Brain Dead was a film I wanted to feature during last year’s 31 Days of Gore, but the only copy I had available at the time was the same crappy 4:3 edition that’s currently playing on Tubi. Starring Bill Pullman and Bill Paxton, can you blame me for wanting to see it? George Kennedy, Bud Cort, and Patricia Charbonneau fulfill supporting roles in this Julie Corman production. That’s a good cast and a good producer so fuck it—I’m there, dude.
Bill Pullman plays a research scientist with a large collection of human brains. The extent of his studies, as far as I can tell, is prodding a brain that’s connected to a cadaver’s face. Pullman and his research assistant poke the brain’s wrinkles to see what expressions the face will make. Though the movie fails to convey the scientific value of such an endeavor, Bill Paxton, playing a corporate sleazeball, convinces Pullman to operate on a live human brain. The patient? Bud Cort’s character, a brilliant mathematician who was institutionalized before delivering a valuable equation to Paxton’s company.
<SPOILERS AHEAD>
Shortly after performing the surgery, Pullman is struck by a car while crossing the street. Spoilers, I guess, but I’m not ruining anything you won’t see coming from a mile away, anyway: everything that happens from that point forward takes place entirely in the hero’s head. You could show this movie to a child in an uncontacted tribe and they’d probably sigh and say, “It’s all just a dream, isn’t it?” I feel like the reason these movies were so popular at the time is because the filmmakers could do whatever they wanted, make no effort to give the film a coherent narrative, and end the movie wherever they wanted. None of this means anything. None of it is consequential. There’s zero suspense when you know exactly what it’s up to.
Movies like this can work when the character actively grows as he unravels the mystery, but Pullman is completely confused to the bitter end, having ultimately stumbled through one disconnected scene after another. In one scene his wife is cheating on him with Paxton. In the next, Pullman’s murdered them both. And in a scene shortly after that, Paxton has become an entirely different character. Don’t get me wrong: the actors are as good as they can possibly be in a movie like this. Bud Cort is particularly entertaining. Pullman’s performance, too, is noteworthy as always.
I’m not saying it’s a terrible movie. It’s mildly entertaining and I never got as bored with it as I did with yesterday’s Hellmaster. Frankly, I’m jazzed as all get-out that there’s a movie with my two favorite Bills sharing scenes. That alone is worth a look, but you really don’t have to finish the damn thing once you get a taste. With this cast and the inherited creepiness of humans poking around in brains, it should have been a whole helluva lot better. In fact, where are the good horror movies about brain surgery? I can’t think of a single one off the top of my head.
