This was a movie that I learned about thanks to a movie set that I won from a podcast. It was part of the 8 Midnight Horror Movies - Hatchets & Cleavers, even though almost none of the movies' feature either. The Killing Mind is a mystery thriller television movie. If anything, this is closer to a police procedural.
We start this with a young Isobel (Danielle Harris) seeing a woman, dressed as a ballet dancer, dead on a fence. She screams. We then shift to the present where Isobel Neiman (Stephanie Zimbalist) is returning to Los Angeles. She used to work for the FBI but has decided to take a position with the LAPD. She is met at the train station by Sylvia (Candy Ann Brown), who allows her to sleep on the couch until she can find a place.
There's a specific reason for the career change. Isobel wants to solve this case that traumatized her as a child. It has gone cold. She joins an investigative unit that is led by Captain Harris (Stan Ivar). On the team are Dennis Jepson (Daniel Roebuck), Fred Robinson (K. Todd Freeman) and Ron Donoho (Lee Tergesen). They don't think that Isobel should waste her time on this specific case, but she is determined.
Isobel gets herself in hot water when she meets Thomas Quinn (Tony Bill). He's a reporter. He reveals in his column what she is working on and this draws scolding from her captain. That doesn't stop her though. Updates in technology creates a lead in this ballet dancer murder, but it also could make her a target of the killer.
That is where I'll leave my recap and where I want to start is that this has interesting ideas. I know that criminal profiling started back in the 1970s. Being that this is 1991, it was already done in movies like Manhunter. I like having Isobel move from a job like the FBI to take her talents to the LAPD. She has this case that has haunted her and she's now ready to take it on. I like that by doing so, she gets in over her head. She also does things differently, which draws issues with her new co-workers. I did think this worked in its favor though.
I do have an issue. I guessed who the killer was almost at once. Now I'm not going to spoil it, but there were things that Isobel said that made it click for me. There is a couple red herrings that get brought up, but I just felt they were there to help pad out the runtime for the movie. Knowing that this was made for TV, I'm not shocked there. There's a limited budget. You can do less, especially since this came out in the early 90s.
What shocked me was this cast though. We have character actors I recognized here like Roebuck, Tergesen and Tim DeZarn. They were all young at the time, so that makes sense. There's also small roles here by Gordon Currie and Harris. Crazy to see her so young since this would have been not too long after the Halloween sequels she was in. I also thought that Zimbalist and Bill were solid for what was needed. The acting isn't great, but it works.
I'll end this out by saying that this is made well enough for the resources they had. It does feel like this was shot in LA. They do well with exteriors. I also liked where this unit that Isobel joins is set up. It is in the basement and quite huge. They feel like a group that is a dark secret, which we learn was set up to fail, but they've been able to solve cases due to the resources. This has limited effects. It also doesn't need them as it isn't that type of movie. A drawback though, this comes off as a boring. I think for me, since I guessed the reveal, this doesn't do enough to sway me and hook me back in unfortunately.
Not the worst in this set of movies, but not great by any stretch. Tweaks and this would be better. Still worth a watch if you like these films and want to dive a bit deeper.
My Rating: 5 out of 10.
