Mind Games (1989) User Reviews

Awesome and ridiculous

[BandSAboutMovies · 5/10 · 8 April 2020]

Bob Yari has produced plenty of films, but only directed two - this one and Papa: Hemingway in Cuba. I'll have to add this movie to two of my potential Letterboxd lists: the films of Maxwell Caulfield and movies where psychopaths engage with RVs. So, basically, the first list has this, Empire Records and Prey of the Jaguar; the second has Race with the Devil, The Hills Have Eyes films, Hitcher in the Dark and The Toybox.

Yeah, I have some time on my hands.



Rita (Shawn Weatherly, Police Academy 3: Back in Training, Baywatch) and Dana Lund's (Edward Albert, Galaxy of Terror) marriage is in shambles, so to try and save things, they decide to go on an RV excursion to California with their son. Along the way, they pick up the flute playing, husband cucking Eric (Caulfield), a maniac who brings their son along as he vandalizes houses and threatens people's lives.

I kind of love any movie that mixes happy-go-lucky music video sequences with moments of sheer terror, plus has some moments where the characters are some of the most moronic people you've ever met ever. Also, any film that has Maxwell Caulfield dragging a small boy along to bang on doors and do a bad Nazi impression while he screams, "It's the Gestapo!" is a movie that I'm genuinely proud to have in my collection.

If that's not good enough for you, this movie completely rips off Bruce Hornsby and the Range's "The Way It Is" for its main theme. Also, whiskey is suggested as medicine for depression, which is pretty much right on brand for me.

What a stinker

[CabbageCustard · 4/10 · 29 April 2023]

This little movie is touted as a thriller of sorts. Sadly, there are very few thrills to be had here. The script is really clunky and the dialogue is excruciating. There are only four actors in the whole movie and, other than the boy, they are not unknown actors. None are big stars, but they are not unknowns. Based on their performances here, they deserve to be. The young boy is the best of the bunch, and he is no great shakes. Maxwell Caulfield deserves a special mention. He has to be one of the most irritating, unappealing actors I have ever come across. I'm not going to say give this movie a miss, but don't get your expectations too high.

Naive husband who can't see the writing on the wall and Terrible ending

[gloriaambrose-71807 · 5/10 · 18 July 2021]

I would have loved a Russian style ending like metro where the husband left his cheating wife who blames her husband for everything and didn't even tell her hookup guy off when he mentioned killing her husband for insurance. The book found downplayed Rita's evil side and it's a shame she still got pampered despite not being worthy and they act like nothing really happened I mean not even a 2day trauma or something.

They are terrible parents too who lets their kid go camping with a stranger they barely know I wish they made an alternative ending for this.

Family on vacation befriends stranger and later regrets it

[StormW · 18 March 1999]

Pretty good film for your typical family in trouble suspense / thriller. Family goes to the country to bond, meets a traveling guy ( Caulfield ) with lots of advice, befriend him and take him into confidence. Caulfield decides to use the family as his own personal psych experiment and dad ( Albert ) has to try and save his family from a lunatic. Worth a rental.

Your typical '80s "thriller" schlock.

[BrettErikJohnson · 2/10 · 26 March 2004]

The plot to this film is the generic "family in peril" type of movie that was all the rage back in the day. An unhappily married couple and their 10 year old son go on vacation in their camper. The boy wanders off one day and comes across a shirtless man in the woods playing a flute. Well...he does what any boy in this situation would do. He befriends the guy and brings him back to the camper to join his family for dinner.

So does this stranger turn out to be a psycho? You betcha! That doesn't seem to bother the boy's parents and soon the stranger is invited to tag along on their family vacation. You already know what's going to happen because it's the same as what ALWAYS happens in this type of film. The stranger sleeps with the unhappy wife. Then he decides that the father needs to depart from the land of the living.

There is no nudity, very little violence and a whole bucketful of predictable boredom. I'd recommend watching "Cape Fear" again if you want to see a much better film of this type. 2/10

Clones

[edwyyn · 5/10 · 3 August 2022]

A cracking thriller, but awful casting. The boy is great, and acts superbly - but the main problem is that the two male characters look almost exactly alike (both off the standard issue handsome-male-actor shelf), so that it was often difficult to know which of the two one was looking at. Some thought should have been given to this. And the female lead was (visually at least) another 'blonde-film-star' clone. And would parents in real life have let their small son go overnight camping in the forest with a man they had just met? Otherwise, a good watch.

Common Sense Games!

[nicko252008 · 5/10 · 23 December 2020]

5 stars, I was going to give a 6 but the ending was weak. -1 star. A good ending can alter a rating by as much as +2 stars.. but this ending was typical, the ole"beat to death" ending YAWN. An average psychological thriller at best. A few things really pissed me off about this movie. You would think after Rex Manning screws his wife (he knew) he would get the hint, nope the father is a total mindless dope. However, this average turd sandwich was covered in something salty sweet and colorful. We get to see stunning long-shots of Big Sur, impressive cinematography, and 80s music during high levels of distress. It wasn't too bad OK! Maybe I am being harsh. Later the husband finds the hitchhikers journal and the psycho has been keeping psychological evaluations of his entire family, he is studying them! After that the the movie turns the amps up to 11 and then falls flat on so may levels. Watch this if you like thriller cheese. otherwise avoid.

TROUBLE ON THE ROAD

[kirbylee70-599-526179 · 7/10 · 26 March 2020]

MVD is resurrecting a movie mom and pop video store lovers will recall seeing on the shelf but not seen since. Perhaps it popped up on cable now and then but not often. MIND GAMES was one of those films made on a low budget with stars that were either sliding off the grid or on their way up. It features actors in the former category.

Rita and Dana Lund (Shawn Weatherly and Edward Albert) have reached a rough point in their marriage. While Dana is going back to school part time to get a better career for himself, Rita feels that he has stifled her in their marriage, wanting her to remain home and be a housewife instead of pursuing her own career as a designer. In an effort to sort things out the couple hit the road for a planned vacation in an RV with their young son Kevin (Matt Norero).

At one stop Kevin comes across a young man in the woods backpacking, playing a flute. They become friends and he invites him back to meet his folks and stay for lunch. It isn't long before Kevin is enamored with Eric (Maxwell Caulfield) and his father becomes friendly as well. The next day the family sees him walking along and invites him to ride with them to the point he plans on getting off, an invitation Kevin and Dana are happy with but not Rita.

As their journey continues they learn that Eric is a college student studying psychology. What they don't realize is that for him the family is nothing more than a project, an attempt to push various buttons to see what they do and then record it in the notebook he carries with him. Those buttons include having Kevin accompany him when he breaks into a house, having Kevin share a sleeping bag with him and seducing Rita, almost convincing her to help him kill Dana so she can move on with her life.

All of this will eventually come to a head as well as the problems between husband and wife. The family will never come out the same as when Eric became their reluctant passenger. The question is who will and who will not survive.

By the time this film was made in 1989 both Albert and Caulfield had enjoyed some success in film and television but their glory days were behind them. It didn't matter that both were capable actors and went on to numerous other appearances, their chance at stardom had passed both by, leaving them little but name recognition. That's sad because honestly both were solid actors and did well in the parts they played. Weatherly had a short career perhaps highlighted by starring in 18 episodes of BAYWATCH. Norero? Just two more credits after this film.

The story is solid here and slowly unfolds. It's obvious from the start that Eric as a drifting hitchhiker will have some nefarious plan going on but what it is isn't revealed from the start. His slow manipulation of each member of the family is what makes the movie work. At the same time Weatherly's character is perhaps the least sympathetic of them all, portrayed as a shrew of a wife complaining silently, chain smoking and blaming everyone but herself for her unhappiness. It all works together for a solid mystery that entertains.

Part of MVD's Rewind Collection the film comes with some interesting extras on hand. They include "The Making of Mind Games a 108 minute retrospective of the making of the film with interviews of the cast and crew, "Bob Yari: Portrait of a Producer" a retrospective of the film's producer/director, the original theatrical trailer, a reversible sleeve with alternate artwork and a collectible mini-poster.

Much Underrated

[CaperGuy · 10/10 · 3 August 2008]

Mind Games (1989) is a very memorable movie with a plausible plot and subplot. The part of the sociopath (Caulfield) was masterful and the strained dynamic between the married couple was well played. I felt that the movie was not a typical horror flick because the motives of the sociopath were not transparent but they were revealed slowly but surely through his journal. This film goes to show how one twisted individual can wreak havoc on unwitting people. It further illustrates why families should be protected and why strangers should be kept away from children. The film was very, very suspenseful and horribly entertaining.

brilliant but frightening movie

[halation · 10/10 · 3 November 2005]

I have never seen a movie like this before, watching this made me frightened. But the movie "Mind Games" was great and stays still in my memory after long time. There were some parts of action in it, I never will forget. my compliment to the small boy for acting in this movie, because I think, this movie was more cruelly than a horror-movie. I want to see this movie again, but in Germany it is not possible. The highest voting 10/10 from me for this old movie !!! I'm wondering, if the boy had ever the possibility to watch his own movie, he worked and acted for. This movie was never shown in the German TV. I'm wondering, what the boy think today about acting in "Mind Games" ??? This movie is special...

Small-scale thriller

[lor_ · 13 April 2023]

My review was written in August 1989 after watching the movie on CBS/Fox video cassette.

Though briefly receiving film fest exposure and wet coast bookings in March, MGM/UA's "Mind Games" is a small-scale psychological thriller that will play better on tv.

A piece for four actors (there is no supporting cast), Bob Yari's pic follows the traditional format of an appealing but dangerous stranger disrupting a family. Maxwell Caulfield, (previously effective a a heavy in "The Boys Next Door"), is Eric, a psych student who attaches himself to Edward Albert and Shawn Weatherly, who are traveling in the Southwest i theri rec vehicle with 10-year-old Matt Norero.

Caulfield, as part of a self-assigned psych project, manipulates the threesome, working on the son first (with discreet overtones of homosexuality), then the adults. Tension among the characters is dissipated when the film turns to unconvincing melodrama.

Caulfield is a commanding presence here, even when the script has him reveal too much of his ulterior motives. Weatherly is dramatic and provides needed sex appeal, while Albert is saddled with an underwritten part as the weak husband. Newcomer Norero gives a subtle reading of the kid's part.

With good technical contributions, Yari keeps the pot boiling up to a point. Ambitious finale tries for an open-ended effect, but lacks credibility.