What if the one you trusted the most is the one to betray it as the peaceful town you lived in turned upside down after the arrival of a copycat serial killer who ended three lives in three days, and you were assigned to stop the killings with the help of a detective?
What if the serial killer turns out to be a psychopath who enjoys killing and creating different types of art from it, and things take a turn when you become his next target?
Directed by Mauro Borrelli, one of the best supernatural mystery movies of all time, “Mindcage,” had a similar story with the protagonist having to deal with the new copycat serial killer who enjoys turning his killings into brilliant pieces of art that he used to lure new victims.
John Malkovich plays the role of the artist, the serial killer; Robert Knepper plays the role of Lt. Owings; Neb Chupin plays the role of Dr. Loesch; Jacob Grodnik plays the role of Dutch; Chris Mullinax plays the role of a homeless man; and Aiden Turner playing the role of Dale in the lead.
The film’s focus is on Kelly, the psychologist, along with Jake Doyle, a detective, being handed the case of the serial copycat killer who makes art from his victims, but things take a turn after the serial killer turns out to be the one Kelly trusted the most, thus leaving the viewers wondering till the end.
Who Is The Real Killer?
The brilliant supernatural thriller titled “Mindcage” begins with three dead bodies of women being found in random places, with the first body being discovered in a church, the dead body being decorated to make it look presentable, and the body getting approached by the detectives assigned to solve the case, including Detective Doye and Kelly.
The pair of detectives aren’t on good terms, as the two refuse to communicate with each other, but they are forced to work together on the case, with Sheriff Owings explaining the entire case to them.
Owings reveals to the pair that Arnaud was the initial serial killer who used to poison his victims with the help of ricin extracted from castor beans before arranging the corpse as decorative pieces with the help of metal frames before leaving them in a place they would be easily found by people.
Kelly is revealed to have majored in psychology, thus making her believe that her educational background will help her crack Arnaud and the copycat killings occurring in the town. Kelly’s idea behind the thought was to hurt Arnaud’s ego by informing him about his work being stolen, but Arnaud is one of the biggest tricksters and isn’t fazed by the mere fact that someone else is getting credit for his work.
Arnaud demands more in exchange for him to reveal information related to his art, including his sentence to be changed from execution to life in prison, as there are only two weeks left for him to be executed for the crimes he committed.
The demand made by Arnaud wasn’t something Kelly wanted to fulfill, so she made several counteroffers, but all of them were denied by Arnaud, leaving Kelly with no choice but to promise to pass the draft for his demand.
Meanwhile, Jake politely requests Kelly to leave behind the files related to the case for him to read, and after investigation, the pair realizes that Arnaud and the serial killer have some commonalities, including connections with the afterlife and biblical motifs.
Kelly helps Arnaud get his art supplies back, which leads him to stare at his work for a while before placing a call to Kelly, asking her to check the wings of the killer’s latest victim, as he wanted to confirm if the victim’s wings were broken.
Things become complicated after the pair discover the next body placed in a boat, and Kelly finds a needle from an antique compass on the body, but things take a turn after she realizes that Jake’s former partner used to possess one.
Arnaud was remembered by the people for taking the lives of six women, and on the night Arnaud was chased down by Zeke and Jake, an accident occurred after Jake lost control of their vehicle, leading their car to flip.
After the investigation, a flashback reveals that Jake could only see Zeke laughing maniacally at him with Arnaud, but a moment later, Zeke doused himself in gasoline and set himself on fire while Kelly goes through Jake’s file to learn about his past and learns about Arnaud case adversely affecting his mental health.
During the investigation, Jake loses his cool and points a gun at Arnaud. Arnaud insists that Zeke found the path to the afterlife and took it, but Jake is convinced that Arnaud manipulated Zeke to kill himself. Arnaud informs Kelly about the admirers of his work and his suspicion about one of them being the killer, but he continues to question Kelly about her beliefs about the afterlife.
The film takes a turn after Kelly gets attacked after the person they met earlier approaches Jake’s car in his absence, but on the same night, the killer takes another life and places her corpse in the museum. After Kelly goes to investigate the case, she is informed that the security footage from four hours ago is missing, but she finds the compass previously owned by Zeke.
After Jake places a needle in it, the compass points to a painting, and Jake removes it to find writing in Dutch that means the inferno landscape, which is also the photo from a book that Zeke sent Jake on the day of his death.
During the investigation, the officers find Lieutenant Governor Diaz’s truck with dove feathers, chloroform, and photos of the latest victim, with all of the photos being addressed to Arnaud, thus convincing the officers about Arnaud using codes to connect with the latest murders.
Arnaud refuses to share the details from the letters of his admirer, but he shares everything related to his traumatic past with Kelly, which left him wheelchair-bound, and further reevaluates his knowledge about the murders.
Soon, the pair discovers that the man who kept attacking them was Javier, who was in constant contact with Arnaud but was removed due to his suffering from bipolar disease, thus making Ke believe that he couldn’t be the murderer.
After further investigation, the pair reach the house of the prostitute house, which was used by the killer to end his victim’s life, and it turns out that the house belonged to Arnaud. After questioning, Arnaud tells Kelly that he is just waiting to show her the killer.
Arnaud refuses to share anything related to Diaz, but Kelly desperately wants to know about her whereabouts to prevent Arnaud’s execution. Arnaud wants to wait as he is sculpting him. After questions from Arnaud, Kelly reveals her past with her abusive father, thus making her belief in God shatter.
Soon, Kelly catches the killer, who turns out to be Jake, under Arnaud’s possession, as he immediately loses consciousness and starts to speak like Arnaud, thus revealing Arnaud’s ability to control people’s minds.
This leads a distraught Kelly to shoot Jake, who immediately returns to consciousness while Arnaud burns down Jake’s sketch, thus leaving the officials to believe that Jake suffered from identity-type psychosis that led him to believe that he was the artist.
The film ends with a conversation between Kelly and Dr. Loesch, who was under Arnaud’s possession, who informs Kelly about her being his next victim before realizing that she tricked him and made him lose control of his body by using the same poison he used for his victims.
