The Re-Animator’s David Gale plays Dr. Blake, a self-help guru who’s broadcasting his pseudoscientific gobbledygook on a small town television station. Hidden in the bowels of his fortress-like research institute is a giant telepathic brain. The film never reveals the creature’s origin, nor does it flesh out how the doctor and the creature formed a partnership. I’m actually relieved whenever such a movie doesn’t sacrifice forward momentum for a boring flashback. When watching a movie about a giant brain, you should be able to leave your own brain at home.
Jim Majelewski (Tom Bresnahan) is a trouble-making high school student who’s described as a teenager possessing unusual intellect and boundless energy. He spends his nights avoiding homework while trying to talk his girlfriend (Cynthia Preston) into having sex in the backseat of his Pontiac Strato Chief. When Jim is caught blowing up the school’s plumbing as a prank, the faculty give him a choice: see Dr. Blake or get suspended.
Believing he can bullshit his way through a psyche evaluation, Jim agrees to meet with the doctor. The brain unsuccessfully attempts to brainwash Jim at the meeting, but makes him prone to grotesque hallucinations. Jim escapes the institute, planning to blow the whistle on its diabolical machinations. When Dr. Blake and the brain fail to capture Jim, they use their telepathic airwaves to convince the town’s population, including Jim’s parents, that he’s a serial killer.
The first half of The Brain is pretty much everything I want. The kills are frequent and the creature effects are appropriately slimy. Unfortunately, the second half of the film is plagued with one chase scene after another that’s about as exciting as a cat chasing its own tail. It’s easy to shoot such action: merely set the camera up in a corridor or stairwell, have your hero run by, have your chaser run by, and have the editor inter-cut as needed. The director employs the same artless methods to shoot a needlessly long car chase that manages to wreck no cars. Thrilling.
There’s actually a great gore movie suffocated by all the padding, but I can’t recommend it. For a similar but better experience, watch Brian Yuzna’s Society or Frank Hennenlotter’s Brain Damage. And if you still insist on watching The Brain, shut it off once your interest wanes because it doesn’t get any better. Had they stuck the landing, this movie would have easily been a cult classic.
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