Brain Dead (1990)

The first must-see film of the year.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

This is a very good, creepy, "horror" movie. Very little credible gore. I enjoy movies where one never really knows whether what they are seeing is real or not?Not altogether unlike Jacob's Ladder...another fave of mine...one can only truly enjoy this movie the first time he watches it. Once one figures out "the twist" the movie loses a bit.Essentially, early on in the film, the brain surgeon is hot by a car...and killed. Everything that happens afterwards is a dream (or rather, a nightmare) of his disembodied brain.

i originally wanted to see this film for Bill Pullman and Bud Cort and i got way more out of it than expected. this movie is a mind f*** and you really have to pay attention to every little detail and be somewhat nuts to understand this from my point of view but ill give it my best shot. Bill Pullman plays a brain doctor along with Bill Paxton who experiment on Bud Cort who killed his family. After performing this test on Bud Cort, Bill Pullman is hit by a car and then things get weird. He wakes up but nothing is how it is supposed to be, he is no longer the brilliant doctor he was before getting hit by the car, he is now being called by Bud Cort's characters name (Halsey) and is now a patient. He tries to escape with the help of Bud Cort. Heres the metaphor to look for, when Bill is running around the hospital trying to find his way out he is, in a way running through his own mind. So who's mind is this exactly..is this Bud Cort's brain or Bill Pullman's brain? we find that out in the end which i wont say but its genius. I've always wondered about the human brain and this movie made me wonder (even more) just exactly what goes on in our brains when we are unconscious? when we die does the brain still work? is what we are seeing now and doing now really happening or is this all a dream? this movie really made me ask these questions more and it freaked my sister out! i say bravo to the director, writer and of course Bill Pullman and Bud Cort for f***ing with my mind!

Dr. Rex Martin (Pullman) is a brain specialist who is asked by his good friend Jim (Paxton) to help him with a matter at his corporate job. A man named John Halsey (Cort) who at one time worked for the company may have murdered his entire family and it is Dr. Martin's job to get some key figures from the man. Dr. Martin gets pulled in and is soon sharing the same paranoid and delusional visions Halsey is suffering from. Some of these bizarre visions include a creepy looking man who is splattered in blood who is following them around. Is this weird state of reality really happening, or not? No doubt Director Adam Simon wants to keep the audience off balance, but the film shifts reality so often it gets too confusing. Simon's direction is sharp, and all though it is confusing as hell, it remains interesting and entertaining for the audience. This movie features two future big stars in Bill Pullman and Bill Paxton who are early in their careers and provide strong acting in this well made and original chiller. The gore is minimal minus a few shots of some heads being cut open for brain examinations. This film isn't designed for jump scares but the bloody stranger haunting the two characters delivers some chills. 'Brain Dead's' biggest problem is its confusing narrative and ends up being a little too weird for its own good.

Brain Dead (1990) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Dr. Rex Martin (Bill Pullman) is a top neurosurgeon who is asked by an old friend (Bill Paxton) to look at a co-worker who was once a brilliant mathematician but now seems to be suffering from some brain issue. At first Martin doesn't want involved but he finally gives in and this is where the fun starts. Elements from BRAZIL and THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE are mixed in Charles Beaumont's screenplay, which starts off incredibly slow and confusing but once it gets going the film actually manages to deliver a pretty interesting story. Again, I think most people are going to hit the ten or fifteen-minute mark and then consider turning the picture off but this is actually where the film starts to get interesting. I'm not going to say what happens as it would be a major spoiler but we're taken on a pretty fun adventure that will make you think as well as keep you guessing about what's going to happen next. The film offers up a couple big twists towards the end of the picture and they actually work very well and not once do they feel like a cheat. Beaumont, who worked on the original The Twilight Zone, manages to make the story move very well and I liked some of the dark humor that was written into the story. Another major plus is having someone like Pullman in the lead role. He's certainly very believable as the doctor and when the twist happens the actor still manages to make you believe what you're seeing. Paxton is also fun in his supporting role and we even get George Kennedy in a brief role. BRAIN DEAD still has plenty of problems, including some questionable direction and there's also no doubt that a bigger budget was needed to fully get everything in the story. Still, the film is a rather interesting mix of horror and science fiction and for the most part it works.