Shadows In Mind is a LGBT thriller that looks at the dark side of the internet set against a thrilling 'race against time' set-up. Being straight, this was never a film that was designed to appeal to me, but I thought the Mark Schwab written and directed thriller did a good job of dangling a mystery in front of the viewer.
According to IMDB, originally a version of this movie was released under the title Crisis Hotline in 2019 but dissatisfied with it, the film was re-acquired and had a variety of changes to it, including a new score, remixed sound design, a colour re-grade as well as a new pre-title sequence and re-edited scenes.
Simon (Corey Jackson) is a LGBTQ crisis hot-line operator who had taken the job hoping he could make a difference to people in trouble, but instead is becoming increasingly jaded from the non-emergency calls he had been receiving. One night while working alone he gets a call from a young man named Danny (Christian Gabriel) who states he is planning to kill himself. First however, he wants to tell Simon the story of what lead up to him wanting to do that. Over the course of the movie he reveals how his dating a young man named Kyle (Pano Tsaklas) led to him encountering the owners of a series of gay porn sites - Lance (August Browning) and his husband Christian (Christopher Fung), and how those three came to ruin his life
I liked the set-up for this, I'm a bit of a sucker for stories that have already happened but are being retold as the meat of the film. The prologue has a panicked Simon and his handler, Curtis (Mike Mizwicki) desperately doing something or other at the crisis centre before it cuts to 'four hours earlier'. Rather than draw me into the movie that bit did leave me a little bit confused. The small cast focussed the story onto the important parts. Simon was in the film throughout but it wasn't an even split, with around three quarters of the ninety minute movie taking the form of the story that Danny is telling the man. From Danny's weird creepy voice I thought this was going to have Simon in peril, but it becomes clear that this is very much about the young man. Most of the film told the set-up for what was to come, the awkward dinner dates that him and his boyfriend had at Lance and Christian's home, and how they came to meet a very odd man named Forrest (a stand-out role from Michael Champlin). It worked in keeping the mystery going, but at times I did wish things would hurry up as I was getting a bit impatient to see where the long suspected thriller part of this was going to appear.
The movie had a look of a blue tint to it, creating a moody atmosphere that was added to a lot with the actually pretty great soundtrack. There were lots of sex scenes throughout with no full frontal nudity at least. Straight or LBGT that isn't something I'm ever a fan of in movies. The sense of danger was there, but there wasn't the peril in the traditional sense, though this does cover some serious topics as it reaches the end of its journey.
I liked the pacing of the story and appreciated the little twists towards the end, but this wasn't something that was particularly exciting, even if it was a tale well told.
I didn't mind Shadows In Mind, I do like the way the story was told and I can't fault any of the actors here. Will this resonate more if you are LGBTQ? I don't know, for me, it wasn't bad but may well not leave too much of an impression.
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