Mindflesh

This film certainly wasn’t what I expected. The basic story of the film is simple enough. A taxi driver is obsessing about a goddess he believes is visiting from a parallel dimension and walking the streets of London. His mania has him believing that his life and those of his friends are in grave danger unless he abandons his quest to find his goddess.

So far it sounds like a simple story of a guy going mad and suggests what we are in store for is the result of a highly disturbed mind – Angel Heart style killfest where the cabbie later finds out he’s been committing a series of grisly murders whilst his conscious mind has blacked out. That’s not what we get though. Instead it gets weird, very weird. And it’s David Cronenberg style weirdness.

It has the same blood soaked shock nudity that steers clear of gratuitous you’d find in many Cronenberg movies, the same slightly surreal, deeply shocking body horror stylings - in fact it wouldn’t have surprised me to see him named as director.

But for that it doesn’t feel like a straight copy or homage. This has a very English flavour, an art house feel awash with alien conspiracy myth and Buddhist spirituality. It should be a complete mess but somehow isn’t. Not for all tastes, too artsy for most horror/sf fans, but it’s a film you feel could easily become cult.

Page updated 25 March, 2011