The Lawnmower Man (1992)

Directed by

Brett Leonard

Genre

cyberpunk, action film, horror film, science fiction film

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 47m

Rated

R

Rating

5.6 of 10 from 855 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A scientist uses virtual reality and drugs on a man with intellectual disabilities to boost his intelligence. The experiments unlock superhuman mental powers but also cause dangerous aggression.

fast-pacedtenseunsettlingbleakvisceralover-the-topgrotesquetrippy

What happens

The Lawnmower Man is a 1992 science fiction horror film directed by Brett Leonard, written by Leonard and Gimel Everett, and starring Jeff Fahey as Jobe Smith, an intellectually disabled gardener, and Pierce Brosnan as Dr. Lawrence "Larry" Angelo, a scientist who decides to experiment on him in an effort to give him greater intelligence by stimulating his brain using nootropic drugs and virtual reality computer simulations. The experiments give Jobe superhuman abilities, but also increase his aggression, turning him into a man obsessed with evolving into a digital being. The film was originally marketed as the adaptation of a 1975 short story by Stephen King, which featured a Pan-worshipping satyr using his mystical powers to operate a landscaping business and mow lawns. Allied Vision began developing the film after a planned adaptation of King's book Night Shift (1978), an anthology the story was published in. However, it struggled to expand King's original story into a feature film and instead rewrote an unrelated screenplay entitled CyberGod into an adaptation. The final film bears little resemblance to the original story beyond a single sequence of the antagonist telekinetically using a lawnmower to murder a character named "Harold Parkette". Because of the deviation from his story, King successfully sued to have his name removed from the film, which was originally titled Stephen King's The Lawnmower Man. King won further damages when his name was included in the title of the home video release. A sequel, Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace, was released in 1996, with Austin O'Brien as the only returning actor from the original film. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

More like this

• Cyborg Agent (1992)
• Homewrecker (1992)
• Prototype (1992)
• Wax or the Discovery of Television Among the Bees (1991)
• Liquid Dreams (1992)
• Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
• The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
• Reservoir Dogs (1992)