The Brain

The surreal and the utterly cheesy blend in this off the wall shocker, one of the weirder low budget ones to emerge from Canada in the 1980s. It has some interesting ideas, lightly touched upon, in this tale of a self-help guru / motivational speaker (David Gale of "Re-Animator" fame) who works hand in hand with a living, breathing brain to gain control of human minds. Likeable Tom Bresnahan ("The Kingdom") is an incorrigible high school student sent to to the gurus' base of operations who gets an eyeful of some very strange shenanigans.

If you're a fan of Gale, be forewarned that his role is really not that substantial, and that he doesn't get that much to do to cement his role as the story's villain. Fortunately, Bresnahan carries the movie reasonably well, and director Ed Hunt ("Bloody Birthday") keeps the whole thing rather amusing and fairly fast-paced.

Plenty of outre creature effects from the late Mark Williams ("Aliens", "The Fly" '86) help to make for a good show, as a couple of characters have close encounters with this alien brain, a very entertaining concoction from Williams with a face that only a mother could love. Add to that some partial nudity from Christine Kossak, who plays an assistant to our merry antagonist, and you have ingredients for a horror film certain to appeal to fans of 80s genre cinema.

Cynthia Preston ("Pin") is adorable as Bresnahan's leading lady, while George Buza ("Diary of the Dead") scowls and threatens adequately as Gales' thuggish associate.

As was said, if you're a lover of 80s horror, you'll likely regard "The Brain" as quite the hoot. As you can see from the poster art, it's pretty much impossible to take it very seriously.

Seven out of 10.