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Brain Dead

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5.7/10 • 114

1990-01-161h 25m

ThrillerHorrorScience Fiction

You have nothing to lose... except your mind.

In a battle of man versus machine, Martin, a top neurosurgeon who's studying brain malfunctions that cause mental illness, delves deep into his own mind to save himself from a megalomaniacal corporation.

Directors
Adam Simon
Editors
Carol Oblath

Top Billed Cast

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  1. Bill Pullman

    Bill Pullman

    Dr. Rex Martin

  2. Bill Paxton

    Bill Paxton

    Jim Reston

  3. Bud Cort

    Bud Cort

    Jack Halsey

  4. Nicholas Pryor

    Nicholas Pryor

    Man in Bloody White Suit / Ramsen / Ed Conklin

  5. Patricia Charbonneau

    Patricia Charbonneau

    Dana Martin

  6. George Kennedy

    George Kennedy

    Vance

  7. Brian Brophy

    Brian Brophy

    Ellis

  8. David Sinaiko

    David Sinaiko

    Berkovitch

  9. Lee Arenberg

    Lee Arenberg

    Sacks

Reviews1

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CinemaSerf Avatar

CinemaSerf

Feb 8, 2024

5/10

"Dr. Martin" (Bill Pullman) is a renowned scientist who usually works in a room full of brains preserved in gelatine! Then he is tasked with actually applying some of his theorem and is to evaluate "Halsey" (Bud Cort). Now he used to be a very important mathematician before he became a bit of a paranoid schizophrenic. "Martin" concludes that it might be medically possible to carry out some surgery and restore his memories. This is manna from heaven for his ambitious corporate pal "Reston" (Bill Paxton) and their unscrupulous boss "Vance" (George Kennedy) so his plan is green-lit, and surprisingly successful. On leaving the office shortly after carrying one of his many jars, he is hit by a car and when he awakes he seems a bit different. His personality has changed. Even his wife "Dana" (Patricia Charbonneau) cannot recognise his personality as everyone around him thinks he's lost the plot - totally! He keeps seeing a man in a blood-spattered white coat and is convinced he is being manipulated and conspired against! What's going on? Is it what we think has gone on? The last fifteen minutes or so redeem this slightly in our search for an answer, but for the most part it takes a really flat ping at sci-fi horror delivering a weakly predictable story that ran out of steam quickly and permanently fairly early on. Pullman isn't really my idea of a good comedy actor and the constant vacillation between "dream" and "reality" from auteur Adam Simon ended up more wearisome and repetitive than entertaining. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood - but I struggled to engage with this and found it all just a bit banal.

Media

  • Brain Dead poster
  • Brain Dead poster
  • Brain Dead poster

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Status
Released
Original Language
English
Budget
$2,000,000.00
Revenue
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Keywords
showdownexperimentnightmareinsanitymanmachinesavecorporationlobotomymegalomaniacalchaoticmind