This vanity project was designed to showcase Indian-born, Houston-based doctor Pavan Grover, who both wrote the screenplay and stars as a psychic serial killer, .
Troubled criminal psychologist Diana Purlow (Dina Meyer) interviews convicted killer Cesar (Marco Rodriguez) at the Texas jail where he awaits execution, hooking him up to the "brain polyscan," a device that measures memory activity -- "It's not a lie detector, it's a truth detector," she helpfully tells volatile Warden Earl Blakely (Dennis Hopper), who has nothing but contempt for bleeding-heart liberals who want to understand poor, abused psychopaths. Though she's convinced of his innocence and appeals on his behalf to the governor (Jeff Fahey), with whom she appears to have some secret history, three days later Cesar dies in the electric chair under the supervision of Coincidentally, notorious serial murderer Jesse Mowatt (Pavan) is brought to the same prison and Purlow gets permission to interview him. Instead of the brain scans she expects, Purlow is subjected to a torrent of images apparently pulled directly from Mowatt's mind, scenes of child abuse, bloody murder and -- most disturbing of all -- her own unhappy past. Mowatt declares himself the next step in human evolution and, mysteriously, tells Purlow that she's "the one." Purlow confides to colleague Jack Pitchford (Lance Henriksen) that she and Mowatt have some kind of bond that disturbs the hell out of her. And then… well, and then the movie degenerates into a series of attenuated scenes in which Mowatt makes crazy eyes, Purlow worries that he's inside her head and Warden Blakely swears colorfully when not doubled over from brain-scorching headaches.
A pain-management specialist who always wanted to act, the camera-friendly Grover -- whose non-movie credits include debating Dr. Jack Kevorkian on Larry King Live -- enlisted him mother's help in producing this pretentious SILENCE OF THE LAMBS/X-Files-influenced thriller. Her maternal devotion is commendable, but the result -- directed by veteran TV helmer Thomas J. Wright (Tom Wright) -- is very nearly unwatchable. leave a comment --Ma
