Simply put, "The Cell" is "The Silence of the Lambs" meets "The Lawnmower Man" during the most sadistic Trent Reznor music video you can imagine. To its credit, the film is as bizarre as it is creative and horrifying.

The story centers around a psychopathic killer named Carl Stargher who has invented a killing device modeled after a glass prison cell. The mechanism is fully automated and drowns its female victims after 40 hours.

Carl has committed numerous brutal murders of attractive young women throughout the country. After drowning them in the cell, Carl performs a masochistic post-mortem ritual and then dumps the bodies off highway overpasses.

Peter Novak is the FBI agent in charge of the investigation and will neither sleep nor listen to reason until he has apprehended the killer. Just as Novak is about to capture his suspect, Stargher falls into a comatose trance from which he will never wake.

The present dilemma for Special Agent Novak is that, before turning into a vegetable, Stargher captured his last victim and put her in the cell. Stargher is the only person who knows the girl's location, and he ain't talking.

The victim's only hope is child therapist Catharine Deane, who has mastered a form of therapy that takes place inside a person's mind.

Scientists have developed a parallel universe centered on a person's imagination. It is now up to Dr. Deane to infiltrate Stargher's mind and find out the missing girl's whereabouts.

This is where the film gets really interesting. As if Carl Stargher's mind was not vile enough in reality, the audience now gets to see his most intense and demonic thoughts. Fortunately for Catharine, she comes in contact with a 7-year-old Carl Stargher. It is through this child's eyes that we discover the parenting tactics of Carl's father, who thoroughly believed in chastising his son with belts and steaming hot irons.

Catharine knows any progress at all will be made through the younger Carl. Unfortunately, Catharine must also deal with the grown-up, more monstrous Carl, who is twice as satanic and threatening in the parallel world, where normal rules of right and wrong don't exist.

Playing the role of Catharine Deane is Latin pin-up queen Jennifer Lopez ("Selena," "Out of Sight"). All in all, her heart-felt emotion for the little boy is expressed well.

Vince Vaughn ("Swingers," "Return to Paradise") does a good job playing a lukewarm FBI agent, but the real surprise performance in the film comes from Vincent D'Onofrio ("Full Metal Jacket," "Men In Black"), who plays bad guy Carl Stargher.

D'Onofrio shines as the nervous and deeply disturbed serial killer. The audience experiences his true acting prowess during every scene in the subconscious world, where Carl's most obscene and grotesque thoughts become real.

First-time film director Tarsem Singh has an impressive opener with "The Cell." Singh first won notoriety directing the R.E.M. music video "Losing My Religion," which won the coveted MTV Video of the Year award in 1991.

Credit should also be given to the production and makeup designers for transforming Carl into a memorable movie monster.

Though the film is somewhat predictable, the costumes and special effects are more than enough to leave a lasting impression on the audience. Check this film out for an in-depth journey through the mind of a madman.

3 and 1/2 shamrocks (out of 5)

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