Bill Cortner (Jason Evers) is a maverick doctor who steals limbs from amputee victims in his quest to create new life; nurse Jan Compton (Virginia Leith) is his frisky fiancée who just can't wait to get married. The good doctor maintains a country home where a medical assistant keeps watch over his less than ethical experiments, and also houses a terrible secret behind a locked door. Well the door is locked, but the eye level hatch door is usually kept unlatched so Cortner's creation can have some fun every now and then.
This is probably the closest I've ever seen a horror film turn into a comedy, scene for scene the action approaches comic absurdity on all levels. Heading out to the country home with his fiancée, Cortner drives so recklessly that he crashes his car, claiming Jan as a fatal victim. The doctor manages to retrieve the inexplicably dismembered head with the idea that he'll find a suitable body to replace the one left behind. This quest brings him to a number of likely places - a strip club, a makeshift beauty contest, and a private photo shoot where frantic photographers can't get enough of the "best body in the world". Are you still with me?
About forty years ahead (a head?) of it's time, I found Jason Evers' portrayal of the leering Dr. Cortner to be particularly prophetic. He looks exactly like he's impersonating Darrell Hammond impersonating Bill Clinton, biting on his lower lip in an expression of mock sincerity - it's hysterical!
The film offers some well conceived dialog as well. In a scene where Jan in the Pan contemplates on the creature behind the door, she remarks with a straight face - "I'm only a head, you're whatever you are." Somehow, with the help of the doctor's adreno serum, she's gained telepathic powers, and is able to communicate with Mr. Gruesome. We're finally offered a treat when the creature makes a grab for the doctor through the peep hole, he breaks the door right off it's hinges to reveal a bit of a Swedish Angel knockoff, a hideously deformed mutant who does in the doctor as the lab itself is about to go out in a blaze of glory.
"The Brain That Wouldn't Die" is one of those films you have to experience at least once in a lifetime. It will also leave you with plenty of unanswered questions, like the scene in which Jan in the Pan is shown on the lab table with a completely clear view of the empty space below the table. How'd they do that?
This is probably the closest I've ever seen a horror film turn into a comedy, scene for scene the action approaches comic absurdity on all levels. Heading out to the country home with his fiancée, Cortner drives so recklessly that he crashes his car, claiming Jan as a fatal victim. The doctor manages to retrieve the inexplicably dismembered head with the idea that he'll find a suitable body to replace the one left behind. This quest brings him to a number of likely places - a strip club, a makeshift beauty contest, and a private photo shoot where frantic photographers can't get enough of the "best body in the world". Are you still with me?
About forty years ahead (a head?) of it's time, I found Jason Evers' portrayal of the leering Dr. Cortner to be particularly prophetic. He looks exactly like he's impersonating Darrell Hammond impersonating Bill Clinton, biting on his lower lip in an expression of mock sincerity - it's hysterical!
The film offers some well conceived dialog as well. In a scene where Jan in the Pan contemplates on the creature behind the door, she remarks with a straight face - "I'm only a head, you're whatever you are." Somehow, with the help of the doctor's adreno serum, she's gained telepathic powers, and is able to communicate with Mr. Gruesome. We're finally offered a treat when the creature makes a grab for the doctor through the peep hole, he breaks the door right off it's hinges to reveal a bit of a Swedish Angel knockoff, a hideously deformed mutant who does in the doctor as the lab itself is about to go out in a blaze of glory.
"The Brain That Wouldn't Die" is one of those films you have to experience at least once in a lifetime. It will also leave you with plenty of unanswered questions, like the scene in which Jan in the Pan is shown on the lab table with a completely clear view of the empty space below the table. How'd they do that?