The Brain Eaters

source: The Brain Eaters

After a series of strange communication failures in a small town, a rescue party finds the cause to be rooted in a strange alien-like parasite from the Earth's core latched onto the necks of the townspeople, leaving them to stop the impending invasion. This one wasn't all that great but is certainly worthwhile. The big thing with it is the fact that the film is not even an hour long, so it's got major problems already in trying to cram enough material that actually works in a decent, full-length release into a shorter amount of time, rushing along through everything despite their being no need to do so, cutting down the action to a few brief inserts that are fun but definitely could've been stretched out, a totally pointless narration running over everything that doesn't need to be there and several other rather big problems that really don't help to elevate it's 50s Sci-Fi origin, admittedly fun suspense in the part of who's under the spell and who isn't and what happens once the creatures are loose, which is barely explored but could've been good. Overall, this one was fine but had a lot of problems going for it. Today's Rating/PG: Mild Violence

THE BRAIN EATERS (a great title for a sci-fi flick, by the way) is a pleasingly old-fashioned 1950s-era B-movie which involves an alien invasion along the lines of INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS. It's a low budget affair but one which tells the brisk story quite efficiently, beginning with some scene-setting involving an alien craft and building to the usual takeover and action sequences. It's not a classic like INVASION but it does the job well enough and manages to entertain for the hour-odd running time.

This is one of a series of vintage AIP horror titles released some time ago as part of an R2 DVD collection entitled "The Arkoff Library", though the copy I watched was actually culled from an AMC TV broadcast (with constant streaming advertisements of upcoming shows and pictures!); others include THE SHE-CREATURE (1956), BLOOD OF Dracula (1957) and HOW TO MAKE A MONSTER (1958) – all of which I have acquired in time for my ongoing Halloween challenge. Thematically, the film is a variation on the classic INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1956) with a small town gradually taken over (though not by an alien organism but rather a vanished – and, typically, superior – civilization); despite the sensationalistic title, the creatures – 'possessing' their victims through small punctures at the back of the neck – are never actually seen, leading to a wonderful POV shot (perhaps the film's highlight) depicting an attack on the hero's girlfriend. The leader of the 'invaders' is actually a bearded old man – only ever shown in silhouette – residing in a cone-shaped rocket! The end result is not too bad though hardly a classic of its familiar kind or genre and obviously cramped by the low budget and necessary compactness (running a mere 56 minutes); interestingly, the film's director is the burly Orson Welles-lookalike sleazeball from DEMENTIA (1955).

Funny movie. Mystery Science Theatre 3000 material all the way. I would guess, due to the rough and shoddy editing, that the movie was originally longer than 60 minutes. Interesting that there are two scenes that escaped the censors of 1958 -A see through peignoir and the cop's hairy chest shown when his shirt is ripped open during a fight. I personally love these old B movies and while this one was not up to the usual "standards" of early horror films, it had some truly giggity moments. (Heavy breathing by the brain eaters and the pipe stem antenna where great touches.) I rated it a 7 due to the abundance of truly bad acting, dialog and editing. It doesn't get much worse than this which is what makes it so good.

Parasitic creatures which attach to the back of their human hosts's necks, leaving vampire-like puncture marks(they also secrete acid)threaten the existence of human-kind and they're believed, at first, to have came from a mysterious cone-shaped capsule found in the country-side on the outskirts of a small town. It's up to scientist Dr. Kettering(Ed Nelson)and Glenn Cameron(Alan Frost)to stop the little leech-like monsters before the populace is overrun by these things. Senator Walter K Powers(Cornelius Keefe), from Washington DC, comes a barking orders to his heroes. The parasites have taken control of the sheriff and telegrapher, with "human agents", carrying orb-tanks with those things inside, working to spread the monsters throughout the town. Obviously inspired by "Invasion of the Body Snatchers", I did wonder if aspects from this flick were lifted from those who wrote ALIEN. The film isn't too bad, but does leave some connecting stories unanswered, specifically the human agents spreading the creatures and particularly the sheriff who isn't apprehended at any time. Star Trek's Leonard Nimoy has a cameo at the end as a certain human host within the capsule carrying tanks containing several of those parasites. The film's low budget definitely shows. Those loose ends untied(Powers proclaims the human agents will be apprehended he guarantees, but how can he be so sure?)did leave me rather unsatisfied..but, the little movie did leave me rather entertained. Not a great, or even good, film, but passable as a time-consumer. Popcorn fare, nothing more.

I was really primed to watch this one - expectations were high (how could they not be with a title like "The Brain Eaters"?). Well, as often as happens in life, the reality didn't match the expectation. Actually, this movie made me a bit angry because of the wasted potential. I love seeing old black and white monsters, but this movie showed virtually no monsters. What's the point of making a "monster movie" if you only show the monsters for a total of 10 seconds out of an hour - very lame! Plus, NONE of the characters in this film are likable, which is a very important aspect of a successful film. I didn't care about any of them. They were all either stupid or jerks or arrogant or useless. The doctor was the only one who showed any good qualities, but his stupidity outlined below rendered him useless. 1. A lot of damage was done by the people who were infected by these creatures. ALL of that damage could've been avoided by checking everybody to see if there was a little furry thing attached to the back of their necks. It seems pretty obvious to me... 2. How about when the doctor shot the bullet into the cone and it bounced around and he said, "The point of origin is the point of return." If that's true, why didn't he get injured as the bullet came back to the point of return? 3. The doctor crawls into the cone and is gone for a long time. Everybody is worried about his safety. He finally comes out and says that the tunnel in the cone just winds around and there was nothing inside. WHAT!?! Where were the two missing doctors that appeared later in the film? Where were all the creatures that were with them? This point really got on my nerves. 4. In the lab, the doctor dissects one of the creatures and tells his assistant/girlfriend that the creatures can split apart and regenerate. While he's telling her this, he leaves a piece of this thing HE KNOWS has the ability to hurt people unguarded on the table. While he is distracted, the thing crawls onto his arm and injures him. He uses fire to get it off, but then hurries out of the lab without making sure the thing is really dead. And what about the big piece he cut the little piece off of? Nobody seems very concerned that these two pieces could hurt people in the future. 5. Later, the doctor and the mayor's son go to the teletype office to see if any message came back from the governor. They end up fighting two people that are controlled by the monsters. After our heroes beat these guys up, they just leave them there. What's up with that!?! Kill them, tie them up, get the monsters off their backs, but don't just leave them lying there to cause more damage later. ARRGGH! Sorry, but it goes on and on and on...

If you're a fan of cheesy sci-fi flicks from the 1950's, there's no way you can pass on a title like "The Brain Eaters". Truthfully, this wound up pretty interesting, and I'll get into that in a minute. The flick got me hooked with Dr. Kettering's statement after firing his gun into the cone shaped object, which is the basis of my summary line above. It's so basic that it sounds like it might have some usage in actual science, but I've never heard it before. Very clever, but if it were actually true, that bullet would have come back to injure Kettering, so I'm thinking it was all made up. What really impressed me when the whole story was over was how much integrity the story line maintained. The whole idea of an alien life form searching out a useful host to take over required no more thought than a lot of films of the era did, but showing a dead dog on the way to the site of the cone helped convey the idea that other life forms were tried and discarded; that was pretty unique. The instances where the host humans were shown with bulging backs was also a neat device to allow the viewer to know that danger was imminent, even if the characters on screen were oblivious. So you had some building of suspense that coincided with the modus operandi of the brain eating parasites. But come on, the best part of all of this was the goofy stuff going on that flew right in the face of real time continuity. Like the alternating day and night time scenes that defy any concept of time management. And how about Senator Powers' mustache, it seemed to come and go from scene to scene! I'm also kind of curious as to the selection of Riverdale as the location of the story, that was also the home of Archie and his pals, but I don't know if their Riverdale was ever mentioned to be in a particular state. I guess one of the cooler items this film has to offer is future Star Trekker Leonard Nimoy in the role of a professor who disappeared with a colleague five years earlier and had his life form taken over by the aliens. If you don't know he's in the picture, his appearance on screen won't really help since his face is obscured by a beard, but if you listen closely there's no mistaking the voice. I wonder if he was upset that his name was mis-spelled in the credits. Usually with these kinds of pictures, I'm not willing to rate them much more than a four or a five because really, they are pretty dumb. But with this one, I've got to say that with the hero Kettering sacrificing himself at the finale for the good of all mankind - that's got to be good for at least a bonus point. Look, it's not "Invasion of the Body Snatchers", but for a mere sixty minutes of your time, it's worth at least a single viewing to be able to say - I just watched "The Brain Eaters"!

If you like cheesy sci fi flicks THE BRAIN EATERS will not disappoint. Cheap and tacky, paranoid about thinly-veiled Russki invaders, it still manages moments of genuine excitement and atmosphere. Dig the moment when the loopy zombie grabs for our hero through a garden shed window! Thrill as a creepy man with a long beard in white robes from inside the earth plots his invasion then disappears in a puff of smoke! Gasp as the leading lady provides everyone in sight with endless cups of coffee! Leonard Nimoy's in here somewhere, narrating the plot and (I suspect) lurking behind that white beard!

**SPOILERS** The only thing new about this aliens from space movie is that the aliens, or as their called in the film parasites, don't come from other space at all they come from deep down in the earths core. It take's a while for Dr. Paul Kettering, Ed Nelson, and the person put in charge of this pressing matter by the US Department of the Interior Senator Warren K. Powers, Cornelius Keefe,to realize what exactly their up against. These strange brain-eating creatures are in fact 200 million year old amoeba-like brain-suckers who emerged from their home deep down in the earth's crust. The creatures are planning to take over the human race by destroying their victim's brain cells after they took over their bodies. They, the Braineaters, plan to accomplish this feat by first taking over the brains of the unsuspecting humans in the little town of Riverdale. Turning the town's population into mindless zombies the parasites then plan go on to the next town city and then country until the entire human race is no longer a factor or obstacle to their eventual conquest of the earth! With little money on hand the film "The Braineaters" lacks the very things that would make it worth watching decent, not spectacular , special effects. The "spaceship" that the parasites came from is nothing but a 50 feet tall aluminum tepee with a hole in it's nosecone. The Braineaters themselves are nothing but sponge-like creatures with pipes sticking out of them. These pipes are used to latch on to their victim's necks and then, after taking over their bodies, suck their brains out and cause their victims to die within 24 to 48 hours. It's after the town chief executive Mayor Cameron, Oville Sherman, flips out and goes bananas and is shot and killed by the police, whom he's in charge off,that Dr. Kettering realized that he was in fact taken over by some strange creature, the underground parasite, who had him do its bidding. Little by little the parasites take over a number of the townspeople including Dr. Kettering's girlfriend Alice Summers, Joanna Lee, making it almost impossible to know who's the good guy or parasite. It's only when it's discovered that there's a number of persons inside the "spacecraft" that the truth comes out to what exactly is going on. One of the men inside the craft turned out to be Prof. Helsingman, Saul Bronson, who mysteriously disappeared five years ago. Helsingman lived just long enough to tell Dr. Kettering what the real purpose of these strange creatures really is: To take over the earth's surface. Later going into the craft Dr. Kettering is confronted by the also long missing Dr. Cole, Leonard Nimoy, the late Prof. Helsingman's close friend and associate. Dr. Cole, looking like the old man of the mountain,tells the astonished Dr. Kettering that he and his fellow humans should just lay down their arms and give up, resistance is futile Dr. Cole tells him, to their superiors the parasites. Of course Dr. Kettering is not at all impressed with Dr. Cole and his army of brain eating parasites and comes up with a fool-proof plan to put them out of business: 60 to 80 thousand volts of electricity. It , Dr. Kettering's plan, was just about to be put into operation when an unexpected glitz developed at the very last moment! The sudden appearance of of girlfriend the brain damaged, and parasite controlled, Alice Summers! Predictable ending with Dr. Kettering unable to do what he at first planned to do in ridding the earth of the underground parasite invasion. It took the sharp-shooting ability of the late Mayor Cameron's son Glenn, Alan Frost, to in the end finish the job that the reluctant, in not being able to off his parasite-controlled girlfriend Alice, Dr. Kettering was unable to do.