Mindwarp (movie)

Mindwarp (released as Brain Slasher outside the United States) is a 1992 post-apocalyptic science fiction film, starring Bruce Campbell, Angus Scrimm, Marta Martin (credited as "Marta Alicia"), Elizabeth Kent, and Wendy Sandow. The film is notable as one of three produced by Fangoria's short-lived Fangoria Films label.

The story takes place in the year 2037, after the loss of the ozone layer has left most of the planet a desolate wasteland scattered with highly radioactive "Death Zones", except for several areas that still flourish.

Much of the human population has been reduced to Crawlers, mutated cannibalistic underground dwellers who have lost their intelligence and speak only in grunts and mine garbage dumps. Outworlders are un-mutated humans who live in the Death Zones. A few humans are Dreamers, who live in Inworld, a sealed biosphere maintained by the central Infinisynth computer. They spend all their time plugged in via implants in their necks, living through virtual reality fantasies.

The heroine, Judy, a dreamer, lives with her mother. She has gradually becomes less satisfied with the life they have. After an unsuccessful attempt to talk directly to her mother, Judy manages to penetrate her virtual reality to wake herself up. Judy interrupts the dream, but she causes her mother to die in the real world.

For interfering with dreams of other users, Judy is exiled from Inworld by the mysterious System Operator who controls Infinisynth. She is saved from the Crawlers by Stover, an Outworlder who believes he is the last "normal" human being still living on the surface, protecting himself from the deadly ultraviolet rays, radioactivity, caustic ground water, and Crawlers, while subsisting on a diet of small animals. The two are captured by the Crawlers, however, and brought to their underground village, where Stover is set to work mining the garbage dump. Judy is saved by the Crawlers' leader, the masked Seer (who is intelligent and can speak), from being butchered. The Seer's consort, Cornelia, also an Outworlder, is jealous of the Seer's intentions towards Judy. Her attempt to infect Judy with a mutant leech-like parasite fails, however, and the Seer has Cornelia's slave/foster daughter Claude crushed by an elaborate meat grinder constructed from salvaged parts. It is a quasi-religious ritual attended by the Crawler population, who all drink Claude's blood. The Seer reveals himself to be an Inworlder.