ATOMIC BRAIN INVASION

Given I am no Sci Fi buff, (and not overly keen on comedies either) it didn’t exactly bode well that a new movie by trash director Richard Griffin, ATOMIC BRAIN INVASION, would get a positive review from yours truly. The jovial cover art depicting a cartoon styled head splitting open somehow ponged of slapstick innocence as opposed to blood drenched debauchery. Maybe that was the reason, unlike the other more mature ventures I am lucky enough to peruse for SGM, I didn’t wait until my youngling was carousing with the Sandman before hitting play on my machine.

But if I could evade my humourless prejudice for 85 minutes or so, might I finally discover an enigmatic paradox – a movie supplied by Al Sex Gore that can be enjoyed by ALL the family? I wonder…

The movie starts with an amusing preamble in a black and white vintage style, apparently inspired by the opening to Virgil W. Vogel’s ludicrous Sci Fi romp, The Mole People.

It brazenly sets the tone for the main feature before situating us in New Shoreham, USA back in the 1950s. Some of the resident townsfolk happen to be questioning the validity of the local Bicycle Testing Ground. Maybe it’s the lack of visible bikes that rouses their suspicions. Or maybe it’s simply the odd mushroom cloud that satiates the sky – who knows?!

There are also concerns from the senior members of the community that their kids may soon be corrupted beyond repair due to a free concert being staged in the town by a certain Elvis Aaron Presley.

But pelvic swivelling crooners are the last of their worries. The town’s woodland, it transpires, is the crash site to a mysterious pod, whose extra-terrestrial occupants appear to have the desire (and means) of taking over humans beings in a rather messy manner. This fate becomes a young teen couple sneakily ‘making out’ in the woods as they are seized, slimed, physically altered to resemble their assailants and thereby possessed. (All of the sudden that cover art makes perfect sense!)

As luck would have it, another ship enters our Ozone layer and, although its denizens are also aliens, has come to Planet Earth with a far more fetching crew and a different agenda.

Caught up in the middle of this are the teen protagonists played by a troop of Griffin regulars. Lukas Bedfellow (Michael Reed) takes solace in his bedroom, trying in vain to secrete from his parents an impious self-indulging past time… the art of origami! The fact his military general father (David Erin Wilson), who heads the ‘Atomic’ oops I mean ‘bicycle’ testing site, speaks of the "Japs" with such abhorrence ("We beat them years ago!") probably doesn’t help!

Then there is Lukas’ love rival Sherman (David Lavalee) who, although nerdy, does appear to be gleaning a lot more attention from the studious and cute Betty (Sarah Nicklin) than Lukas would like. Kevin (Daniel Lee White) and Jim (Colin Carlton) complete the group.

Intergalactic invasions may well pale into insignificance when compared to adolescents vying for pole position in love triangles. But with masses of teenagers worshipping The King, the phrase ‘take me to your leader’, could soon adopt a whole new meaning!

Ok so around 20 minutes or so into the onscreen jesting I was joined by my 6 year old ‘wannabe Jedi’ daughter. She appeared transfixed to the screen and proceeded to enquire about the motion picture I was jotting notes to. Needless to say, I buckled under her incessant pleas to start the disc from the beginning, and it was ATOMIC BRAIN INVASION round two!

Now I wish I could summarize the movie with a line such as "it’s all good clean fun", but that wouldn’t strictly be true. You see, the crew must have gotten through an almost oceanic supply of multihued glop when fashioning scene after scene of slimy mayhem! The movie is essentially "G-Rated" as its makers would say but this doesn’t mean it’s simply kids stuff. It is loaded with satire which cleverly captures the 1950’s zeitgeist. Racial tensions home and abroad, along with the paranoia of nuclear and extra-terrestrial threats, are all effortlessly entwined in the quick fire screenplay. It is basically a classic example of when kids and adults are laughing at the same screen - but for different reasons.

The movie also provides that rarest of rarities: embracing the use of CGI with open arms! No I haven’t lost the plot completely (or chomped on too many Smarties!) but a movie with such a spoofy slant toward those archaic UFO scare pictures made the Ed Wood way simply begs for gaudy laser beam zaps to hammer the point home. They did, however, refrain from CGI-ing in some planned fake string for the flying saucers to dangle from, an opportunity that lack of time thankfully denied them.

Then there was The King himself. Elvis Presley was played by Brandon Aponte who, despite hardly resembling The King at all, ticked all the clichéd Elvis impersonator boxes apart from that rather derogatory notion of his hamburger gorging tendencies. No, in ABI, he gorged on banana and peanut butter sarnies instead! He was only upstaged by the maraca shaking backing singer who appeared positively rapt in the lip curling revelries! The disc itself comes with a few notable extras, mainly a feature length commentary track featuring director Richard Griffin, Producer Ted Marr and Danny Lee White who plays Kevin. It’s a light-hearted discourse that I am sure would have many a vintage Science Fiction aficionado reminiscing fondly.

There is also a full trailer reel of Griffins other more licentious wares which I would suggest should be reserved for after the watershed!

So what we have here is a homage heavy yet light-hearted feature that indulges in goo instead of gore for a change. As for my little un’s apparent enjoyment of the movie, what was that famous quote from Yoda? Sci Fi leads to Star Wars… Star Wars leads to Cushing and Lee… Cushing and Lee lead to Hammer… Hammer leads to… Well you get my drift!

Review by Marc Lissenburg