Brain Dead

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<B>Director...........Adam Simon (</B><I><B>Body Chemistry 2, Carnosaur</B></I><B>)</B></div> <div> <B>Screenplay.....Charles Beaumont & Adam Simon</B></div> <div> <B>Music..............Peter Francis Rotter</B></div> <div> <B>Producer........Julie Corman</B></div> <div> <B>Executive Producer.....</B></div> <div> <B>From the story by Charles Beaumont</B></div> <div> <B>Special Make-up Effects by Barney Burman & Rob Burman</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Dramatis Personae</B></div> <div> <B>Rex Martin......Bill Pullman (Serpent and the Rainbow,Sleepless in Seattle)</B></div> <div> <B>Jim Reston......Bill Paxton (Boxing Helena, Near Dark, Predator 2)</B></div> <div> <B>Jack Halsey.....Bud Cort (Die Laughing, Harold and Maude, M*A*S*H)</B></div> <div> <B>Dana Martin.....Patricia Charbonneau (Call Me,Desert Hearts,Shakedown)</B></div> <div> <B>Ramson Conklin..Nicholas Pryor (Hoffa, Night Terror, Risky Business)</B></div> <div> <B>Vance.............George Kennedy (Creepshow, Airport, Naked Gun)</B></div> <div> <B>Ellis................Brian Brophy (Skinheads)</B></div> <div> <B>Berkovitch......David Sinaiko </B></div> <div> <B>Sacks..............Lee Arenberg</B></div> <div> <B>Brain Surgeon...Andy Wood (The Annihilators, Ghost Warrior))</B></div> <div> <B>Crazy Anna......Maud Winchester </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Critique</B><B>: Too bad we can't make any title jokes, this is an intelligent film, perhaps too much so. When we see the street person insisting that Martin's got his brain, and Martin's feeling suddenly punch drunk afterward, we begin to wonder. The identity mixups are well done. As the self assured if somewhat insular Dr. Martin begins to doubt his memories and perceptions, Patricia Charbonneau does an excellent job as Halsey, and George Kennedy again proves his versatility as the scary Vance. Note that the "8" on Martin's door is always falling sideways into an infinity sign. Eunice also has an infinity sign as its logo. Naming the all pervasive agency Eunice is of course a conspiracy play on the mulinational conglomerate "Beatrice" which does exist, but as far as anyone knows, only manipulates thought by the legal means of advertising. Who is the man in white covered with blood pursuing Martin? </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Plot Summary: A research assistant maps the facial muscles from a disembodied brain by stimulating nerve endings. A brain in a vat falls to the ground as he goes to retrieve a brain from the shelves. Doctor Rex Martin has a very personal relationship to these brains, as though they are still alive. Martin's friend, Reston, an officer of Eunice, says he lost "Halsey" and "the numbers". Halsey was a mathematical genius who is now at Lakeside, a mental institution owned by Eunice. He butchered his family and plead insanity. Reston claims to Martin that Halsey is paranoid and thus he came to Martin because Martin knows more about brain disorders than anyone. Dr. Martin goes to meet Halsey. Halsey is very nervous about a man named Conklin. Halsey claims he's been expecting Martin. Halsey says he is just an accountant for Conklin mattresses, though Eunice was his wife's name. He says to work with equations is too dangerous, it could bring about the end of the world. Martin does a brain map and locates the paranoia in a dysfunctional part of the brain. Very impressive. Reston insists that Martin operate on Halsey. When Martin demurs, Reston suggests that it could be worse: Martin could be the patient and Halsey the doctor. Martin leaves the clinic with a brain in a vat and a street person insists that Martin has his brain. In the struggle, the street person is hit by a car and the brain (that of James Raftery, schizophrenic) falls to the ground. A colleague, Ellis, has taken over Martin's lab. Ellis' grant has been doubled. As they leave, all the brains are pulled off the shelves. Then Martin's with his wife and it appears he's being forced from his lab was all a dream. The next day, Martin goes to Halsey and asks him if he can operate on him. Reston tries to seduce Martin further with promises of riches if he gets the info from Halsey. Halsey is then in the operating theater with his brain opened up and Martin tests various areas while Halsey is still awake (though he hallucinates a number of different scenes including being interrogated by his murdered family.) Martin continues applying probes to Halsey. The operation seems to have been successful as Halsey admits he is a mathematician, though he doesn't want to say anything about the numbers. As Martin is being congratulated he seems to think that he can see a bleeding man from one of Halsey's hallucinations. Clearly, there's more to this than meets the eye. Martin seems quite concerned. As Martin starts to leave, he realizes that he had switched wallets with Halsey earlier and his only identification is Halsey's and his money is token money. He thinks someone is following him, but it's just his wife, Dana. As they sit at dinner he thinks he sees the bloody man from the hallucination, but it's just a diner. Rex begins acting strangely as Vance (Kennedy) and Reston join them at dinner. It seems he blows the deal with Eunice. Next he sees the bloody man in the white suit again and rushes out of the restaurant. As he drives he is haunted by the hallucination. When Martin arrives, he sees Reston with his wife having sex on the table. He sees the man in the white suit then kill Reston. They both lie dead, naked on his table. A man comes to the door and he finds the murder weapon is in his hand. He wakes up in Lakeside, muttering that he didn't do it. The doctor in charge is the bloody man n the white suit. The doctor says it is progress for Martin to think that someone else killed them. The only way we can deal with those thoughts are to think that someone else did them. When Martin fights back, he is sedated. The doctor suggests that Martin has fragmented into a part called Halsey, Martin's patient. But the truth is, Martin is Halsey. He shows Martin the accounting materials on his desk. Martin is brought to an office that he knows is on the eighth floor of the Beaumont building recognizes as his own. Martin's Ph.D was from Miskatonic university. However, when the doctor opens a blind, it is clear they are not in the Beaumont building. Reston comes in as an administrative accountant and says that Martin was Conklin's prize accountant, and they need something from him. He gets away, and has some encounters with patients. Some of them hallucinatory. The doctor prescribes electroshock. Halsey shows up in Martin's room, having already been operated upon. Martin then has (an hallucination?) that his eyes were poked out. Halsey tells Martin that they told him that they were the same person as well. His wife and Reston arrive and look down at him, as Martin, apparently disembodied, watches as well. It appears the auto accident was worse than Martin thought. Soon Martin falls from a precipice and it begins to appear someone is having brain surgery--is it Halsey or Martin? Martin then returns to his office and everything looks fine--perhaps it was just a dream. But unfortunately there are mathematical formulas on the blackboard and it's Halsey's office. The colleague who had taken over his lab then calls him Halsey and notes that he hasn't seen him in a while. Martin hurries out of the building which turns out to be a Eunice building. Reston and the doctor there. Unfortunately, Conklin is the doctor and he is from Eunice security. Martin is then in an operating theater. Reston tries to get "the right side of the equation" from him. Vance urges that they simply burn out the core. He wakes up in surgery, and it appears that he is indeed Dr. Martin the neurophysiologist. Martin is head bandaged and sees Halsey--it appears he's another doctor. Martin pulls the top of his head off. It appears the operation was a failure. Reston draws his wife away as the operating room is cleaned up.</B></div> </td> </tr></table></body>