Genres

Visitors Review

Paul Andrews 2012-05-25 16:32:13

"I'm here to keep this spaceship business in check." Dull 50's Sci-Fi.

The Brain Eaters starts with the newly engaged Glenn Cameron (AlanFrost) driving his lucky fiancé Elaine (Jody Fair) to the smallAmerican town of Riverdale in Illinois to break the good news when theysee a sudden bright flash. Glenn & Elaine stop to investigate &discover a large metal cone that's 50 feet tall by 50 feet across atit's widest. In Washington Senator Walter K. Powers (Cornelius Keefe asJack Hill) takes full responsibility & flies out to Riverdale where heis met by Glenn who just happens to be the Mayor's (Orville Sherman)son, Glenn informs Senator Powers that his Father has mysteriouslydisappeared & there has been 3 unsolved murders in the area recently.Glenn takes Senator Powers to the cone where Dr. Paul Kettering (EdNelson), Dr. Wyler (David Hughes) & their assistant Alice Summers(Joanna Lee) are busy running all kinds of tests on the unidentifiedobject. Kettering informs Senator Powers that he is baffled by thecone, eventually they all end up in the Mayor's office who has suddenlyreappeared. After some macho rubbish between the Mayor & the Senatorabout who is in charge the Mayor pulls a gun out & makes a run for itbut is shot by a cop. Kettering & a somewhat unemotional Glenn examinethe body & discover two holes in the back of his neck. Ketteringperforms an autopsy & discovers that the Mayor was being controlled byan alien parasite previously unknown to man, Kettering puts two & twotogether & comes up with the startling theory that these parasites havecome from the cone. But since the parasites got to the Mayor who elseis being controlled? The mystery deepens even further when an expert inbio-chemistry , Professor Helsingman (Saul Bronson), who has beenmissing for the past five years turns up out of the blue. Kettering &his team face a race against time to stop the parasites before theytake over the entire human race!Directed by Bruno VeSota The Brain Eaters is nothing to get excitedabout. The script by Gordon Urquhart supposedly based on Robert A.Heinlein's novel The Puppet Masters fails to make the most of it'sobvious potential, the potential for paranoia is wasted. The film makesit perfectly clear who is controlled by a Brain Eater & who isn't.Film's like John Carpenter's The Thing (1982) & Invasion of the BodySnatchers (1978) brilliantly uses the mistrust between characters toheighten tension & make us, the viewer, question who we should believe& put our faith in. The Brain Eaters has none of this which hurts thefilm badly as it's very predictable & doesn't even attempt to try &pull any surprises. The dialogue is clunky, awkward, static & feelsdated as is often the case with 50's Sci-Fi but there are a few laughsto be had if you listen closely enough. To give it some credit it movesalong like a rocket, there's no boring exposition here even going asfar as having a few scenes narrated rather than try & condense theinformation into an ordinary conversation & at only an hour long itdoesn't outstay it's welcome. The Brain Eaters themselves are rarelyseen & when they are they look like wigs with antenna's. There's noblood, gore or violence & the special effects are generally poor as youwould expect. The acting is very wooden & everyone looks & sounds likethey're reading their lines from cue cards, & yes Leonard Nimoy doesmake an appearance even if it's hard to make him out you'll definitelyrecognise his voice. Director VeSota fails to bring any scares,atmosphere, style or originality to the film as a whole. Overall Ithought The Brain Eaters was an OK way to pass an hour but could havebeen more & at the end of the day fails to distinguish itself from anyother 50's black & white Sci-Fi film of which there are many betterones available. One to watch only if your desperate.

2012-05-25 02:53:07

Those Nasty,Evil Little Parasites!!

In this classic 1958 horror film,evil furry little parasites from the earth's core ,invade the brains of the intellectual elite and misguide them to create a higher order to fit their needs.But the Good Guys provide a little electrical persuasion convince those nasty,evil parasites to go back where they came from.The film is even better if watched in 3-D!!

MARIO GAUCI 2012-05-14 06:08:35

THE BRAIN EATERS (Bruno Ve Sota, 1958) **

This is one of a series of vintage AIP horror titles released some timeago 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 andpictures!); others include THE SHE-CREATURE (1956), BLOOD OF Dracula(1957) and HOW TO MAKE A MONSTER (1958) – all of which I have acquiredin time for my ongoing Halloween challenge. Thematically, the film is avariation on the classic INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1956) with asmall town gradually taken over (though not by an alien organism butrather a vanished – and, typically, superior – civilization); despitethe sensationalistic title, the creatures – 'possessing' their victimsthrough small punctures at the back of the neck – are never actuallyseen, 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 insilhouette – residing in a cone-shaped rocket! The end result is nottoo bad though hardly a classic of its familiar kind or genre andobviously cramped by the low budget and necessary compactness (runninga mere 56 minutes); interestingly, the film's director is the burlyOrson Welles-lookalike sleazeball from DEMENTIA (1955).

RotwangsGirl 2012-05-13 10:37:29

Brain Music

I read your post re: The Brain Eaters. I have done extensive researchon the music and have also come to the conclusion that there never wasa Tom Jonson. I have identified much of the score but the piece thateludes me is the Main Title. Does anyone have any idea what that'sfrom? Your help would be greatly appreciated. It's driving me crazy.In the meantime , this is a fun film (if derivative). The biggestmistake might be the Pipe Cleaner antennea on the little monsters. Theidea the creatures are subterranian in nature was very different forthe period. All in all a good fun romp. The classical score does add aweirdness that somehow compelling.

2012-05-04 01:25:14

Munch munch munch.

The Brain Eaters (Bruno VeSota, 1958)Five years ago or so, my wife and I were on our way to dinner. We were thinking about going to the Olive Garden, but decided we wanted to save money, so we went to Friendly's instead. Friendly's is not a restaurant known for expensive food, but after tip, our bill came to just shy of $50. We could have eaten at Olive Garden cheaper. Ever since, Friendly's has been our metric for whether we can afford to eat out. "Is it cheaper than Friendly's?". I mention this because I now have a new metric for bad in film. For the last two weeks, I have been asking "Is it better than The Brain Eaters?". (According to my spreadsheet, depressingly, I have seen seven movies--yes, seven--about which I can honestly answer that question "no".)This ill-conceived mess involves a bunch of technologically-advanced slugs from the center of the earth who want to conquer humanity with a large glowing ball carried under the trenchcoat of one of their human thralls. Arrayed against them are a handful of square-jawed scientists, their cute-in-that-fifties-kinda-way ladyfriends, and some very confused lawmen. While this is an obvious thematic father to such better, more recent films as Night of the Creeps and Slither, and has some archival value for that reason, to call this in any way a good movie would be vastly overstating the case. Everyone is overacting, the special effects are laughably crude, the direction leaves a great deal to be desired, the pacing is remarkably bad for a movie that lasts just an hour. There is nothing to recommend this movie at all. And yet somehow, maybe because of its brevity, or maybe because it is so bad without being as painful to watch as something like an Ulli Lommel or Uwe Boll film, it does have a certain silly charm to it that makes me not hate it completely, in the same way as does Amayo Uzo Phillips' The Python or the immortal (at least, as far as I'm concerned) Night of the Lepus. If you really want to put yourself through this, fortify yourself with alcohol first. I'm sure you'll have a much better time. *

2012-05-03 06:53:22

They would starve in Washington

Roger Corman did more with less than anyone in 1950's. This off center, tilted little gem is scary even if the detractors refuse to admit it. These are people who would have looked through the lens instead of the view finder in 1958, but I guess it's comfortable to attack something from a distance. It can be hard to judge from the uneven shots but this looks like a 9 out of 10 and I think most people will appreciate the transfer. It comes with some cute AIP postcards but on first run, I wasn't able to get sound from theextras and will have to try again.

Space_Mafune 2012-04-26 00:08:55

Much Better Than Rated

A strange seemingly destructible cone-shaped object is found in the town ofRiverdale, Illinois. This comes following reports of strange lights in thesky, mysterious deaths and disappearances. Senator Walter K. Powers is sentto investigate and meets the town's scientific research team of Dr.Kettering & Dr. Wyler. Eventually they stumble upon the horrible andunlikely truth of what is the cause behind all of this. This film startsouta bit slow and is hampered by a low-budget but it is however a superbattempt to rise above the limitations of budget in order to tell afascinating story. Scenes shot through the eyes of the Brain Eaters andfeaturing the Brain Eaters themselves are surprisingly well done. Really Ifeel this film is actually quite good.

Bruce Cook 2012-04-25 12:23:10

Guess who's coming to dinner?

It's only about 60 minutes long, and the special effects (what littlethereare) are substandard, but some real imagination went into this one, with aplot based on `The Puppet Masters' by Robert Heinlein. A strangeEarth-drilling craft surfaces in a small town and disgorges a horde offuzzylittle parasitic creatures who fasten themselves to the necks of thetownsfolk and control their brains. Scientist Ed Nelson (who is also thefilm's producer) battles the invaders. Watch for a scene in which theheroenters the drill craft and confronts a bearded old man . . . played byLeonard Nimoy!If you just LOVE 1950s sci-fi, here's an obscure little curiosity for you.If not . . . well, try the Sci-Fi Channel.

bkoganbing 2012-04-25 05:22:26

The Borg From Deep In Planet Earth

Were it not for the presence of two men who scored great success lateron television, Ed Nelson on Peyton Place and Leonard Nimoy on StarTrek, The Brain Eaters would have no reason to be remembered. Thenagain with your half eaten cerebrum it would be impossible to rememberthis film anyway.It's not monsters from Outer Space, but a collective of Borg likeparasites, speaking of Star Trek, from the Earth's core who've come tothe surface in rural Illinois and start invading the populace ofRiverdale. When they take over the police authority and cutcommunications from the outside, our intrepid heroes led by a USSenator of all things have to deal with them on their own.Ed Nelson and Leonard Nimoy play two of the scientists. But the savinggrace of the film if it has any is the performance of Cornelius Keefeas the blustering United States Senator who is most aware of theprerogatives of his office and ain't gonna let no aliens, parasites,whatever stand in his way.Leonard Nimoy's name is misspelled in the credits and for reasons ofposterity he probably considers it a blessing.

boundalaska 2012-04-24 20:29:46

Horrible, yet funny enough to watch again

Funny movie. Mystery Science Theatre 3000 material all the way. I wouldguess, due to the rough and shoddy editing, that the movie wasoriginally 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 shirtis ripped open during a fight. I personally love these old B movies and while this one was not up tothe usual "standards" of early horror films, it had some truly giggitymoments. (Heavy breathing by the brain eaters and the pipe stem antennawhere great touches.) I rated it a 7 due to the abundance of truly bad acting, dialog andediting. It doesn't get much worse than this which is what makes it sogood.

2012-04-20 22:53:06

REVIEW OF BRAIN EATERS ( PAL FORMAT )

This review is from: The Brain Eaters (SP) ( Keepers of the Earth ) ( The Brain Snatchers ) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Spain ] (DVD) THE BRAIN EATERS IS AN EXCELLENT B-MOVIE FROM THE LATE 1950'S. A SCIENCE FICTION MOVIE ABOUT CREATURESFORCING HUMANS TO OBEY THEIR WILL. DVD PLAYABLE ON ALL REGION DVD PLAYERS, OR REGION 2 ( EUROPE ). MOVIEHAS A BRIEF APPEARANCE OF LEONARD NIMOY.

2012-04-20 08:10:17

we found the perpetrator

This review is from: Brain Eaters [VHS] (VHS Tape) This was bought as a present. Well, just imagine my surprise when the giftee reported that there was no movie in the case . . . I don't remember ordering an empty VHS case.Ok. My bad. I contacted the seller, and she was sure that the tape had been in the package, that I did a little further explanation. I have the tape. The guilty party will not be named because he is underage.

Tom van der Esch 2012-04-19 22:10:43

Eating brains? Oh my...

What is there to say about this movie? Not an awful lot really. It's astandard (almost cliché) black-and-white movie about parasites latchingonto the necks of people, controlling them and eventually making themdie.The acting is mediocre, the story develops slowly and the effects are... well, 'okay' for it's time. If you are a fan of movies from thisage, then go ahead and watch it. It's only an hour long though.One thing I should mention is Leonard Nimoy (you know, Mr. Spock?).Barely recognizable, but he is indeed in this movie.I give this movie 6 out of 10 stars, since it has all the charms of amovie of it's age. Enjoyable for the fans, but not really outstanding.

xnet95 2012-04-19 03:02:53

disappointing movie

I was really primed to watch this one - expectations were high (howcould they not be with a title like "The Brain Eaters"?). Well, asoften as happens in life, the reality didn't match the expectation.Actually, this movie made me a bit angry because of the wastedpotential. I love seeing old black and white monsters, but this movieshowed virtually no monsters. What's the point of making a "monstermovie" if you only show the monsters for a total of 10 seconds out ofan hour - very lame! Plus, NONE of the characters in this film arelikable, which is a very important aspect of a successful film. Ididn't care about any of them. They were all either stupid or jerks orarrogant or useless. The doctor was the only one who showed any goodqualities, but his stupidity outlined below rendered him useless.1. A lot of damage was done by the people who were infected by thesecreatures. ALL of that damage could've been avoided by checkingeverybody to see if there was a little furry thing attached to the backof their necks. It seems pretty obvious to me... 2. How about when the doctor shot the bullet into the cone and itbounced around and he said, "The point of origin is the point ofreturn." If that's true, why didn't he get injured as the bullet cameback 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 saysthat the tunnel in the cone just winds around and there was nothinginside. WHAT!?! Where were the two missing doctors that appeared laterin the film? Where were all the creatures that were with them? Thispoint really got on my nerves.4. In the lab, the doctor dissects one of the creatures and tells hisassistant/girlfriend that the creatures can split apart and regenerate.While he's telling her this, he leaves a piece of this thing HE KNOWShas the ability to hurt people unguarded on the table. While he isdistracted, the thing crawls onto his arm and injures him. He uses fireto get it off, but then hurries out of the lab without making sure thething is really dead. And what about the big piece he cut the littlepiece off of? Nobody seems very concerned that these two pieces couldhurt people in the future. 5. Later, the doctor and the mayor's son go to the teletype office tosee if any message came back from the governor. They end up fightingtwo people that are controlled by the monsters. After our heroes beatthese guys up, they just leave them there. What's up with that!?! Killthem, tie them up, get the monsters off their backs, but don't justleave them lying there to cause more damage later. ARRGGH!Sorry, but it goes on and on and on...

Wilbur-10 2012-04-19 19:18:56

It's no classic, but I can think of worse ways of wasting away an hour.

One of B-movie legend Bruno VeSota's three directorial efforts, 'TheBrain Eaters' shows enough promise to make one wish he had split histime 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 overthe population of an isolated American town. The spaceship turns out tohave burrowed up from beneath the earth's surface, letting loosevindictive slug-like creatures which attach themselves to peoplesnecks, taking over their minds. Lots of Communist paranoia/infiltrationundertones as usual.The plot manages to lose itself despite a running time of only 60minutes, but at least 'The Brain Eaters' recognises its limitations.The film prevents the normal ridicule caused by feeble special-effectsby not having any and within the boundaries it sets itself, there isnothing to offend.Like most releases from American International Pictures the film isprimed for entertainment value, if not artistic merit, and it is nonethe worse for that.I remember a particularly good scene where the camera follows one ofthe malevolent slugs point-of-view as it stalks its victim ready tolatch onto the neck - an early influence on Spielberg for 'Jaws' maybe??

classicsoncall 2012-04-18 22:35:14

"The point of origin becomes the point of return."

If you're a fan of cheesy sci-fi flicks from the 1950's, there's no wayyou can pass on a title like "The Brain Eaters". Truthfully, this woundup pretty interesting, and I'll get into that in a minute. The flickgot me hooked with Dr. Kettering's statement after firing his gun intothe 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 actualscience, but I've never heard it before. Very clever, but if it wereactually true, that bullet would have come back to injure Kettering, soI'm thinking it was all made up.What really impressed me when the whole story was over was how muchintegrity the story line maintained. The whole idea of an alien lifeform searching out a useful host to take over required no more thoughtthan a lot of films of the era did, but showing a dead dog on the wayto the site of the cone helped convey the idea that other life formswere tried and discarded; that was pretty unique. The instances wherethe host humans were shown with bulging backs was also a neat device toallow the viewer to know that danger was imminent, even if thecharacters on screen were oblivious. So you had some building ofsuspense that coincided with the modus operandi of the brain eatingparasites.But come on, the best part of all of this was the goofy stuff going onthat flew right in the face of real time continuity. Like thealternating day and night time scenes that defy any concept of timemanagement. And how about Senator Powers' mustache, it seemed to comeand go from scene to scene! I'm also kind of curious as to theselection of Riverdale as the location of the story, that was also thehome of Archie and his pals, but I don't know if their Riverdale wasever mentioned to be in a particular state.I guess one of the cooler items this film has to offer is future StarTrekker Leonard Nimoy in the role of a professor who disappeared with acolleague five years earlier and had his life form taken over by thealiens. If you don't know he's in the picture, his appearance on screenwon't really help since his face is obscured by a beard, but if youlisten closely there's no mistaking the voice. I wonder if he was upsetthat his name was mis-spelled in the credits.Usually with these kinds of pictures, I'm not willing to rate them muchmore than a four or a five because really, they are pretty dumb. Butwith this one, I've got to say that with the hero Kettering sacrificinghimself at the finale for the good of all mankind - that's got to begood for at least a bonus point. Look, it's not "Invasion of the BodySnatchers", but for a mere sixty minutes of your time, it's worth atleast a single viewing to be able to say - I just watched "The BrainEaters"!

captnhal 2012-04-09 15:36:34

The music was not original as claimed.

I found this movie amusing for its low budget effects and several flawsin its continuity. The most frequent flaw was the splicing of scenes inwhich 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 ifyou like 1950's "B" sci-fi films and Shostakovich to start with.In addition to the plot strongly resembling Robert Heinlein's "PuppetMasters", the music was also not original. I could find no evidencethat there ever was a "Tom Jonson" who wrote any music for this film oranywhere, ever. Most of it was taken, uncredited, from DmitriShostakovich's symphonies 1, 5, & 10. I also recognized an excerpt fromSergei Prokofiev's music score for the Russian language film AlexanderNevsky. At the time Brain Eaters was distributed these composers werenot as frequently performed in the US and their music would not havebeen familiar to almost all movie goers. Both composers were from theSoviet Union (Prokofiev died in 1953). They were perceived as Communistand there was a certain amount of prejudice and/or fear aboutperforming it. During the cold war it would also have been difficultfor Shostakovich to pursue legal action against the film company if heeven knew his music had been used. I suspect this is exactly why thismusic was used. I also would not be surprised if it turns out that the source of theperformances were records purchased at a record store and the musicianswere not compensated either. The credits do not list anyorchestra(s)/conductor(s). The editing of the background music was alsopoorly done. There were several places where the music did nottransition smoothly to the next scene or even within the same scene.

2012-04-08 20:03:06

Edited loose adapation of Heinlein's Puppet Masters, w/ Leonard Nimoy.

Supposedly The Brain Eaters was a loose and unauthorized adaptation of the classic science fiction novel The Puppet Masters by Robert A. Heinlein (Starship Troopers, Space Cadet, Friday), but when Heinlein threatened to sue, the producers settled by editing the film to change it sufficiently, resulting in releaseing a one hour movie. It's about small invading alien parasites from outer space. They attach themselves to the human spine and take over the human mind. It has one of the more interesting space ships, though not shown in flight. An investigator crawls into the spaceship through the hatch and into an interior tunnel that he follows without turning or backing up, and it leads him back out the same hatch. The Brain Eaters has one of Leonard Nimoy's earliest appearances as an older scientist. Later Nimoy played Mr. Spock on Star Trek, where the Puppet Masters idea was used again in the episode "Operation Annihilate!" in which Spock is the victim/host of one of the parasites.

2012-04-08 21:30:12

Paranoid Yet?...

THE BRAIN EATERS is another paranoia / conspiracy gem from the 1950s. It has the same basic premise as INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS or I MARRIED A MONSTER FROM OUTER SPACE, in that the aliens dwell among us, as us! This time, the insidious creatures are from deep in the earth, rather than from outer space. They're tiny parasites, looking for human hosts to control. Once they've latched onto the back of a victim's neck, he / she becomes an automaton of eeevil! Ed Nelson (NIGHT OF THE BLOOD BEAST, THE DEVIL'S PARTNER) plays the main scientist, and Leonard Nimoy (yep, mr. spock!) shows up as an aging, bearded mouthpiece for the invading menace. Classic stuff indeed...

Michael_Elliott 2012-04-08 10:32:37

Decent Sci-Fi

Brain Eaters, The (1958) ** (out of 4) AIP sci-fi about a ground an alien like critters that attach to theneck's of humans of suck their blood out. This is a decent time killersince it runs just over an hour but God knows this isn't the greatestfilm the genre has to offer. The low budget nature adds a lot to thefilm and the alien things are actually pretty neat and work well withthe small budget. The performances and direction aren't anything towrite home about but if you like silly little "B" movies then you mightenjoy this one. The film would have worked a lot better without theDragnet like narration.