When
a meteor plummets to Earth and leaves a hole in a fisherman’s
head, all hell breaks loose, with a slimy parasitic alien taking
possession of the dead body and going on the rampage in search
of brains, which it’s zombie host will gleefully rip from
the heads of its victims. And luckily for the alien, there are
plenty to be found out in the woods, as a deserted cabin rapidly
fills up with two escaped convicts (one a psychotic killer, the
other arrested for a traffic accident and both handcuffed together,
Defiant Ones style), a sexy hiker and her man-hating lesbian friend,
and a lecherous televangelist and his very nubile assistant, all
of whom have lost their way at the worst time possible. Before
you can say Evil Dead, they find themselves faced
with an attack by the increasing number of parasite zombies, and
their number is rapidly whittled down.
When
a film comes with a less than original title and is hyped
as being ‘from the director of Witchboard
and Night of the Demons’, your expectations
are not going to be very high – and it’s probably
because of that that I found Brain Dead to be
passably entertaining nonsense. Director Kevin S. Tenney seems
only too aware of the limitations of his film, and so camps it
up in the style of a Troma movie – though thankfully without
the underlying mean-spiritedness that ruins so much of that studio’s
output. The acting is pretty awful, though the dialogue is so
bad that even a top thespian would struggle with it, and the film
is riddled with clichés and moments riffed from other movies
– the aforementioned Evil Dead is a clear
influence, as are half the horror movies of the 1980s. This retro
feel extends to the outré gore scenes (a head ripping at
the start is hilariously tasteless), the wonderfully gratuitous
nudity (all the girls get naked, and none of the nude scenes expands
the story one iota) and gleefully offensive moments (like a particularly
bad case of vaginal discharge), giving this a definite old-school
exploitation feel.
Of
course, 1980’s horror was a low point in the genre’s
history, but for those of you who like it – and bizarrely,
there are plenty of people who will refer to Tenney’s Night
of the Demons as a classic without any trace of irony
– this will no doubt be up your street. While rubbish by
most standards, Brain Dead is undoubtedly amusingly
– and knowingly – trashy, and pretty much the sort
of thing to watch with a few friends and a few beers..
When
a meteor plummets to Earth and leaves a hole in a fisherman’s
head, all hell breaks loose, with a slimy parasitic alien taking
possession of the dead body and going on the rampage in search
of brains, which it’s zombie host will gleefully rip from
the heads of its victims. And luckily for the alien, there are
plenty to be found out in the woods, as a deserted cabin rapidly
fills up with two escaped convicts (one a psychotic killer, the
other arrested for a traffic accident and both handcuffed together,
Defiant Ones style), a sexy hiker and her man-hating lesbian friend,
and a lecherous televangelist and his very nubile assistant, all
of whom have lost their way at the worst time possible. Before
you can say Evil Dead, they find themselves faced
with an attack by the increasing number of parasite zombies, and
their number is rapidly whittled down.
When
a film comes with a less than original title and is hyped
as being ‘from the director of Witchboard
and Night of the Demons’, your expectations
are not going to be very high – and it’s probably
because of that that I found Brain Dead to be
passably entertaining nonsense. Director Kevin S. Tenney seems
only too aware of the limitations of his film, and so camps it
up in the style of a Troma movie – though thankfully without
the underlying mean-spiritedness that ruins so much of that studio’s
output. The acting is pretty awful, though the dialogue is so
bad that even a top thespian would struggle with it, and the film
is riddled with clichés and moments riffed from other movies
– the aforementioned Evil Dead is a clear
influence, as are half the horror movies of the 1980s. This retro
feel extends to the outré gore scenes (a head ripping at
the start is hilariously tasteless), the wonderfully gratuitous
nudity (all the girls get naked, and none of the nude scenes expands
the story one iota) and gleefully offensive moments (like a particularly
bad case of vaginal discharge), giving this a definite old-school
exploitation feel. 
