ScreenFish

where faith and film are intertwined

serial killer

Mindcage – Not so psychological thriller

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In Mauro Borrelli?s Mindcage, a serial copycat killer is on the loose. The police must  ask the original killer for help. One of the detectives helped put him away, and is dealing with trauma of having to deal with these cases. What price will the original killer demand for his help?and what psychological price which the detectives have to pay?

Mindcage. Photo Credit: Danielle Mathias

When a dead body of a prostitute is found in a church staged to look like an angel, it seems very clear that this is a familiar pattern. Detectives Jake Doyle (Martin Lawrence) and Mary Kelly (Melissa Roxburgh) begin to investigate. It is obviously reminiscent of The Artist (John Malkovich). Everything seems identical to The Artist?s murders?even in ways that were never made public. Doyle was involved in The Artist?s murder case and he carries emotional scars because of what happened to his partner.

The Artist is currently being held at a mental facility pending his upcoming execution. Kelly goes to the facility to ask for his help in finding the copycat killer. The Artist only will help if his sentence can be commuted to life. As the crimes keep building an agreement is reached. The Artist is a master manipulator (as one might assume given the way he had manipulated crime scenes). Each encounter with The Artist becomes a challenge for Kelly to try to stay in control of what is going on. The question is if she can prevail against such an accomplished manipulator.

Mindcage. Photo Credit: Danielle Mathias

The film is replete with religious imagery. That includes the ways the killer stages the bodies. It also delves into some concepts of angelology and demonology. Yet, there really aren?t actual religious themes such as redemption or mercy. Only the dark side of religious lore comes into play.

For me psychological thrillers are about getting inside the human mind to see the flaws that might shed light on our lives. The demons that are important should be those within us. Using the supernatural to explain what happens always takes me out of the story. We have enough evil within us. The discovery of how these murders are happening and The Artist?s role in them, even while locked up, is one of those supernatural explanations that always is a bit too much for me to accept.

It also didn?t sit well with me that the victory that Kelly achieves against The Artist may have a bit of justice, but it only comes by becoming the very thing she is trying to destroy. For me it is a pyrrhic victory that we are asked to feel is right, but we should see as just an extension of the evil The Artist has created.

Mindcage. Photo Credit: Danielle Mathias

Mindcage is in theaters and on VOD on December 16th, 2022.

Photos courtesy of Lionsgate.

The Alienist – CSI 1896

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?I must follow this wherever it goes, even if it leads me to the darkest pit of hell.?

We?re used to police procedural TV shows that include forensic science (including fingerprints and autopsies) and psychological profiling. But there was a time when such things were not commonplace in solving crimes. That is the world of The Alienist, based on the Caleb Carr novel, (Carr also wrote the first two episodes of the series which I was able to preview.)

The series is set New York City in 1896. A boy prostitute has been found murdered. Hearing of the circumstances, Dr. Laszlo Kreizler (Daniel Br?hl) sends John Moore (Luke Evans) an illustrator for the Times, to capture the scene. Kreizler is certain that this is the work of a serial killer and that he can use his skills as an Alienist (what we would call a psychologist today) to find the killer. The police are indifferent, at best. Most are completely disdainful.

New police commissioner Theodore Roosevelt (Brian Geraghty) wants to reform the corrupt NYPD. He encourages Kreizler to conduct a parallel enquiry outside of the police department. Kreizler is joined by Moore; Sara Howard (Dakota Fanning), a secretary in the police department; and Marcus and Lucius Isaacson (Douglas Smith, Matthew Shear), two detectives with a scientific outlook. They set out to follow the evidence that their innovative theories provide.

As the subject matter would suggest, there is a great deal of darkness. It is not limited to killings, but also is reflected in the much harsher world that existed at the time. The police are brutal and corrupt. Brothels were commonplace (and Moore regularly frequents on). Antisemitism is the norm. I think what I appreciated most in the first two episodes was the ability to create the time and place so well. (The series filmed in Budapest to provide a semblance of 19th century New York.)

The term alienist reflects the view that those with mental illness were ?alienated? from their true nature. But it is also the case that the characters in this story are alienated from society in various ways. The principals in the series are each in their own way an outsider. Moore, a journalist, is disdained by police. Kreizler is a practitioner of a strange new discipline. Howard, as a woman, is deemed unimportant and powerless. The Isaacsons are Jewish and so not trusted by others in the police. Even Roosevelt with his power is an outsider within the police department, seen more as a threat to the status quo than really part of the department. Because they are not part of the police culture, they will face additional obstacles, but also be able to bring different perspectives to the task.

The first two episodes are essentially table setting. We meet the characters, see the crime, and the group is formed to set out on the task. The mystery solving is only just beginning.

Having seen only two episodes I am left to guess where the series will lead. But I expect that the theme of alienation will continue to be advanced, as will the idea of the darkness that fills the world. There will likely be many contrasts, including rich and poor, and graft and honesty. I suspect the darkness will not be limited to whoever is going around killing boy prostitutes, but also include the darkness within the so-called proper people of society. Those that look the other way. Those who think what happens to the underclasses is unimportant. I suspect that the ?darkest pits of hell? to which Kreizler and the others will encounter will not be limited to the criminal world.

Photos courtesy of TNT

Havenhurst – Dark, Stormy Horror

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?Once they leave the building, one rarely hears from them again.?

From the opening scene, which seems to say ?It was a dark and stormy night?, Havenhurst is as conventional as a horror film can be. Besides the dismal weather for the opening, we immediately discover that we?re going to hear a lot of screaming in the film. There is no doubt that bad things are going to happen.

Jackie (Julie Benz) just finished a stint in rehab for her alcoholism. She finds a place in Havenhurst, a gothic style building in Manhattan. It is a large apartment building that serves as a kind of halfway house for those trying to straighten out their lives. Jackie is told by the oh-so-proper landlady Eleanor (Fionnula Flanigan) that she is welcome to stay there as long as she wishes?so long as she doesn?t go back to her old ways. Failure to live a good life will result in an eviction notice. One of Jackie?s friends had been staying there, but is suddenly ?gone. Apparently, those who don?t live up to expectations often leave soon after being told they are being evicted.

After a few screams in the night, Jackie, along with a neighbor girl (Belle Shouse) whose foster-mother is now gone and a detective (Josh Stamberg) who has some unexplained relationship with Jackie, begin to investigate the disappearances. This is a building filled with secret passages and trapdoors that always seem to be in just the right place. I came to think of these as symbolic of the plot holes that permeate the film.

Some fans of horror films like to point out it is the only genre that treats the existence of evil as a reality. There is indeed evil in this film, although we may never be quite sure of that evil exists in a supernatural plane or within human nature. What makes the Havenhurst come up short in this regard is that it fails to treat the existence of virtue as a reality. It isn?t just that we are dealing with flawed characters?flaws are often what make them interesting. But here the characters are really only drawn as victims, most of whom we don?t miss when they are gone.