The Brain Eaters

One of B-movie legend Bruno VeSota's three directorial efforts, 'The Brain Eaters' shows enough promise to make one wish he had split his time more evenly between acting and directing.

We are once again in the realms of 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers' and 'I Married a Monster from Outer Space', with aliens trying to take over the population of an isolated American town. The spaceship turns out to have burrowed up from beneath the earth's surface, letting loose vindictive slug-like creatures which attach themselves to peoples necks, taking over their minds. Lots of Communist paranoia/infiltration undertones as usual.

The plot manages to lose itself despite a running time of only 60 minutes, but at least 'The Brain Eaters' recognises its limitations. The film prevents the normal ridicule caused by feeble special-effects by not having any and within the boundaries it sets itself, there is nothing to offend.

Like most releases from American International Pictures the film is primed for entertainment value, if not artistic merit, and it is none the worse for that.

I remember a particularly good scene where the camera follows one of the malevolent slugs point-of-view as it stalks its victim ready to latch onto the neck - an early influence on Spielberg for 'Jaws' maybe ??

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!

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).

It's only about 60 minutes long, and the special effects (what little there are) are substandard, but some real imagination went into this one, with a plot based on `The Puppet Masters' by Robert Heinlein. A strange Earth-drilling craft surfaces in a small town and disgorges a horde of fuzzy little parasitic creatures who fasten themselves to the necks of the townsfolk and control their brains. Scientist Ed Nelson (who is also the film's producer) battles the invaders. Watch for a scene in which the hero enters the drill craft and confronts a bearded old man . . . played by Leonard Nimoy!

If you just LOVE 1950s sci-fi, here's an obscure little curiosity for you. If not . . . well, try the Sci-Fi Channel.

I found this movie amusing for its low budget effects and several flaws in its continuity. The most frequent flaw was the splicing of scenes in which it would appear to be day and then night and back and forth. Despite, or perhaps because of its flaws, I liked it. It does help if you like 1950's "B" sci-fi films and Shostakovich to start with.

In addition to the plot strongly resembling Robert Heinlein's "Puppet Masters", the music was also not original. I could find no evidence that there ever was a "Tom Jonson" who wrote any music for this film or anywhere, ever. Most of it was taken, uncredited, from Dmitri Shostakovich's symphonies 1, 5, & 10. I also recognized an excerpt from Sergei Prokofiev's music score for the Russian language film Alexander Nevsky. At the time Brain Eaters was distributed these composers were not as frequently performed in the US and their music would not have been familiar to almost all movie goers. Both composers were from the Soviet Union (Prokofiev died in 1953). They were perceived as Communist and there was a certain amount of prejudice and/or fear about performing it. During the cold war it would also have been difficult for Shostakovich to pursue legal action against the film company if he even knew his music had been used. I suspect this is exactly why this music was used.

I also would not be surprised if it turns out that the source of the performances were records purchased at a record store and the musicians were not compensated either. The credits do not list any orchestra(s)/conductor(s). The editing of the background music was also poorly done. There were several places where the music did not transition smoothly to the next scene or even within the same scene.