cannibalism.
Honestly, I thought this would be bad. Really bad. But bad it is not. In fact, brushing aside the visually obvious budgetary limitations, I’d say this movie is decently composed. So if you can appreciate lower budget 80s-90s Sci-Fi, I’d recommend this.