Excellent but underrated film

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

BRAIN DEAD is a low rent horror film that feels like an indie rip-off of RE-ANIMATOR. It's best known today for being confused with the Peter Jackson classic BRAINDEAD, with which it has nothing in common. It goes for a psychological approach to the material, but the story has been done better and more convincingly elsewhere. The cheapness is apparent throughout, particularly in the way a couple of white-painted rooms stand in for laboratories and the like. I was surprised that mainstream actors like Bill Pullman and Bill Paxton took roles in this as personally I think the material is beneath them. The story sees Pullman's brain surgeon going crazy and believing that he's a hallucination in a disturbed brain; the story becomes a thriller of sorts as his behaviour becomes more and more bizarre. It's oddball indeed, but not at all satisfying.

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.

Not to be confused with the much better splatter/horror/comedy movie Braindead (1992).Neurosurgeon Rex Martin (Bill Pullman) has a shelf of live brains in jars, that he pulls down and pokes at with electric sticks. And this is before he goes crazy.His old school friend Jim (Bill Paxton) is a slimy corporate salesman, who wants Rex to poke around in the head of a genius mathematician John Halsey (Bud Cort), to unlock the secret formula he was working on for the company before he went crazy.With his research grant money gone, Rex agrees, but is involved in an accident with a madman's brain (paranoid/schizophrenic), which appears to have overlapped his own.The rest of the movie is a slow fall into insanity. Did the accident cause their minds to fuse? Is he Rex with memories of Halsey or Halsey with memories of Rex? What is reality, if not what we hold in your minds?I actually studied the poems of Zhuangzi at Canterbury University, so what do you know, tertiary education in the arts is good for something.The lives of both men blend into one, as Rex is committed to the same mental institute as where he first met Halsey.Or is he? There is no payout by the end of the movie, draw your own conclusions. Doctor Rex Martin attended Miskatonic University, the same location of the movie Reanimator (1985), both movies paying homage to HP Lovecraft.Starring:Rob & Barney Burman, makeup FX father and son team. Rob (son) was involved in makeup on the original The Thing (1982). Barney (dad) was head of makeup for TV series Grimm and won an Oscar for Star Trek (2009). He is also the experimental head in the first lab scene.Kyle Gass, anesthetist. Better known as half of Tenacious D. This was his movie debut. 3 other actors from this movie would also appear in the Tenacious D videosAnn & Dorothy Vincent. Twin sisters not stretching their acting skills very far by playing twin sisters (for the 2nd time)John Paxton, board member, Bill Paxton's dadLee Aranberg, crazy homeless guy. His best line "That's my fucking brain!" was sampled by Delta 9 (My Brain). Best known as Pintel (Pirates Of The Caribbean) and Leroy (One Upon A Time)Brian Brophy, Ellis. Starred in The Roommate with Bill PaxtonGeorge Kennedy, Vance. Appeared in all 4 Airplane and all 3 Naked Gun comedies. Was still best remembered for one of his earliest and only award winning performance, as Dragline in Cool Hand Luke (1967)Bud Cort, Jack Halsey, still best known as Maude in Harold & Maude (1971)Bill Pullman, as the crazy (or is he?) doctor, I only ever remember him as the Independence Day (1996) speech guy

Brain Dead is a very hard movie to describe because of its constant twists and turns. This movie truly turns you in circles and can be very confusing upon first viewing. Still, this is a really good film with good acting from Pill Pullman and Bill Paxton. The whole concept of the film is based on whether this is a dream or reality and the rest is left to the viewer. The ending is rather sudden but very appropriate and dramatic. This is definitely the type of film you sit through the credits at the end in bewilderment. Truly a surprise, especially considering the fact that this is a Concord produced film and most of their movies are mediocre at best. I highly recommend this movie to anyone who is into the David Lynch style of film-making. This is definitely a true mind-bender. 9/10 stars