One of the things that happens if you do this job for a long time (and at this point, I have objectively been doing this for a long time) is you start to see the same people over and over at different events. You meet a filmmaker at a festival, for example, and if that film is on the festival circuit for a while, then you end up seeing that same filmmaker several times over the next year.
That”s what happened with Joe Begos and Josh Ethier for me when they released Almost Human, their first film together, and now it”s happening again as The Mind”s Eye reaches theaters and digital platforms. Begos is the writer/director/cinematographer, while Ethier is a producer and the film”s editor. I am a fan of their collaboration in general, and I think they”ve got their own aesthetic going on, something I”m curious to see play out as they make more movies together.
We talk about their production company logo, we talk about Joe”s love of prosthetic make-up effects and why they”re important for a lower-budget horror director, and we talk about how you maintain control of what you do in this industry. This is probably the longest conversation I”ve had with Joe so far, and he is one of those Fangoria kids who I was friends with growing up, the guys who were totally in love with make-up gags and who would make their own fake blood and head out into the woods to blow things up and make a movie of their own. Talking to him about his movies, that unfettered love of the genre comes through loud and clear.
We live in a world now where pastiche and homage have conquered everything, and you can either rail against it or you can pay attention to who does it well and how well they do it. There”s no doubt that The Mind”s Eye is a reaction to David Cronenberg”s Scanners, but instead of just approaching it as a remake, Begos took the things he liked and then cranked them all up to eleven. The Mind”s Eye feels like the film that someone would make if you told them to remake Scanners, but the only source material you”re allowed to use is the fevered description of the film by an eleven-year-old who just saw it for the first time while drinking waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much caffeine.
And that”s a good thing.
Here's my review of the film from last year's Toronto Film Festival.
You can check it out for yourself now with The Mind”s Eye in limited theatrical release and available everyone on digital platforms.