Mind Killer (1987)

... aka: Brain Creatures, The
... aka: Menta asesina (Killer Mind)
... aka: Mindkiller
... aka: Mind Killer - Halb Alien, Halb Mensch (Mind Killer – Half Alien, Half Human)
... aka: Transformator

Directed by:
Michael Krueger

Despite being the son of a study professional wrestler, nerdy, lonely library clerk Warren McDaniels (Joe McDonald) is having an impossible time meeting ladies. Usually left alone on weekends with his girlie magazines, Warren views the how-to video “The Manly Art of Seduction” and decides to try out a few of the pointers at the local bar. Unfortunately, he strikes out yet again because he always gets so nervous around women that he ends up making a fool of himself. His roommate Brad (Kevin Hart), on the other hand, has an effortless way with the opposite sex and has to beat girls off with a stick. Warren grows bitter and jealous and then starts displaying self-destructive tendencies like cutting himself and punching a mirror. Brad encourages him to just be himself but Warren hopelessly confides “I've been myself my whole life and even I don't like me.”

Warren works at the library as an archivist, along with his equally geeky pal Larry (Christopher Wade). Their asshole boss Mr. Townsend (George Flynn) brings in a new consultant, Sandy Crawford (Shirley Ross), who's been hired to help reorganize their out of date library system. Warren falls instantly in love with his new coworker. He tries to ask her to the movies but she (kindly) rejects him because of her policy of not dating anyone she works with.

Going through some old files, Warren stumbles upon an old manuscript written by a research psychologist named Vivac Chandra (Tom Henry), who supposedly died thirty years earlier of mysterious causes that also drove his own mother (Diana Calhoun) crazy. After reading it, Warren feels like a brand new man. He also realizes he now has the power to control many things using just his mind. Not only can he use telekinesis to move inanimate objects, but he can also control the thoughts and actions of others and even predict the immediate future. He helps Larry solve a Rubik's Cube, helps with a jammed vending machine, starts excelling at work, turns himself into a culinary wizard, makes his boss publicly strip down to his underwear to humiliate himself and much more. He also finds that he can use his powers to improve his love life. He picks up a blonde at the bar for “practice” but ultimately has his sights set on Sandy. However, for some strange reason, he finds he cannot control Sandy's mind so easily.

The more Warren uses his new powers, the more his personality and his physical appearance starts changing. He becomes short-tempered and irritable and starts suffering from throbbing headaches. His hair also starts falling out and he eventually becomes a bulbous-headed monster. Chandra's mother is thankfully still around (though as crazy as ever) and has left her son's lab mostly intact so Warren's friend is able to get his hands on some contraption called an “electrical conducer” that factors into the ending.

Neither great nor terrible, this is pretty typical low-budget 80s regional product made for the video market, and clearly influenced by the superior films of David Cronenberg and Stuart Gordon. On the down side, it's extremely talky and, aside from a brief prologue, the horror aspects don't really kick in until the very end. On the plus side, the dialogue is surprisingly sharp, witty and well-written at times. I was especially fond of “Care for a mint, Svengali?” and there's also a funny jab at then-president Ronald Reagan (“Third rate actors go real far in politics!”) The primary cast, especially McDonald, isn't too bad either and the male characters are atypically sensitive. There's a strange blue, purple and pink heavy color scheme and a song from Jill Sobule (of “I Kissed a Girl” fame) on the soundtrack. It was filmed in Denver, Colorado.

The director also made Night Vision (1987) and wrote and produced Lone Wolf (1988), both of which feature many of the same actors seen here. According to IMDb, he died in 1990, though it gives no further details. The special effects are by Vincent J. Guastini and Patrick Denver. Ted A. Bohus, who produced and co-wrote the cult favorite The Deadly Spawn (1983) and went on to direct Regenerated Man (1994) and Vampire Vixens from Venus (1995), was the fx supervisor and also gets a credit for additional story material. I'm not aware of any official DVD release, just a VHS from Prism (who also helped back the project) in 1987.

★★

Meng gui jia ren (1989)

... aka: Chinese Ghost-core
... aka: Ghost Girl
... aka: Romantic Ghost Story, A

Directed by:
Wen Hua

Japanese tourist Lisa (Mai Hayami) is vacationing in Hong Kong when she's involved in a horrible car accident. She awakens on the beach and then is chased down by two jester-looking guys with dunce hats, fuzzy sticks and tongues so long they hang out of their mouths about a foot. She's captured and brought to a female “guard” who tells her she's arrived at the “Gate of Death.” Fortunately for her, a consultation with the “Book of Life and Death” reveals Lisa's name is nowhere to be found. (I guess because she's from out of town?!) Lisa is shown a huge cemetery that's the “World of the Ghosts” where everyone is treated equal and then the guard, whom she later refers to as her "Ghost Auntie," encourages her to head down to the city and have some fun. Meanwhile, the nightmare-plagued John (Denis Fan) has visions of Lisa's car accident and her going to hell all set to music from Charles Bernstein (stolen from A Nightmare on Elm Street). Afterward, he and his fast-living friend / co-worker Jim go to a sleazy, red-lit bar looking for “pussy” and watch a pair of Caucasian dancers in thongs (one male and one female) do some silly routine to an instrumental version of Blondie's 'Rapture.' What in the hell am I watching again?

John owns a studio. Jim is his photographer. Both work on what they call “figurative art,” which is what the rest of us would call naked, smutty pictures. When one of their models doesn't show up, the guys go to lunch and spot Lisa while they're out; little realizing that they'd already met her the night before when John accidentally pissed all over her head (!) in an alleyway. They give her their card and she calls the studio. John is instantly smitten with the mysterious Japanese beauty and would rather date her than put her in a magazine. Now without a model, Lisa promises to coerce their secretary Sue into doing it instead. Lisa uses her ghostly powers to make the conservative girl do a nekkid photo spread but when she finally sees the pictures she can't even remember posing for them. Figuring something sinister and otherworldly must be up, Sue consults a shady sorcerer / exorcist / drunkard and has him meet Lisa. After he determines the life line on her palm is broken, she scares him off by flashing her demon face at him.

The photography business isn't doing too well, so Lisa goes to her Ghost Auntie for help, gets her hands on some very valuable antiques and soon she and John have a room full of money to play around with. She also helps Jim out with his crush on Sue by taking possession of her and making her have sex with him. When Sue awakens, she starts punching him and accusing him of raping her. Back to the exorcist they go. This time he promises to “chase her back to hell” with his arsenal of weapons and magic trickery that includes a magic sword, a Buddha statue and dog's blood. In the meantime, he gives Sue about 500 spell papers to plaster all around her apartment.

Nothing really seems to work on Lisa since she's not technically crossed over to either heaven or hell yet and all anyone does to ward her off only accomplishes pissing her off further. After Jim and Sue ruin her relationship with John by revealing what she truly is, things only get worse when she decides she wants revenge. Ghost Auntie, who sometimes boasts a skull face but usually just looks like an old woman, helps by taking on the exorcist. She tricks him into drinking water that's actually serpent embryonic fluid and he proceeds to throw up a bunch of snakes. The wizard isn't up to much though and is easily taken out of commission with a red chain and a knife. Everyone else who tried to cock block our love-struck lady ghost also ends up paying for it, as well. It's all topped off with a lame and stupid “Was it real or just a nightmare?” type of ending.

Most HK ghost movies from this same time look stylish, have decent special effects and have a few scenes/moments that are memorably crazy. This one has none of that. It's filled with impenetrable night scenes, ragged editing, amateur acting and laughably cheap / shoddy fx and makeup. Since they clearly couldn't afford any visual or technical perks, they try to make up for that by displaying as much bare female flesh as possible. There's full frontal nudity from both lead females and each has their own nude modeling / photo session montage plus a soft core sex scene with the Jim character. Hayami, a pinku girl who had appeared in a half dozen or so rape / bondage / fetish soft core movies in Japan, was brought over to play her role. Other than her and the male lead, I did not recognize any of the other actors. Listed director Wen Hua also is a complete unknown. Either that or he's someone else using a fake name.

I found next to no information about this obscure title online. None of the major Hong Kong movie databases even list it and, though there's an IMDb page, it only lists the director, two actors and the alternate title of Chinese Ghost-core (an English translation of the Japanese title). It was made for the Hong Kong Man Wah Film Company, which does not appear to have released much else though I recognize the logo, has a 1988 copyright date, was theatrically released in February of 1989 and is classed as Cat III erotica. The copy floating around (taken from a Japanese VCD release) is in Cantonese with burnt-in English and Japanese subtitles.

★1/2