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!

This flick isn't that bad but on the other hand isn't that good too. The good part lays in the way the killings were presented, the blood do run often and there are gory moments even as they are mostly done off-camera. The bad part is the way the film is presented. We do follow some reporters who wants to make a short on serial killers. By doing so they also interview specialists and it's that part that doesn't bring anything towards this flick.It's even so that once another serial killer is being interviewed and one survivor this tears the believability of this flick down. You just want to know what is going on with the 3 girls and Cyrus the killer.It do has two icons in the lead, Danielle Hariss as the reporter and Lance Henrikson as the person who wants to tell the story about Cyrus. It's rather weird to see Danielle playing a role being dressed up. Nevertheless, it do has Tiffany Shepis in it and that means nudity and I was rather surprised that it contained a few boob shots from almost all girls involved.It's never frightening but it's worth picking up if you won't be bothered with the interference of the interviews.Gore 1/5 Nudity 1,5/5 Effects 3/5 Story 2,5/5 Comedy 0/5

Cinematography: 7/10 Usually fine, but sometimes too dark, or out of focus, or nearly mono color. Perhaps this was for artistic effect, but I find that irritating without any sort of recompense.Sound: 8/10 Usually well done.Acting: 7/10 Harris, Krause, and Henriksen were credible. The other actors were a full level less skilled. Krause still seems to be trying to break out of typecasting from his long stint on the television series Charmed. I liked his performance here, though, better than in some of his earlier bad guy horror film roles.Screenplay: 8/10 Mosaic films can be awfully bad, but this one was well written, even if the content is disgusting. The flashbacks (the mother) and four interview streams (with Emmett, with the two medical experts, with the prison interviewees) are well meshed. The harsh ending makes sense once one gets there.

A small independent news crew investigates a series of unexplained disappearances in a small Midwestern county.This film will be a treat for those who love horror icons. Brian Krause ("Sleepwalkers") stars as Cyrus, with plenty of screen time for Danielle Harris as Maria and Lance Henriksen as Emmett. Even Doug Jones and Tiffany Shepis show up for a while.This film has received some criticism for not being very original and following old horror movie, especially slasher, clichés. And yes, it does have some. But I think this was sort of the point... clearly the writer-director is a horror fan based on his casting, so he must have been paying homage to his favorites. This is no different than what Rob Zombie did with "House of 1000 Corpses" (though that one was a little too blatant in my opinion).The film claims to be based on true events, which I strongly suspected was completely false. I called out director Mark Vadik on this, and he set the record straight: it is, in fact, based very loosely on the life of serial killer Fritz Haarmann, with some background details of other serial killers thrown in. So, I suppose, we have to let this slide. (I strongly urge you to look into Haarmann's story -- it is pretty graphic, and a closer telling would be an amazingly demented film.)Vadik also informed me that the claim of the film being banned in six countries is true. They are ones you might expect -- United Arab Emirates and the Middle Eastern countries -- but this is still a cool claim. While any number of reasons could be behind the ban, there is one sequence involving breast feeding that likely got some people's heckles raised.Check this one out. This is a breakout role for Brian Krause, who was already a big star from "Charmed". He spent much time researching killers -- particularly BTK and the Green River Killer -- for this role, and even did much of the second unit directing, picking up important shots of death scenes. His work is subtle, but the reason the film is good rather than forgettable.