El barón del terror

What we have here is a bizarre mix of Gothic horror and Sci-Fi. Brainiac may not be the best Mexican horror film ever made, but it's a fun and interesting little flick, and I doubt that any fan of cult horror will regret watching it. The film takes influence from across the horror spectrum, with cult horror films such as Mario Bava's Black Sunday and I, Vampiri being mixed with any number of American Sci-Fi classics involving evil sprouting from a comet coming down to Earth. This hodgepodge of ideas has 'nice try' written all over it, but somehow director Chano Urueta manages to pull it all together into a somewhat fluid and invigorating film. The plot focuses on Baron Vitelius; a man put to death by fire in 1661 for a catalogue of anti-social crimes. He swears vengeance on his punisher's by stating that he will return the next time the comet passing over returns - and he does! 300 years later in 1961, Baron Vitelius comes back to Earth as 'The Brainiac', a monstrous brain-hungry creature that sucks the brain fluid out of the descendants of the people who killed him...

It's abundantly clear that the film was shot on a low budget as the special effects are very simple and mostly done with camera trickery, while the 'Brainiac' creature is so obviously just a man in a mask that it's almost painful. It's lucky, then, that the director manages to tell his story very well and this is often a big enough distraction from the film's shortcomings. The plot isn't particularly deep, but it has direction and flows well. The majority of the film is taken up by seeing the Baron turned Brainiac getting his revenge on the descendants of those that killed him, but somehow it doesn't get old too quickly. One of the most remarkable things about this film is the fact that it's all completely serious! With special effects this cheap and a plot so thin you've got to expect an ample dose of humour, but for some reason this film doesn't seem to have one! The atmosphere is good, however, and the black and white cinematography excellently compliments the central plot and style of the film. Overall, this is far from being brilliant - but it still comes highly recommended to avid cult collectors because it's so much fun to watch!

A lot of films have taken on the "cult film" mantle in the past couple of decades. Many of them (i.e. BATTLEFIELD EARTH) are not the joyous exercise in pure "so bad it's good" glee that its followers claim. But, let us stake a claim that THE BRAINIAC deserves a place in that hall of fame.

Torture, the Inquisition, Comets, Astronomers, Barons, falling meteorites, serial stalking, a head-pulsing 300 year-old demon, and brains! Yup, that's a brief overview of the topics covered in the deliriously entertaining THE BRAINIAC! I had a chance to actually witness the indescribable movie on the big screen yesterday, and the audicence went wild. And hey, we get to see an evil serial killer munching on a plate of fresh brains 4 DECADES before Anthony Hopkins had his hors d'oevres in HANNIBAL!

Following «Santo vs. the Vampire Women», another cult oddity came to Mexican cinemas in November 1962, surpassing the tale of wrestlers and female vampires in weirdness and kitsch value. Director Chano Urueta had previously released the classic «El espejo de la bruja» and then came «El barón del terror», probably the title for which he is most remembered among the horror genre fans for its bizarre concept. The story has a similar beginning as Mario Bava's «La maschera del demonio», in which Baron Vitelius d'Estera is sentenced to be burned alive by the Inquisition, accused of being a warlock and seducer. He curses his judges and 300 years later he returns to take revenge, as a hideous monster who eats people's brains. He kills the inquisitors' descendants, has enough cerebrum delicatessen at home to eat, but for no discernible reason Baron Vitelius also viciously kills innocent persons, among them pretty Ariadne Welter. Produced with a very low budget by Abel Salazar, who also took the title role, the money must have been spent in the top cast. The curious thing about «El barón del terror» is that everybody agrees that it is a trashy movie but none can deny the strange fascination it exerts.

After five relatively straight Mexican horror films - and despite being aware of the camp value of this one - I wasn't prepared for the laugh riot that THE BRAINIAC turned out to be...though, in retrospect, I guess I ought to have known judging from the brief snippets from it in the Eurotika documentary on Mexican horror films (available on the Region 2 Mondo Macabro DVD of EL VAMPIRO [1957])!

Its defenders suggest that the film was intended as a spoof; I may agree about that, given the fact that director Urueta had helmed one of the starkest examples of the genre I've seen so far - THE WITCH'S MIRROR (1960) - but that still doesn't explain why it should have been so goofy and nonsensical!! The film's credit sequence utilizes some of the sketches seen in the prologue of THE WITCH'S MIRROR(!), followed by a reasonably atmospheric sorcerer's trial and burning - though even these scenes don't escape hilarity due to the absurdly elongated list of accuses read before the court, the constantly grinning Klansmen-like judges and guards (on whom the Baron eventually plays a childish supernatural prank!), and the outrageous Pope-like costume the victim is made to wear for his execution. The astrology sequences are, again, long-winded yet impossibly naïve (with all the professor's theories, when his assistant looks into the telescope and tells him there's no trace of the comet, the former suggests that its trajectory may be entirely different to his calculations - but, then, it takes the leading lady a split-second to locate it!).

The special effects are unbelievably cheesy - especially the stationary comet; even more ridiculous is the monster's make-up with its large pulsating head, pointed nose, forked protruding tongue, long scruffy hair and hose-like fingers (the scene where he swipes the clothes of his first victim and leaves the dead man in his underwear is hilarious)! The Baron returns to Earth obviously to exact revenge on his judges' descendants, though God only knows why he needs to turn into a hideous, brain-draining creature in order to do so - I guess, the film wouldn't have become such a cult item otherwise! - but he occasionally adds new victims (such as the girl in a bar - which we're supposed to believe that it all happens without the other people noticing anything! - and a streetwalker, a scene accompanied by some particularly sleazy jazz music) which, if anything, serve to pad out the running-time (but still amounting to a brief 77 minutes) given the thinness of the plot line!

Anyway, the Baron invites all his intended victims to his Gothic mansion - explained by a quick reference to a jewel robbery in a police procedural scene - complete with cadaverous butler (how he knew where to find them, to say nothing of the fact that any of them would accept an invitation from a perfect stranger, I guess, never even crossed the screenwriters' minds!): here we witness another hilarious moment as the faces of the Inquisitors are dissolved onto those of their descendants, presumably for us to note the kinship between them, but this is only apparent in three of the cases - and that's because the same actors are used! So, he insinuates himself into each of their households and, turning into the Brainiac, kills them all - save for the last member, obviously the heroine; another rib-cracking moment occurs here when he excuses himself to his guests (who have come to him rather than the other way around) - sitting on the sofa merely feet away - so as to go to the cupboard where he keeps his supply of brains in a jar and nibble from it (actually, he does this a number of times, on each occasion complaining of an old ailment for which he needs a special medicine!).

Comic relief is provided by the clumsy assistant (with a penchant for American slang) of bald-headed cop David Silva; they finally catch up with the fiendish Baron and arrive at his house armed with flamethrowers (one of which refuses to work!) and they fry him - though he never actually catches fire and, when he finally dissolves into a skeleton, parts of his body are inconspicuously missing!! However, for me, these are the five moments in the film which make it a camp classic: Abel Salazar laughing at his accusers in the opening trial sequence, and then turning serious all of a sudden when the Inquisitors throw him a severe look; the rock falling from the sky announcing the arrival of The Brainiac; German Robles' paralyzed look while the monster is feeding on his voluptuous daughter; Rene Cardona's similar gaze - but, this time, he seems to be doing his damnedest to suppress laughter!; and the corpse hanging upside down (face underwater) in the bathtub.

The supplements, even more than the other Casanegra releases, impart the fun that the film so obviously provides; as with THE WITCH'S MIRROR, the Audio Commentary itself is a gas - even if, in that film's case, the subtext was discussed as well while it's not here...but that's because there isn't any!! As I had never watched the film before, I couldn't compare it to previous editions; suffice to say that that the transfer isn't problematic save for the very last scene - where, for a couple of minutes, there's the presence of some distracting extraneous flickering (that's how I can best describe it!) that, in all the reviews of the disc I've come across, is mentioned only by DVD Savant.

Mexico, 1661: Baron Vitelius of Astara (Abel Salazar) is sentenced to death by the Mexican Inquisition for acts of heresy, witchcraft, necromancy and generally being annoying. As he is burnt alive and a comet passes overhead, the baron vows to return in 300 years to take revenge by killing Inquisitors' descendants. Sure enough, three centuries later the comet reappears, bringing with it the baron, who is able to change from human form into a hideous brainsucking monster.

The Brainiac features one of the goofiest movie monsters you're ever likely to see in a horror film, Mexican or otherwise, the wholly unconvincing creature having tubular quivering pincers, a pulsating hairy head, pointy rubber ears and nose, extra large fangs, and a forked tongue with which to suck out its victims' brains. But as hilarious as this monster is, it cannot make up for the film's dull plot, lifeless direction and cheap production values: printed backdrops stand in for real locations, the comet looks like a cut-out piece of paper stuck to a sheet of glass, and the baron's hypnotic gaze is achieved by shining a light into his eyes.

The film's best moment is the shocking discovery of a body suspended upside down in a bath-tub (the man's head underwater), although any scene featuring the voluptuous Rosa María Gallardo as astronomer Victoria Contreras is worth a look (she can calibrate my telescope any day of the week!); worst (and consequently funniest) moments include the arrival of the creature inside a rock, the baron sneaking off to tuck into his bowlful of brains, and the wide-eyed expressions on the faces of his mesmerized victims.