Mindhunters

In my on-going pursuit of stories and storytellers, good stories and good storytellers, I am finding, of late, certain constants, patterns: The good stories and good storytellers tend to present their efforts within genres: Horror, fantasy, science fiction.

With the more successful efforts being found in science fiction and horror; with the most notable of late being the sixth, and presumably final, chapter in the "Star Wars" franchise.

Curious as to why this is I have been examining and studying films and movies within these genres and have found an interesting concern: Science fiction films and movies tend to tell better stories because they have better storytellers telling the stories. But if it is straight-up, no-holds-barred storytelling you want, so bad that it is good, then horror is the genre for you, with regards to stories and storytellers.

Take as example of this assertion the movie "Mindhunters": A mindless horror effort so formulaic in narrative structure one could make a very successful drinking game out of it: You have to take a drink of whatever every time the following is presented: 1) One of us is a killer. We know this because at least one of us is already dead. 2) We cannot leave where we are--a country estate so isolated indoor plumbing consists of an outhouse with a door on it, a fortified police station on the verge of being overrun by Bad Things, an Antarctic Research Output so far out it isn't on any known maps, a haunted house, a space station, a rogue planet that doubles as a penal colony, or a summer camp when really, really horrible and bad things happen--because, well, we can't. If we did it would make for a really short, short movie or film. 3) We can't leave because we need to find out who the killer is. Of course, 4) that won't happen until almost everyone is dead.

And the evidence is structured and presented in such a way that it points first to one suspect, then another before eventually revealing the true killer.

In "Mindhunters", a horror thriller directed by Renny Harlin, the setting is a variation on the tried-and-true: The suspects and/or victims (depending, apparently, on who you ask) are gathered together on an isolated island that has been set up by the FBI as a training site for agents and agents-in-training. The setting on the island looks like a real town but isn't, given it is rigged and equipped with video cameras and other related technologies that allow supervisors of this exercise to see how well trainees would handle real-life problems and situations.

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