Well,
what can I say. It was a hugely entertaining movie and
I would suggest it for anyone who wonders what kind of
things a psychic profiler could or would see while telepathically
in the mind of a serial killer. However, because movies
are a visual art one must keep in mind that what a psychic
actually "sees" while profiling is not just a visual depiction
of the target's personality or mental thoughts, rather
we see, feel, hear, taste, what the target personality
does. There are times when there are no visuals at all,
rather a compilation of thoughts only.
While merged with a target, a profiler can be overcome
by the target's physical sensation of sneezing or urinating.
While the profiler is merged with the target it is important
to try to tap into the target's past memories, current
events and most importantly their intentions for the future.
Seeking the targets future intention is the means by which
he/she can be caught. As an example: if the target is
planning on going to a particular restaurant for dinner
and the psychic is able to tap this information through
telepathic profiling, the policing authorities can be
informed and on location to apprehend the target-subject.
This data the profiler obtains, regarding the intention(s)
of the target, is combined and in some cases solely gathered
from the target's past memories which produces information
allowing the psychic to predict the targets daily habits
and general routines. Each singular track (i.e.: past,
present or future) of the target's mind that the profiler
taps is important to the next track, each is related to
the other in the mental process of all people. The trick
is to be subtle and not to let the target know that the
profiler is rummaging around in his/her head -- unless
being detected is actually desired. There are times when
the profiler chooses to be blunt making their presence
in the target's mind known. This has many drawbacks as
well as benefits and must always be handled with great
care and in all circumstances the profiler must protect
his/her physical identity so as to avoid having the target
hunt the profiler down.
Some of the drawbacks to a target discovering that a profiler
is present in his/her mind is depicted in this movie with
gut wrenching visuals. In this very graphic movie, the
target- Carl discovers that the profiler is indeed mentally
merged with him. Carl, the target, shrewdly begins a campaign
of telepathic domination, terror and in retaliation for
the profiler's mental intrusion he turns the tables and
literally traps her within his mind. From my perspective
I found this to be a true horror story!
A handsome detective with the investigating agency is
also sent in to Carl's mind to set the profiler free from
Carl's mental prison. In order to set her free the detective
must remind the profiler that she is "dreaming" not experiencing
"reality".
What I found odd is that the target held his childhood
as a separate being within his mind rather than experiencing
the personality as a melded memory of his childhood -
but again the child Carl and the adult Carl needed to
be visually represented and I cannot think of a better
way to visually manifest for the audience than exactly
the way they did. I have often separated the childhood
memories from the adult memories of a target however the
target doesn't tend to do so themselves, when they do
I get nervous. I liked that the writers bothered to address
this issue.
I can't give away too much of the plot, I don't want to
ruin a movie that I suggest you see.
Beware, it's very explicit and not very accurate regarding
the profiling procedure itself. They've added some sci-fi
features like drugs and virtual reality software on computers,
which of course a real psychic wouldn't have to use because
they could render the psychic vulnerable and/or dampen
the psychic abilities integral to the project.
The sounds, colors and rich special effects were nice
on the eyes, but when in the mind of a killer, a real
psychic doesn't get the opportunity to see much more than
the target's pain - that which brought the target to commit
the crime in question - because it is what is uppermost
on the target's mind.
There is a dog in the movie - Valentine, who won my heart.
The writers actually allowed a canine companion to be
fairly represented as intelligent, compassionate (he whines
when his human companion "Carl" the killer, attacks a
victim) and emotional. Valentine was portrayed as a "person".
Something most writers foolishly bypass, but that these
writers capitalized on - I loved it. Kudo's to the writers,
I would have suggested people watch this movie just to
experience a visualization of a canine being a person
with emotions, reason and compassion. It is my experience,
having grown up on a tourist industry western riding academy
with many animals including well trained guard dogs, that
animals are people and should be treated as such.
From this movie and the preceding information you will
learn:
-some of the unique dangers that await a profiler after
merging with the target -that the profiler can at times
be caught up in the emotional life of the target and react
in their own daily lives as would the target -separating
oneself after exiting the criminal mind is more difficult
than one would expect or imagine -how a criminal mind
develops their psychosis or perversion over time, unlike
a sociopath who skillfully and often spontaneously manipulates
events with no thought to others and/or who may not have
a specific reason in their lives (such as a specific trauma)
for enacting violence due to mental illness created from
trauma. And how the profiler needs to diagnose this differentiation
to avoid danger to themselves while merged but too that
the profiler can't diagnose this until after the merging.
-how the policing agencies, or individual detectives,
will use and abuse psychics if they think they can get
away with it, often without taking into consideration
that the psychic may not be educationally or emotionally
capable of merging and safely emerging. *note please,
that in all fairness, often policing authorities don't
know that a psychic must be educated and field operational
before asking them to perform a target profile merge.
The movie neglects:
-the important (but hazardous) necessity of the profiler
to empathize with the target; the profiler must "feel"
the emotions of the target as if it were their own emotions
to better gain understanding of the target and thus data
pertaining to future moves of the target for apprehension--
more should have been included on this topic -more of
Valentine's intelligent reasoning in knowing that Carl
was using him as an accomplice; they did portray Valentine
as acting out of love of Carl and also that Valentine
was disapproving of Carl's actions, but this could have
been emphasized more and it could have been totally instrumental
in the entertainment and educational value of the movie
-stating that the profiler is psychic, let's get real
here, no criminal behavioral science major is going to
be able to just pop into and pop out of someone's head
unless they have a unique talent (telepathy, clairvoyance,
precognition and spiritual education - preferably field
education - in Life Plans and Life Plan Contracts) to
do so, no amount of drugs or neurological computer links
(as the movie used) are going to replace these talents
or substitute for them in any way.
Viewer, perhaps I'll see you in your dreams! Keep in touch.
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