BRAIN OF BLOOD (1971) ** ½

 

(ARCHIVE REVIEW:  ORIGINALLY POSTED  JAN. 14^th, 2008)

Eddie Romero’s shot-in-the-Philippines “Blood Island” trilogy made a buck for somebody back in the USA during the late ‘60s, so the producers wanted another film for the franchise.  They were too cheap to go back to the Philippines to film it, so instead they hired director Al (Blood of Dracula’s Castle) Adamson to helm it in his own backyard for $12.  The results are somewhat of a mess, but it’s still one of Adamson’s best movies. 

A dictator of a fictional country (Reed Hadley) dies and his sons (The Incredible Shrinking Man’s Grant Williams and Zandor Vorkov) hire a mad scientist (Kent Taylor from The Mighty Gorga) to perform an illicit brain transplant to save his life.  The first step is naturally to wrap his corpse head to toe in aluminum foil like a baked potato; then Taylor sends out his hideously deformed assistant Gor (John Bloom) to get a (unwilling) donor body.  After Gor drops his potential patient from a fire escape and fractures his neck, Taylor decides to put the dictator’s brain into Gor’s body, which complicates things with his fiancée (Regina Carrol, the director’s wife).  There’s also a subplot involving Taylor’s midget assistant (played by who else, Angelo Rossitto) who keeps women chained up in the basement, a great flashback where a bunch of rednecks pour battery acid on Gor’s face, and some pretty memorable and messy brain surgery scenes. 

Taylor is pretty great as the demented doctor (he was in SIX Adamson movies altogether), but the rest of the cast (most of whom appeared in Adamson’s Dracula vs. Frankenstein) is uneven to say the least.  I guess that’s to be expected when you cast your wife and friends in your movie instead of experienced actors.  The goofy premise and funky performances will keep you snickering, but it’s Gor’s get-up that receives the most laughs.  The make-up is positively awful and he resembles a close cousin of the monster from The Brain That Wouldn’t Die; and just like that monster, you can see the actor’s hair showing through the bald cap. 

Brain of Blood loses points for its slapdash storytelling and erratic editing, but ironically, it’s one of Adamson’s more coherent efforts.  It moves along at a steady pace, and if you have a high tolerance for Adamson’s ineptitude, you’ll probably find yourself in Bad Movie Heaven. 

AKA:  Brain Damage.  AKA:  The Brain.  AKA:  The Creature’s Revenge.  AKA:  The Oozing Skull.  AKA:  The Undying Brain.

 

NEW REVIEW:

BRAIN OF BLOOD  (1971)  ** ½

After re-watching Brain of Blood, I reread this old review and realized it pretty much already summed up my thoughts on this one.  Because of that, I don’t really have a whole lot to add.  One thing I did notice this time around is that I liked the brain surgery scenes even more.  They’re gory, gooey, and ludicrously drawn out.  Unfortunately, the rest of the movie is drawn out too, just not in a good way.  On this viewing, the assorted subplots, including the stuff with the chained women in the dungeon, Gor’s backstory, and the political maneuverings associated with the surgery went over like a lead balloon.  Things eventually pick up in the third act, just not enough to put it over into *** territory.  Still, the heights are just high enough to rank this as the best movie on the box set so far. 

Also, the performances are among the best found in any Al Adamson film.  Williams makes for an appealing lead, Rossitto is a lot of fun to watch, and Carrol shows she’s a little more than just “the director’s girlfriend” (as I callously referred to her twelve years ago).  The movie really belongs to Kent Taylor as the demented doctor.  No matter the film’s flaws, whenever he’s on screen chewing the scenery, Brain of Blood is a ghoulish delight.

Another note worth mentioning is that the transfers on the box set have been gorgeous from top to bottom.  Sure, many of the elements for some of the movies were damaged beyond repair, but the care in which Severin was able to pick up the pieces and put them back together (especially on The Female Bunch) has been nothing less than stellar.  They really outdid themselves on Brain of Blood as the picture has never looked better.  Even though it’s nearly fifty years old, there are some scenes that look like they could’ve been filmed yesterday.  The gory operation scenes particularly pop, with every drizzle of blood and pulsating brain tissue looking as fresh as the day they were created.