Mind Games

First time filmmakers rarely take on the science fiction genre. Its inherent difficulties, most of which derive from both premise and execution, provide far too many logistical, literary, and likeability loopholes to guarantee much cinematic success. Leave it to narrative novices Marty Langford (producer/writer) and Warren Amerman (writer/director) to find a way to merge the speculative with the sinister, all to create a marvelous sci-fi/ horror hybrid. In their marvelous Magdalena’s Brain, new to DVD from Heretic Films, the pair has concocted a devious thriller on top of a sly psychological character study.

In fact, this is a movie that’s more dread driven than straight ahead scary. The complicated plot revolves around a physician named Magdalena Welling (Amy Shelton-White) who’s desperate to save her catatonic husband when a series of “memory experiments” render him a veritable vegetable. After five years of living in an abandoned factory, feverishly working on a project to restore her man’s failing physicality, she’s pushed to the limits, both ethically and legally. She ends up committing acts both heroic. . .and hideous.

Some may initially find the story a little slow, but if you hang on and enjoy the ideas floating within it, you’ll be richly rewarded with an evocative tale of technology run amuck and human hope unhinged. Realizing that anything this outrageous and speculative requires a firm foundation to succeed, Langford and Amerman create an easily identifiable reality, allowing the strong performances and equally powerful narrative to flourish and thrive. Once they’ve established their ideas, they then begin to twist and turn them, keeping us constantly off guard and thoroughly engaged throughout.

At the heart of this dire medical dilemma is the miserable Magdalena. Played perfectly by Indie actress Amy Shelton-White (who has appeared in such basic b-movie fodder as Sasquatch Hunters and Slaughter Studios), this former doctor and dedicated spouse lives a life of disquieting desperation. So focused on curing her husband’s quadriplegia by helping him finish his groundbreaking brain research that she’s cut herself off from the rest of the world, Maggie is a mess. Yet just behind her eyes is a desire to live again, to experience everything that existence has to offer.

Numbing herself with endless bottles of Merlot (and the occasional copped pain pill from her spouse’s supply) she’s incapable of giving up her quest. Into her life comes a pair of perplexing elements. The first is old friend (and former patient) Andrew. Diagnosed with inoperable cancer five years before, the now dying man has been holed up in Magdalena’s empty warehouse home. Pining away for the doctor who delivered his death knell, Andrew just wants one last fling with our heroine before merging with the infinite. But Magdalena won’t give up her marriage vows, and avoids Andrew’s touch while wishing, herself, for a little interpersonal interaction.

The other factor invading her space is a brand new therapist. Listening intently to everything his problem-plagued patient is saying, this head shrinker doesn’t think Magdalena is telling him the truth. Sure enough, things aren’t as black and white as our reclusive researcher makes them out to be. Her still intelligent husband has come up with a remarkable new memory bank that can hold 100 times the human brain’s considerable capacity. She believes it can cure him. But the plan is unorthodox, and highly illegal.

Indeed, what the psychologist doesn’t know is that, instead of fixing her friend, Magdalena will use Andrew as a repository for her husband’s intellect. When the time comes, she will extract Andrew’s tumor and live happily ever after with her husband in his head. Of course, there has to be a wrench in this otherwise perfect arrangement, and to give away what it is destroys one of Magdalena’s Brain’s best moments. Let’s just say it’s a stunning revelation that this critic never saw coming.

Experts at tone and atmosphere, Langford and Amerman make excellent use of their abandoned factory backdrop, and utilize all of its industrial elements to amplify the fear factors. A chase through the bowels of the plant is made all the more effective thanks to these rusted out ruins. Yet even on the science side, the guys really deliver. Though most of their effects resemble standard smoke and mirrors, the techno-babble foisted upon the screenplay makes it all seem realistic and authentic. Indeed, we never once doubt that the mind transfer trick will work, which in turn makes the last minute denouement so devastating.

Along with Shelton-White, the rest of the cast is crucial to the film’s success. Luckily, there is not an amateur in the bunch. Everyone acquits themselves admirably, with special kudos going to Robert Weingartner as Maggie’s reprobate brother, who makes a telling third act appearance. He’s an unsettling presence in an already disturbing film. In fact, one could easily see this entire effort being expanded upon by a full-blown Tinsel Town treatment.

But inside it’s own low budget elements, Magdalena’s Brain works beautifully. Instead of pounding us over the head with overdone histrionics that destroy the dread, Langford and Amerman allow the story to sink in and settle under your skin. We care about Maggie, and actually want her to succeed (even if her means are more mad scientist than methodical). The tension is tweaked even further by the connection between our lead and the various men in her life. In some ways, this movie forms a kind of reverse feminist manifesto. It argues for female superiority and fragility at the same time. Magdalena is obviously ‘above’ the many paternalistic pitfalls in her life. But it’s her undeniably female attachment to same that will signal her possible downfall.

There are a bevy of interesting, intriguing ideas bubbling around in this heady intellectual stew. In fact, there is something inherently satisfying about a movie that reaches beyond the limits set by its surroundings and tries for something deeper and more profound. Stretching the boundaries of both budget and believability, Magdalena’s Brain truly delivers. In a realm where cheap, fast and flawed have become the norm, this is a wholly satisfying cinematic experience—a real rarity in the realm of science fiction.