Scream queen Danielle Harris (Hatchet 2, Stake Land) stars as Maria Sanchez, a fearless television reporter investigating the disappearance of hundreds of Midwestern University students. Her big break comes when Emmett (Lance Henriksen of Aliens fame), a shifty local, agrees to reveal all that he knows about the missing students and a troubled man named Cyrus (Brain Krause from TV’s Charmed).
Cyrus: The Mind of a Serial Killer (not to be confused with the Duplass Brothers’ film Cyrus or 1986’s classic horror film Henry: The Portrait of a Serial Killer) is fairly, and this might shock some of you, derivative. From the TV journalist character, the rural setting, the killer’s abusive childhood and the film’s claims to be based on true events Cyrus is nothing most horror fans haven’t seen before. But, unlike many B-movie genre flicks, Cyrus features some nice performances and a surprising amount of character development for its killer. This pushes Cyrus, despite its copious amount of gore, away from the slasher genre and more into the psychological horror realm.
Vadik has clearly put in a lot of research into his script but this occasionally gets in the way of the story. His use of clips of “serial killer experts” (one of which is played by Hellboy’s Doug Jones) is too clumsy, disrupts the film’s flow and is entirely unnecessary because the information provided is covered by in other aspects of the narrative.
Cyrus: The Mind of a Serial Killer isn’t nearly as smart as it would like to be but it works far better than the majority of B-movie psychological horror films. Those looking for non-stop violence might find the plot a bit slow but horror buffs should put Cyrus: Mind of a Serial Killer on their radar.