Movie Review: Mindhunters

Ooooo spooky. A bunch of folks on an isolated island and somebody among them is a killer. It's Club Med gone terribly wrong without the palm trees, cabana boys and bikini babes. Certainly not new but always a thrillride!

In Mindhunters, trainee profilers Gabe Jenkins (LL Cool J), J.D. Reston (Christian Slater), Bobby Whitman (Eion Bailey), Rafe Perry (Will Kemp), Lucas Halpern (Jonny Lee Miller), Vince Sherman (Clifton Collins Jr.),Sarah Moore (Kathryn Morris) and Nicole Willis (Patricia Velazquez) are flown by chopper to a deserted, government owned island by their boss/trainer Harris (Val Kimler). This place makes "Survivor" look like a tea party.

As the candidates are put through a variety of tests and must solve crimes and find the make believe serial killer, they realize one of them is evidently not there to go to school and is taking this killer thing way too seriously. The killer is leaving strange clues before each murder and he/she is creative too. He uses explosives, meat hooks, weird poisons, electrocution, etc. Of course everybody starts accusing everybody else and these guys all have guns so somebody is bound to get hurt before the fittest survives.

Mindhunters is both a who-done-it and horror film where the cast in an isolated house (this time on an isolated island) gets picked off. Not original at all but, if you dig watching creative horror deaths, this film is full of them.. frozen bods snapping in half, people burning to death from the inside out.. etc. Dialogue is pretty corny and talky but performances are very good. Kathryn Morris, who has since gotten the lead in the very good t.v. crime drama "Cold Case," is excellent as the brainy but unsure profiler candidate. L.L. Cool J. is fine as a dude who isn't exactly what he seems. Only Patricia Velasquez is weak but that's probably because of her thick accent.

It's usually easy to predict the killer and figure out who is the hero but this one fooled me. There are a lot of twists and really creative, although gruesome "kills." The opening sequence is a nice shocker and the characters all have interesting, varied hang-ups that serve to flesh them out nicely. Whether is childhood fears or physical limitations, each "profiler" must overcome his own limitations before beating the killer.

Don't see this one if you are squeamish but if you enjoy a good horror movie with a nice mystery.. go for it!

For twists and effective gore... 3.5 out of 5 stars

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Lynn Barker is a Hollywood-based entertainment journalist and produced screenwriter.