Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		2.5

Mind Games Blu-ray Movie Review

Knife in the Water: The Next Generation.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 1, 2020

It certainly can’t be pure coincidence that some of the key art for this 1989 thriller prominently features a knife slicing through a photograph of the family at the center of the tale (see screenshot 20 for the Main Menu of this disc, which kinda sorta reproduces what I'm talking about, but there are other examples, including on the main listing page, for this film's IMDb entry). In much the same way that the always ebullient Kim Newman points out in a supplement on the Criterion release of Diabolique how a now little remembered film’s advertising campaign sought to capitalize on the iconic Henri-Georges Clouzot film by having a tag line which stated the film being advertised offered “a diabolical new technique”, which Newman holds his hands over the middle of to reveal “diabol-ique”, Mind Games may similarly subliminally be suggesting to ardent cineastes that this film bears certain unmistakable similarities to Roman Polanski’s Knife in the Water. Both films feature a dysfunctional couple whose seemingly arbitrary decision to pick up a hitchhiker leads to all sorts of mayhem, both psychological and physical, with much of the action taking place either near or actually on a body of water. The one salient difference between the two films is that the family in Mind Games also features the couple’s young son.

And in fact it’s the kid in this enterprise, a little boy named Kevin Lund (Matt Norero), who kind of stumbles upon a drifter sort named Eric Garrison (Matthew Caufield), with Eric playing flute (shirtless) in a forest setting which itself seems to subliminally be suggesting a sort of seductive quality often assigned to flute playing divinities like Pan, in what is kind of oddly a recurring motif in my recent review queue, as evidenced by my Born of Fire Blu-ray review (note that the link points to a UK release). And in actuality part of that subliminal suggestive quality may be distinctly anxiety inducing for parents of young kids in particular, with an undeniable suggestion of some latent sexuality between Eric and Kevin which may be among this film’s more provocative elements (there are even more overt moments between the two later in the film).

Kevin has been on a road trip with his parents, Dana (Edward Albert) and Rita (Shawn Weatherly), a trip undertaken to try to heal some roiling marital problems between the two. For a film made in 1989, the basic conflict between Dana and Rita seems to have been sucked out of a time portal from the 1950s or 1960s at the latest, but suffice it to say once Kevin "finds" Eric and invites him back to the Lunds' campsite, the Lunds' marital issues, while germane to the overall arc of the plot, turn out to be the least of their problems.

Mind Games is a very odd film, one which almost skirts with a kind of surrealism at times, and which relies on an almost pathological lack of common sense on the part of the elder Lunds (Kevin at least can be partially excused for any lapses in judgement due to his young age). Speaking of pathological, as in sociopathological, Eric's motivations seem kind of randomly violent for no apparent reason, something that may in fact add to some of the unpredictability but which also can tend to push this story into near cartoonish territory as it becomes more and more bizarre.

Mind Games Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Mind Games is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of MVD Rewind Collection, an imprint of MVD Visual, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. Some of MVD's releases routinely contain at least a little bit of info on transfers on their back covers, but there's nothing I could see here about the provenance of the element or master used to create this disc. That said, this is generally one of the nicer looking transfers I've seen from MVD Rewind, with an overall very warm and vividly suffused palette, and very agreeable detail levels, even when "arty" lighting effects are utilized. For example, even though he's bathed in dappled sunlight in an almost dreamlike introductory sequence, the fine hair on Eric's shirtless shoulders can easily be made out during some of the backlit moments. There seem to be diffusion filters that have been utilized, specifically in some of the beachside scenes, but even here detail levels are generally very good. There are occasional minor signs of age related wear and tear, but nothing I'd term overly distracting. Grain resolves naturally throughout the presentation.

Mind Games Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Mind Games features a nice sounding LPCM 2.0 track. A lot of the film takes place out of doors, and ambient environmental sounds regularly fill the background of dialogue scenes. David Campbell's score also sounds full bodied and problem free. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout the presentation and I noticed no issues whatsoever with regard to dropouts, distortion or other damage.

Mind Games Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• The Making of Mind Games (1080p; 1:47:59) is another great supplement from the MVD Rewind Collection, which provides a glut of interviews and production data. Among those featured are Maxwell Caufield, Matt Norero, Shawn Weatherly, producer Mary Apick and Director Bob Yari.


• Portrait of a Producer: Bob Yari (1080p; 32:35) is another really well done piece, featuring interviews with Yari,, who actually directed this (as well as Executive Produced), but who went on to produce Best Picture Oscar winner Crash and The Illusionist, the latter of which is also available on Blu-ray from MVD.


• Trailers includes Mind Games (480i; 1:13) along with several others for MVD releases.

Additionally, the keepcase comes with a folded mini-poster and reversible cover art.

Mind Games Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Here's a question for any and all parents out there: if your son brought back a drifter he had found in the woods, a drifter who soon enough started to display signs of being mentally unbalanced, would you not just invite this stranger to join you on a road trip, but keep inviting him to stick around even after all sorts of hell started breaking loose, even if your marital squabbles were at the forefront of your thinking? The answer to that may be distressingly obvious, but it's one that never seems to occur to either Dana or Rita, which makes the underlying premise here a little hard to swallow. That, combined with what my hunch is some viewers will feel is the off putting subtext of Eric being "interested" in Kevin, make this a kind of smarmy enterprise from the get go. That said, technical merits are generally solid and the supplementary package appealing, for those who are considering a purchase.