Cyrus: Mind of a Serial Killer (2010)

It's possible for a film to have a cool title, cover, and even preview, but still be a complete waste of time, enter Cyrus: Mind of A Serial Killer. In a remote Midwestern community, over a hundred women have disappeared over the last twenty years. Not wanting to create a panic, the local authorities have explained away most as accidents and isolated incidents, while they search for the truth. The cover up has worked until a local reported is contacted by a man who claims to not only know the truth, but know who the killer is. The film is laid out in a flashback, as this mysterious man tells the life story of this man, Cyrus, and what created him, what he did, how he did it, and why. Just one problem, it's boring! This film is supposed to be an inside look at a serial killer and what makes him tick, how he operates, but not only does it move as slow as molasses, but you really don't even see much of anything! This is an independent film about a serial killer!? Where's the gore, blood, insanity? It's more like watching a documentary on the History channel. As for the cast, Brian Krause isn't a bad actor, but certainly not someone I would ever think of as a serial killer, he's just very quiet and emotionless throughout, in other words, boring. The old man, Lance Hendriksen, sits in a chair and tells a story the whole time, also boring. The producers of this film built it up to be this huge thing, an inside look at a serial killer the likes of which we've never seen before, and they were right, I've never been so bored watching a horror thriller in my entire life!

Sometimes a production team starts out to make a decent film and fails. The result is a bad film. Sometimes, it seems, the team sets out deliberately to make a bad film and succeeds. The result is a niche film like this, for which there is a certain audience in social space.I understand there's a twist at the end. I didn't see it because I stopped the punishment after half an hour.I give this cinematic ovoid cyst a Two because Lance Hendrickson is in it and plays an important part. That's it.The rest of the cast cannot act, period. It's embarrassing to watch them try. And the story -- you want the story? A cuckolded farmer kills his wife, her lover, and their child, chops them up, fries them on a grill, and opens a roadside hamburger stand called Roadkill that becomes so popular people flock to it.Where does he get his supply? There's nothing in it "but what I kill with my own hands." And it's true. He pursues an endless supply of half-naked ladies, their breasts bobbing, through the fields and shoots them through the head.Pfui.

Cyrus is a sadistic serial killer. A cute girl investigative reporter is looking into his story. Good things are unlikely to follow.It strikes me that good horror films about slasher killers fall into one of two categories: either attempts to tell a serious story about something which doesn't need sensationalising, or else blood-soaked romps which revel in blood-soaked slaughter but don't take themselves seriously.Cyrus, unfortunately, is a romp which takes itself seriously and accordingly comes across as sensationalised sadistic unpleasantness without the saving graces of either taking its subject seriously or having a sense of humour.And it's a shame, because it has some good performances, particularly from Brian Krause, laying to rest his good guy image from TV's Charmed.

If you let go of the fact that what you're watching isn't going to be a blockbuster, you may actually enjoy yourself with this film. Yes, it's a B-grade horror movie, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's bad (though many usually are). Here goes nothing:The story centers around Maria (Danielle Harris), a reporter, and her cameraman, Greg (Corey Gibbons), who are investigating a series of disappearances/killings, tipped to be done by a man named Cyrus (Brian Krause), "The County Line Cannibal". The movie starts off with the two of them traveling to a small, Midwestern county to speak to Cyrus's best friend Emmett (Lance Henriksen) who possesses eerily intimate knowledge of Cyrus's killing methods, and recounts the tales of the County Line Cannibal's final 7 victims to the small crew, explaining the disappearance of three young college girls the reporters were initially investigating. I have to admit, I did like this movie - a lot, and I generally don't like B-grade movies at all. The entire reason I hired this movie initially was for Danielle Harris (who's part is significant only at the beginning and in the final moments, but she is scattered about the course of the film) and I didn't expect much from this, but I genuinely enjoyed it. It was bleak and gritty and it was realistic (as it should be, being based on a true story and all). People are too caught up in immediately hating horror movies these days they make the premature decision to hate something before they've given it a chance. The acting from Krause, Harris & Henriksen was splendid, and the others (being relative newcomers) didn't do too shabby a job with their parts either. It takes a while for the movie to pick up the pace in the beginning but your patience will be rewarded. If I'm honest, in the last 10 minutes of the film, the 'twist' becomes rather obvious, but rather enjoyable none-the-less. If you're being realistic about what you're seeing here, and don't go in expecting it to be something that it's really not, you'll enjoy it. Expecting it to be something exceptional or a new step up in horror, and you'll just go home disappointed. It's nothing new, it's nothing terribly original, but it's entertaining and in a way, thought- provoking: "Who do I feel sorry for, the victims or Cyrus?". The answer's not as cut and dry as you think it is.Rating: 7/10