The Brain Eaters (The Mads)

Film Year:  1958

Genre:  Science Fiction, Horror

Director:  Bruno VeSota

Starring:  Leonard Nimoy (name misspelled), Ed Nelson, Alan Jay Factor, Cornelius Keefe, Joanna Lee, Jody Fair, David Hughes

Special Guest:  Carolina Hidalgo, Marcus Parks

The Movie

Invasion of the Body Snatchers eat your heart out, because The Brain Eaters are here to infect your heads with slugs that feast on the brain and control your mind.  It's up to the mighty 50's Caucasian scientists and law enforcement to get to the bottom of the secret invasion and save the day!

Produced by Roger Corman, one of the most noteworthy aspects of this film is how the filmmakers were sued by author Robert Heinlein (MSTies will know him as the screenwriter of Project Moon Base and RiffTrax fans will recognize him as the author of the original Starship Troopers novel) who claimed the film was too similar to a novel he wrote called The Puppet Masters.  No, not that Puppet Master, as awesome as killer dolls might have been in this movie.  That also dealt with an invasion of parasites that control the brain.  But if one wants to split hairs, another Corman film played with a similar concept in It Conquered the World.  Was a little mushroom alien all Corman needed to avoid lawsuit?

Though as it turned out a film adaptation of The Puppet Masters was cancelled because of The Brain Eaters.  Eventually a movie did get made in the 90's starring Donald Sutherland, but nobody cared.  Also there was Animorphs, which is the same thing only with kids who mutate into animals because why not?

Aside from this, The Brain Eaters is pure Corman hokum and padding, wasting what intrigue the premise could generate with dry scenes of actors looking grim.  The film shows people going through the motions of characters who understand that something weird is going on without understanding exactly what.  Certain scenes are suspenseful enough, and it provides decent mood pieces, though its all coming to a head in a goofy scene involving power cables and lightning bolts, which makes the final impression of the film more kooky than grim.  But there is an attempt here, I'll give it that.

Interestingly a young Leonard Nimoy has a pivotal exposition-supplying supporting role in the film.  Young Spock pops in in Gandolf the Grey cosplay to explain exactly what the movie is before disappearing as quickly as he appeared.  He's a welcome addition, since a science fiction production is always elevated by the presence of Nimoy even if they can't spell his name right in the opening credits.

The Riff

This movie has the flavor of Corman cheapies that Mystery Science Theater would show on season three or four, so this feels a bit homey to me and I imagine it does for Trace and Frank as well.  They're in high spirits throughout the riff, though I will say they throw out with a little too much gusto at times when the movie comes to a standstill.  There is a sequence where a brain-eating slug is crawling into a woman's bed and the movie is completely silent, and their response to this is to pack it with every joke they can think of.  Some of them land, some of them feel like they're just something to say to fill dead air.  It's tricky, but the laugh quota is high.

Frank is in a mood during this riff.  He spends portions letting out a lot of passion aggression on Christopher Nolan, as he hands out dark gritty reboots to the likes of Airwolf and Paul Blart:  Mall Cop.  Characters could be searching in the blackest woods causing Frank to pipe up "Existential Void Canyon isn't as much fun as I thought it would be," or we reach our climax as two lovers find themselves on opposite sides of the conflict, leading Frank to growl their frustration out as "You never want to eat brains or do anything experimental in bed!"  Trace is a bit calmer by comparison, and even though he isn't as thick and heavy with the movie as Frank is, his laughs are just as consistent.

In the aftershow, Movie Sign With the Mads co-host Carolina Hidalgo is back with her husband Marcus Parks.  Talk turns very movie heavy of course, because that what these folks do.  Since Halloween season is approaching, there is a lot of talk about horror movies which leaves Trace and Frank a bit in the wind.  Carolina and Marcus gush over the new Candyman (and I concur) and they have a discussion of what movies would be best to watch on Halloween.  Frank doesn't go full horror and recommends a few thrillers like Night of the Hunter and Sorcerer, while Trace goes the safe route and says Universal Horror is always good (this goes without saying, because they go with Halloween like pumpkin pie goes with Thanksgiving).  There is a chat question about underrated movies which actually gets a little sidetracked as Marcus instantly brings up the wonderful Starship Troopers (bringing it back to Robert Heinlein, even though nobody seems to realize this), but the discussion evolves into talk of Paul Verhoeven movies like RoboCop and Total Recall and just kind of peters away.

Speaking of Robert Heinlein properties, there is a little bit of discussion about the lawsuit on The Brain Eaters, which Frank uses as an opportunity to talk about Roger Corman suing Cinematic Titanic for their use of The Wasp Woman.  Incidentally this particular movie also got this live stream copyright struck on YouTube which meant they had to stream on Twitch.  The lawsuits just keep coming.  This movie is cursed.  The riff is worth watching though, however you can get your hands on it.

Good