THE BRAIN. Sci-fi that amazes and delights

This is the assumption made by the duo Ed Hunt (director) and Barry Pearson (screenwriter), who in the 80s gave us a few more reasons for amusement – including Bloody Birthday, one of Michael Dudikoff’s early films, or a variation on the story of Jesus in the form of The Visitor. In their crazy vision, a giant brain with a face uses a television psychic to take control of the population of a small town, and surely later the entire world. It’s a story straight out of the cartoon Pinky and the Brain, where surprisingly, parents unquestioningly trust voices from the screen, and teenagers remain distrustful.

From the very beginning and the scene in the obligatory room of the first victim, who must sacrifice her life before we meet the actual main characters, it becomes clear that this will be one of Those movies. Those, meaning so bad that they’re good. Charming in their practical special effects, the atmosphere of late December without a festive aura with decorations still hanging here and there, blood, and slimy tentacles – if you like this kind of production, you are dealing with one of the most outstanding ones. Both the maximum rating and the lowest would be fair here. It all depends on whether kitsch is a value for you or if it is completely worthless.

What threat can The Brain pose if it doesn’t have an artificial body like Krang from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? Of course, it can use mysterious powers like Professor X, in this case, combined with Freddy Krueger lurking in the subconscious. As personal trainers say, “everything happens in your head,” but our Brain is not limited to subtlety. It can devour a person whole, increase its size, and chase a target through narrow corridors with surprising agility for something that has no legs.

To fight The Brain, a teenager with a very familiar surname steps up – Jim Majelewski (played by Tom Bresnahan, who studied at the famous Stella Adler Drama School at the same time as Benicio Del Toro and Mark Ruffalo but never achieved comparable success) and his stereotypical chosen one invented to be rescued (played by Cynthia Preston, who had minor roles in the third part of Prom Night, Mannequin, or the 2013 Carrie). They have just met, but nothing unites more permanently than a common enemy. Therefore, when they are close to its lair, they decide to take a break for a quick affair and a regenerative nap, paying no attention to the deadly threat lurking just around the corner. Oh, the carefree youth… This is not a good script, it is not good acting, and that’s exactly what is needed here.

To a layperson, it may seem that the VHS world of B-class cinema offers countless masterpieces of absurdity, that all you have to do is slip the first movie with a quirky cover into the VCR, and you are transported into the beautiful world of ridiculousness. Unfortunately, there are not many such gems, and sometimes one scene that the other eighty-five minutes cannot match makes a sensation on the internet. However, The Brain belongs to that minority that amazes and delights from the first to the last second. It’s an achievement on the level of Samurai Cop or Deadly Prey, which is a must-see in its category.