The Brain

The Brain

1988 "Mind over matter"
The Brain
The Brain

The Brain

5.2 | 1h34m | R | en | Horror

Dr. Blake runs a TV show called "Independent Thinkers", which is sort of a Scientology-like self-help/religion program. But he's not making his audience think any more independently - with the help of an alien organism he calls The Brain, he's using brainwashing and mind control. The only thing that stands between them and world domination is a brilliant but troubled high school student with a penchant for pranks...

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5.2 | 1h34m | R | en | Horror , Science Fiction | More Info
Released: November. 03,1988 | Released Producted By: Brightstar Films , Shapiro-Glickenhaus Entertainment Country: Canada Budget: 0 Revenue: 0 Official Website:
Synopsis

Dr. Blake runs a TV show called "Independent Thinkers", which is sort of a Scientology-like self-help/religion program. But he's not making his audience think any more independently - with the help of an alien organism he calls The Brain, he's using brainwashing and mind control. The only thing that stands between them and world domination is a brilliant but troubled high school student with a penchant for pranks...

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Cast

Tom Bresnahan , Cynthia Preston , David Gale

Director

Byron Patchett

Producted By

Brightstar Films , Shapiro-Glickenhaus Entertainment

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Reviews

TheBlueHairedLawyer High school student James has excellent grades and a beautiful girlfriend, but he is always playing weird practical jokes. This makes his teachers and parents sign a consent form to have him sent off to a revolutionary new TV doctor, Dr. Blake. Dr. Blake often talks about the increase in teen suicides and sure enough, just near James' house, a fellow student has just stabbed her mother and jumped out a window... but was there more to it? Did she really jump, or did something else kill her mother and push her? James finds the mental hospital where is is sent to be pointless and annoying, so he leaves the building. Unknown to him the hospital nurse who he hallucinated as being topless, is on his side; she knows about the strange hallucinogenic brain experiments on people in the building and threatens to tell. Before she gets the chance, a giant brain-like creature eats her. Blake sends an overweight bearded med assistant to hunt down James and bring him back.James hides out in his girlfriend Janet's diner after his car crashes and blows up. She tries to hide him but a cop shows up, as does the fat med assistant, and Janet can only watch as he is dragged away again, this time kicking at some invisible monster no one else can see. He escapes the hospital a second time with her help, and the help of his best friend, but his best friend is eaten by the brain monster. Murders start popping up all over town and on the TV sets of all the viewers tuned in, Blake tells them it was James who killed them, and that James has trouble distinguishing reality from fantasy. A brainwashing message is also said, convincing several housewives to kill their husbands if their husbands refuse to watch the Dr. Blake show. Now Janet and James are runaway fugitives, hiding out in the local high school as the entire town of brainwashed adults search for them.This wasn't the best movie but you've gotta admit, it's entertaining at least. The soundtrack is pretty good, the acting was okay and for the budget they had, the brain monster was pretty good, though highly unbelievable. This movie might make you think twice about tuning in every day to D. Phil, Ellen and Oprah.
kclipper Mind Control is the topic and basic premise of this low-grade sociological study/campy horror film from director, Ed Hunt (Bloody Birthday). A thought provoking but muddled metaphor for the brainwashing effects of Scientology, T.V. marketing propaganda and other pseudo-scientific religious hogwash is at times unintentionally laughable for its cheesy portrayal of a giant brain with teeth that murders people after subjecting them to a series of hallucinations brought on by a mad doctor played by the straight-faced, hammy, David Gale. (He was the hilarious talking severed head from 'Re-Animator'). Fans will enjoy seeing Gale as the maniacal genius who hosts a television show that tricks people into thinking that they are "independent" and "individuals" all the while they are just experimental guinea pigs and food for "The Brain" creature. This is obviously a statement on a conformist society, but it falls short due to erratic direction and some pretentious overacting. Although, Tom Bresnahan makes for a good character. He's paranoid but intelligent, and he seems to be the only one that is on to the crooked intentions of Dr. Blake which makes for an interesting battle of wits. The brain creature is typically ridiculous 80s cheese as it swallows up hopeless idiot victims in its wake. Non-conformist horror fans will get some enjoyment out of this mess, and Gale's Re-Animator tribute scene is a real hoot, and the sodium washroom brain-exploding sequence is just too funny for words. Its not-so-bad if you're in the mood.
kentstev My friends and I rented this for "Bad Movie Night" with high hopes, but The Brain was something of a letdown. The Brain itself is gloriously goofy-looking, but it mostly just sits on its little platform. Who thought that it would be cool that the Brain only gets to munch on three people throughout 94 drawn-out minutes? This movie has a number of things going for it at first, including an Estevez-knockoff lead playing a rebellious genius (we're told that his enormous intellect is misdirected into his elaborate pranks and school stunts, which include putting krazy glue on someone's chair). It also has some great lines, a hilariously out-of-shape and out-of-breath henchman who just barely manages to be everywhere, and, yeah, some chick gets naked. However, the director desperately needs some schooling in the art of pacing. During the last half things just start to drag on and on, with at least 3 or 4 pointless, boring chase scenes making up the middle third of the plot. The scenes inside the PRI complex are especially bad. At least 15 minutes of this movie are people running up and down the same stairwell. I could've fixed the screenplay to this thing in half an hour- more cheese, more gore, more nudity, more Brain action. If you're going to make a bad horror movie, at least give me something cool to look at while my superego shuts down. Maybe the director was trying to really bring the audience into his movie- I started feeling like one of the zombified townsfolk by the end of this crapfest.
Paul Andrews In the small American town of Meadowvale Dr. Anthony Blake (David Gale, the IMDb listing for this character is wrong it's definitely Dr. Blake not Dr. Blakely) is the director and founder of the famed 'Psychological Research Institute' and also host's a local T.V. programme called 'Independent Thinkers'. He uses this T.V. show to hypnotise the viewers and make them commit acts of violence. Dr. Blake has the help of a large brain with an evil face that uses it's spinal cord as a tail thingy. Usually the brain is just sitting in a tank, eats mice and the odd bad actor, each time it eats someone it gets much bigger. Meanwhile at the local high-school gifted but troublesome teenager Jim Majelewski (Tom Bresnahan) has been caught putting Sodium down the toilets. Jim is sent to Dr. Blake at the PRI for help with his attitude and behavioural problems. While there Dr. Blake hooks Jim up to, well something I'm not actually sure what. This whatever it is, is attached to the brain. At first Jim is able to resist the brain's mind control. The brain feels that Jim is a threat to itself and it's plans. Once out of the PRI Jim starts having bizarre hallucinations and crashes his car. Jim makes it to his waitress girlfriend Janet (Cynthia Preston as Cyndy Preston) but is handed back to Dr. Blake's assistant Verna (George Buza) soon after by Officer Marks (Harry Booker). The brain wants to kill Jim because he is the only one capable of withstanding it's mind control techniques, and with 'Independent Thinkers' going national the brain doesn't want anything or anyone to stop it's evil plan for world domination! Jim quickly realises that the brain is controlling the entire town and he alone must stop the brain, before it takes over the world!Directed by Ed Hunt who calls himself Edward Hunt here, the Brain wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. Don't get me wrong as it certainly isn't great either. The script by Barry Pearson tries a stab at satire with the brain washing and mind control by T.V. storyline. It moves along at a fair pace and isn't too boring. No explanation is given for the existence of the brain at all, it's just there and that's it we have to accept it. The story is a little choppy and never fully explores one single element, there's the T.V. mind control, the brain itself, Jim being hunted by the police & his misbehaviour and various other little bits and pieces here and there including a bizarre revelation regarding Dr. Blake that isn't explained at all. Production wise this film looks cheap, and probably was cheap. The acting isn't great but I've seen worse, and what is David Gale doing in this? In fact this role is similar to Gale's role in Re-Animator (1985) even down to his character's deaths in both films. The brain itself at first sits in a tank and starts to grow whenever it eats someone and by the end it is pretty big. Each stage is just made of rubber. It doesn't look particularly good and isn't scary or creepy, just cheap. There's no blood or gore in it apart from a blink and you'll miss it decapitation. The nudity is provided by Dr. Blake's assistant Vivian (Christine Kossak as Christine Kossack) before she gets eaten. The brain had a certain entertainment value for me but I would think most people would dislike it. Maybe worth a watch if you can see it on T.V. for free.