The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962)

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The Brain That Wouldn't Die is one of the first American movies to feature gory violence. A decapitated head, severed arm, a throat is ripped out...It's one of those movies that contributed to the fall of American horror movies, along with Blood Feast and the idiotic zombie genre. Something tells me the director originally wanted to make a porn movie, but at the last minute changed his mind and decided to give horror a try instead. The main character/villain of the movie spends most his time looking at strippers, underwear models etc. It's incredibly perverted, and a waste of time.This is one of the worst movies in the Horror Classics (50 Movie Pack) DVD from Treeline Films. Skip this disgusting trash and read a good book instead.

Okay, so this movie has all the hallmarks of "B" scifi from the 1960s and 1950s. Cheap sets, bad acting, utterly laughable dialog ("I'll handle the brain area").In spite of all these things, the movie is underpinned by a great story line, no matter how poorly executed. So just like the classic 1960s Star Trek TV series (also plagued by cheap sets and bad acting), remember... STORY FIRST.And that saves it.The moral conundrum of when it is okay to tamper, experiment or try to save human life. The inner struggle that a doctor or surgeon must wrestle with between only doing what *should* be done to save people, vs veering over the line and trying to "improve" or "reconstruct" them. The clash between trying everything possible to save a person's life vs deciding that it is in their best interests to let them die (Is it ever? Can they make that decision if they are dying?) I'm the first to admit that I enjoy this film largely for its laughability, its sleazy dialog and background music, the tawdry story line of a surgeon trying to save his fiancée's head by not just saving her, but trying to "trade up" and graft her head onto a stripper's body. But unlike a lot of other schlocky horror/scifi movies, this one has a nugget of something better.

I was two when I saw this movie and it scared me so badly I was afraid of closets, and people with covers up to their neck. I had a few nightmares but soon got over the scare. I think that movie is what made me so weird, I like telling scary stories just to see if I can scare the crap out of someone. I usually do. The creepy things that hide in the shadows of the closet. The movie was in my memory but I couldn't remember all of it. I was unable to sleep one night and there it was on Sci-Fi, and I got a good laugh at it, not believing that I had ever been afraid of the movie. In so many ways it's so third rate it isn't even funny. It's also very corny. Now if they were to do it today and take way the ridicules dialog it could work. Maybe get Kane Hodder to be the monster in the closet.

Actually, for a "B" sci-fi flick from the early '60s, on a $62,000 budget, it wasn't that bad. There was something about the goofiness of it that kept my attention for most of the 80 minutes. I was hoping it would be one of those so-bad-it's-good movies, but it really wasn't. Oh, if you try to explain the story it sounds like one of those ludicrous stories - and maybe it is - but it's a fairly straight combination of a Dr. Frankenstein-wannabe and the Steve Martin vehicle, The Man With Two Brains.A pretty woman's head sitting on baking pan on a table while her doctor-boyfriend goes looking for a good body to go with it. She lost it while the two were driving up to his cabin/lab. They had a car accident and he plucked her head out of the car fire.....really! She will stay alive for about two days in his newly-discovered solution so he goes to strip clubs to find a body for her. Meanwhile, she is not happy. She knows there is some hideous creature locked away in a closet nearby and uses some new-found psychic power to communicate and rule over him. Her plan is to get revenge on the deranged doctor. I won't say what happens in case someone reading this wants to see the film.Yes, it's very stupid but there is something likable and entertaining about this cheapie film. I saw it as part of a "Four More MGM Sci-Fi Classics" DVD which is inexpensive.