Troubled teen and prankster Jim is forced to see local celebrity Dr. Blakely, a man who runs a self-help television show and program known as "Independent Thinkers." Unknown to Jim, at least at first, Blakely actually uses a grotesque alien, known simply as "The Brain," to brainwash and control the minds of those in the audience and at home. While Jim tries to convince those around him of the doctor's true intentions, "The Brain" grows hungrier.
There isn't much that I can say about The Brain that James Rolfe a.k.a. The Angry Video Game Nerd didn't already say in his review. I'm still going to give it a shot though. The first thing I noticed was that this low-budget picture was from the same director as Bloody Birthday, which honestly almost tempted me to press "stop" and quit just based on track record. But if I can sit through five shitty Hellraiser sequels, then I can sit through two Ed Hunt films.
The cast is a real mixed bag of random faces. Fans of Re-Animator will immediately recognize the late David Gale (first of you to make a crack about the Kevin Spacey film gets a swift headbutt to the stomach) as the Brain's "master." There's also George Buza, who if you don't recognize by voice (Beast from X-Men!), you've probably seen in bit parts here and there for the last 30+ years. Even Princess Zelda herself (Cynthia Preston) plays the love interest of our hero. None of them seem to have taken proper acting classes prior to signing on, but this is classified as B-horror for a reason.
The pace at which this goes is very awkward and a bit slow, and while it tries to play with segments of the main character losing his mind due to control from the creature itself, they just aren't very scary or effective. There's also one of the strangest setups to a love scene that I've seen in a while, though we don't get much in the way of nudity (or bloodshed now that I think about it) here. The soundtrack and the effects work are appropriately silly too and only add to the schlock factor. The film's low budget is very noticeable, but I did like the design of the Brain itself, even if it did look like a meatball fucked the Madball logo and its growls sounded like my old man snoring.
Make no mistake, this isn't a good film. The acting is awful, it lacks genuine scares, the monster looks pretty bad, and there are continuity errors galore, but it rightfully deserves a spot in the much sought after "so bad that it's good" category. Much like the vastly underrated Terrorvision, the film is unfortunately not available on DVD and as of this review, can only be seen on VHS or, surprisingly enough, on Youtube! This could make a nice companion piece to some other ridiculous 80s treats like Razorback or C.H.U.D.
Tomorrow, George Romero makes his first appearance on this year's list, and hopefully I won't throw my own shit at MONKEY SHINES.
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