BRAIN DEAD

BRAIN DEAD

While Bill (Dennis Michael Tenney) is on a fishing trip in the sticks, he is hit by a stray piece of meteorite debris that lodges in his forehead and transforms him into a green-faced monster with a taste for human brains.

Bill's wife is concerned about his disappearance and contacts local sheriff Bodine (cult filmmaker Jim Wynorski, CHOPPING MALL), who half-heartedly agrees to check in on the fisherman at his remote log cabin.

But, being busy with Clarence (Joshua Benton) and Bob (David Crane), a couple of reprobates he's currently got handcuffed together until he can deliver them to the county jail, Bodine puts his deputies Jimmy Ray (Chad Guerrero) and Jimmy Bob (Greg Lewolt) on the case.

Meanwhile, a disparate bunch of people all find their way to the abandoned fishing cabin. Clarence and Bob get there first, in THE DEFIANT ONES style, following a clumsy escape from Bodine's car; rambler Sherry (Sarah Grant Brendeke) and her secret admirer Claudia (Michelle Tomlinson) find the place after losing their tour guide; randy reverend Farnsworth (Andy Forrest) and his sexy young secretary Amy (Cristina Tiberia) hope the lodge will provide sanctuary for them after their car is involved in an altercation with a tree.

Before long, Bob is holding centre court and has taken the cabin's other inhabitants as hostages. Wise-cracking Clarence, arrested for a minor traffic offence because Bodine hates him, tries to pacify the situation and at least manages to stop murderous Bob from killing the odd person in a fit of rage.

But what none of them are aware of for some time is the danger lurking in the woodlands outside. Jimmy Ray is the first to stumble upon Bill, while making his way to the cabin. Pretty soon he too has been transformed into a rabid creature that looks not unlike the zombified Ash from EVIL DEAD 2: DEAD BY DAWN.

By the time ranger Sydney (Tess McVicker) has turned up at the cabin, also searching for Bill as a favour to his wife's sister, it becomes apparent that the zombie plague is spreading - and the motley bunch of survivors have one hell of a fight on their hands.

Filmed in 2007 on digital video, BRAIN DEAD looks like it just as easily could have been lensed in 1987. The unplaceable fashions and exterior locations lend the film a timeless quality, while the cheap old-school FX work has a look and feel of the likes of BAD TASTE and the original NIGHT OF THE DEMONS.

It comes as no surprise then to learn that this is the work of the latter's director, Kevin S Tenney. In keeping with his previous films, BRAIN DEAD is big on crass humour and lots of splashy gore gags. Eyes are gouged (in a scene that recalls but outdoes Scotty's optical trauma in THE EVIL DEAD), heads are severed, faces are mashed and squibs are detonated in bloody shoot-outs galore - and it all looks great, in its own cheesy way.

The humour is largely of the juvenile smut variety, making this feel at times like a Seduction Cinema effort. But Tenney's experienced editing and brisk directing style help the film rise above such comparisons - the cast may be dumb and Dale Gelineau's script dumber still (and gleefully so), but Tenney runs a tight ship which keeps BRAIN DEAD entertaining at all times.

There are flaws. After such an eventful start (some great gore and full-frontal female nudity in the opening minutes) and a well-constructed premise in the first third, things do feel somewhat padded out in the mid-section.

Benton is a little too smug to appeal as the lead character, whereas everyone else is there simply to expose their breasts and/or get torn apart. Which is no bad thing per se, but the result is that whenever the sex and gore aren't on screen the script doesn't engage. Too many corny one-liners, Dale!

Still, there is no denying that BRAIN DEAD is fun, if only on a superficial level. It's an amiable B-movie homage with enough blood and boobies to satisfy the most adolescent exploitation freak. Don't worry that the set-up is one that we've seen countless times before - NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD being the most obvious reference point - just go along with the high energy and enjoyably pulpy tone.

Vicious Circle's screener disc is difficult to comment upon in terms on quality as it's such a basic affair that it can't be seen as being indicative of the retail disc.

The film was presented in non-enhanced widescreen, with strong colours and nice sharp images.

Audio was provided in 2.0 and, again, was a good clean presentation.

The only extra on the screener disc was a trailer that successfully painted the film as silly, grisly and chock-full of nudity - which isn't bad for a 90-second proposition.

Other than that, there was nothing. There weren't even menus or chapters on the disc.

I'm sure the actual disc will deliver the goods. The film certainly does: it's a camp, dumb frolic in the woods that manages to feel fresh despite its well-worn plot, thanks to some great gore and some very well-endowed lovelies getting their puppies out on frequent occasion. Sometimes that's all a man wants from his film.

Review by Stuart Willis


 
Released by Vicious Circle Films
Region 1 - NTSC
Not Rated
Extras :
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