The Evil Brain from Outer Space is more of a science fiction film than horror. But it's inclusion on the budget set 50 Tales of Terror makes it okay for my purposes. In spite of my insistence on going through all of the set, I'll skip ones that are obviously not horror (i.e Hands of Steel: "The industrialist hopes to continue his profitable, but environmentally unsafe practices, by sending his cyborg assassin to kill [a meddling ecologist]). But the description here includes: "the monstrous brain unleashes a horde of monsters upon the planet to spread disease and destruction..." So I was hoping it would be somewhat horrific. But not a lot of luck there - while there are some scary ideas/concepts in theory, the overall tone of the film seems to be more aimed towards entertaining children rather than thrilling adults.
Much like many MST3K episodes from Japan, Evil Brain seems to be patched together from episodes of a television show or something. Much of what passes for the plot is explained in a voiceover, and plot lines are introduced and then dropped shortly thereafter. My favorite? There are two kids that just seemingly vanish from the film, and later there are two random kids at the end that you have never been introduced to. Presumably this was taken care of over the course of the television series, but in the film version, it's just like they are trying to replace the kids without us noticing.
The story: An evil alien brain known as Balazar has landed on Earth, with the nefarious plan to take over the planet. He wants to kill off all of the world leaders and eventually replace *everyone* with mutants. A super awesome intergalactic congress:
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| if this doesn't make you smile, this movie probably isn't for you. |
decides that they need to defeat Balazar (and his evil cohorts, the zumerians), and send StarMan to the rescue. StarMan can fly, is bullet proof, and can kick all sorts of ass. Basically, he's Superman, but without the secret identity - he wears a suit most of the time, but when he needs to jump into action he just ducks out of frame and is instantly in his StarMan attire! It's pretty awesome... StarMan goes to earth, finds pockets of baddies, fights them, fights some monsters, and eventually confronts the (underwhelming) Balazar.
As you could probably expect, Evil Brain From Outer Space is not a high quality film. Your mileage will depend on what you are looking for. It's certainly not for people seeking out a super-serious, intensely told superhero tale. If you are just looking for a brainless way to kill some time, it will succeed in putting a smile on your face. And I think it would be great for kids - it's not too scary, but it is super fun. (Although can kids even stomach old B&W movies anymore now that they are on a steady diet of ultra-colorful spastic cartoons?)
The action/fight scenes are pretty bonkers - they can be a bit goofily choreographed, but in a really fun way. There are hordes of costumed bad guys that come after StarMan, but they are easily dispatched by his super strength - it's the kind of movie where a bunch of guys can pile on the hero, and we wait a beat, and then the hero pushes them all off. You've got some decent dummy-throwing and weak looking punches, but it works well in the context of non-offensive, enjoyable fight scenes. It's especially great when he fights one of the main monsters. I mean, check out this guy!
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| cool! |
When StarMan fights him, they can teleport, jump around all over the place, and there are these crazy sound effects. There are maybe four or five extended fight scenes in total, and they are by far the highlights of the film.
The non-fight stuff? It kind of drags, honestly. There is a lot of plot stuff happening, but because of the "compressed serial" retelling it's so scattershot there isn't much momentum in the story. And really, with a title like Evil Brain From Outer Space, you kind of know the plot points it's going to hit. But it's adequate to get you from one fight scene to the next, which is about all you can ask for. In the middle of the film, there is a stretch of about 20-25 minutes that is really a slog - but what can you do?
Horror-wise? Like I said, Evil Brain seems to be mostly aimed at children, so the horror angle isn't too pronounced. The two monsters look cool and could be kind of scary - besides the evil Mickey Mouse from the above picture, you have a woman with a kabuki/joker look who can shoot fire (you don't see it) - but they wouldn't really inspire any fear in anyone pre-teen or older. It *seems* like there could be some nasty stuff - the voice over guy talks about "a killing spree" over shots of an amusement park. I was like "shit! They are going to blow up a roller coaster! Or break the ferris wheel" So I was a little disappointed when the monster basically just makes one person pass out next to the merry-go-round. Likewise "killing everyone in their path with a virus" means one guy who dies while StarMan is talking to him. So again - not quite as crazy as promised.
But still, aside from the occasional dull spot, Evil Brain is just plain fun. Really, I've only seen movies like this before on MST3K, so it was kind of cool to see one un-riffed, as it were. I can't say I would recommend it to any of my friends... but my friend's 7-10 year old kids? Check it out!
I would recommend this film.
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