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Review: Mind Leech (2023), A Fun Slice of Canadian Horror

Mind Leech (2023)

&NewLine;<p>Canada has put out a handful of memorable horror films over the years&comma; including <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;amzn&period;to&sol;3XxfDzC" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noreferrer noopener"><em>Cube<&sol;em> &lpar;1997&rpar;<&sol;a>&comma; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;tubitv&period;com&sol;movies&sol;520259&sol;fido&quest;start&equals;true&amp&semi;utm&lowbar;source&equals;google-feed&amp&semi;tracking&equals;google-feed" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noreferrer noopener"><em>Fido<&sol;em> &lpar;2006&rpar;<&sol;a>&comma; and <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;amzn&period;to&sol;3E4HqAQ" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noreferrer noopener"><em>7 Days<&sol;em> &lpar;2010&rpar;<&sol;a>&period; These are all very different films&comma; but each is great in its own right&period; While the number of Canadian horror films has increased with the arrival of streaming services&comma; the quality hasn’t always kept up the pace&period; By my count&comma; there have been more misses than hits over the last decade&period; Fortunately&comma; SFX gurus Chris Cheeseman and Paul Krysinski team up in their directorial debut to bring us <em>Mind Leech<&sol;em> &lpar;2023&rpar;&comma; a relatively short but genuinely entertaining and gruesome piece of Canadian horror&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p><em>Mind Leech<&sol;em> takes place in 1998 in the fictional Canadian town of Provinstate&comma; a rural area where people like to go ice fishing and&&num;8230&semi;not much else&period; The film opens with a pair of shady characters dumping a tank from &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Chem Corp” into a nearby lake&period; When the tank doesn’t sink as they had hoped&comma; they shoot it with a shotgun&comma; inadvertently releasing noxious fumes&period; Cut to a pair of beer-guzzling friends&comma; Craig and Josh&comma; who come out to the same lake to go ice fishing&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Unfortunately for them&comma; their creature-attracting device does its job and attracts a particularly nasty leech&period; This leach is hellbent on attaching itself to human brains as a parasite and controlling their actions&period; Naturally&comma; this leads to disastrous consequences for Craig and Josh&period; Meanwhile&comma; Deputy Johnson and Sheriff Pailey respond to a report of a fire at the fishing shack&comma; where they discover the charred remains of Josh&period; The two officers try to track down Craig&comma; only to find that &&num;8220&semi;Craig&&num;8221&semi; has gone on a killing spree&comma; leaving plenty of blood and guts in his wake&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Many viewers take issue with the fact that indie movies can often feel low-budget&period; From the camera work to the performances&comma; you just know when you’re watching something done by amateurs&period; Fortunately&comma; this is not much of an issue with <em>Mind Leech<&sol;em>&period; Throughout the film&comma; I kept thinking to myself that the filmmakers really do have a firm grasp of &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;movie magic&comma;” so to speak&period; Aside from a few awkward line deliveries&comma; the film always looks&comma; sounds&comma; and feels better than a low-budget indie horror has any right to&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>In fact&comma; one of the few markedly &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;indie” aspects of the film is its short runtime&period; At just under an hour&comma; <em>Mind Leech<&sol;em> is about as short as a film can be while still qualifying as a feature-length movie&period; But in my opinion&comma; this worked in its favor&period; The story flows at a steady pace&comma; amping up the tension as the leech continues its parasitic murder spree&period; <em>Mind Leech<&sol;em> doesn&&num;8217&semi;t leave anything on the table and it wraps up the story in a way that is both satisfying and open enough for a potential sequel&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<figure class&equals;"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2023&sol;02&sol;Screen-Shot-2023-02-14-at-8&period;17&period;16-PM-1024x547&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Mind Leech movie" class&equals;"wp-image-2617"&sol;><figcaption class&equals;"wp-element-caption"><em>Mind Leech<&sol;em> &lpar;2023&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>While <em>Mind Leech<&sol;em> leans much more on the horror than the comedy&comma; it does have a campy&comma; uber-Canadian tone throughout&period; Even as an American&comma; I can spot the uniquely Canadian nods and jokes&period; For its own sake&comma; <em>Mind Leech<&sol;em> never takes itself too seriously&comma; which is another reason that one can easily forgive any minor shortcomings&comma; like the beer cans marked with every Canadian’s favorite beer brand&comma; <em>Beer<&sol;em>&comma; or the cheesy Chem Corp tank that sets up the entire plot&period; These elements never really take away from the film because it&&num;8217&semi;s just self-aware enough to lean into these subtle nod-and-wink moments&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>I would be remiss if I failed to mention an excellent performance from Steff Ivory Conover as Deputy Terrika &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;TJ” Johnson&period; Though the entire cast performs well&comma; Conover stands out as the star of the show&period; Not only does she have to step up as the reluctant heroine of the film&comma; but her performance is very natural and helps complement the campy humor without taking it too far&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>It should also be added that&comma; as special effects experts&comma; Chris Cheeseman and Paul Krysinski do a fantastic job amping up the gore&period; While it’s definitely not so gory that it would gross out hardcore horror fans&comma; it still provides just enough splatter to keep things interesting&period; In closing&comma; I’d just like to say that <em>Mind Leech<&sol;em> is a fun&comma; campy Canadian horror movie that&comma; despite its short runtime and low budget&comma; makes for a very entertaining and worthwhile viewing experience&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<h2 class&equals;"has-medium-font-size wp-block-heading">Mind Leech Movie Rating&colon; &starf;&starf;&starf;&starf; out of 5<&sol;h2>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>If you’d like to watch <em>Mind Leech<&sol;em> &lpar;2023&rpar;&comma; the film is currently available to rent on <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;mindleech&period;com&sol;">mindleech&period;com<&sol;a>&period; For more film reviews like this one&comma; be sure to check out the <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;">Philosophy in Film homepage<&sol;a>&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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