Someone mentioned editing. This is edited badly and what started out as somewhat intriguing became an incomprehensible mess. For starters, let us know what it is you are trying to do with these experiments. Why are these people the best choices for the type of experimenting they are involved in? And, what exactly are they testing? Apparently there is some grand plan that some agency is going to exploit. The acting is pretty bad. Everyone is emoting. Everyone is keeping secrets. They frequently mention that if it weren't for the money, they'd hang it up. There's a deranged minister who spouts scripture. On and on. But, again, the biggest hang up is the lack of laying out a playing field for the actors. There are some really cheesy elements. Those little rooms and those chaise lounges. The awful wallpaper (was it wallpaper?). It was interesting, but didn't seem to go anywhere.
32 Reviews
Rage against the Brain Machine...
Coventry2 June 2006
Ouch, what a painfully BORING Sci-Fi movie! And that's especially saddening because the opening 15 minutes were so action-packed and full of potential! During the intro, we follow a bunch of nervous security officers and hired hit men as they chase a doctor who escaped from a mysterious laboratory with a briefcase full of top-secret files. As he's about to reveal the supposedly horrible & inhuman events that take place in the lab, he's executed. Figures
From then on, the 'action' swifts back and forth between two locations, the aforementioned laboratory and the rural mansion of a corrupt senator (or something), and it quickly becomes clear that the experiments are actually the complete opposite of disturbing. More like dull, pointless and vague. Scientists selected four random persons without living relatives and it's really really really really important that they speak the truth even though a giant machine reads the content of their minds, anyway. They all hide dark secrets from their pasts and people suffer when get revealed; yet I fail to see how these tests could ever result in a humanity-threatening device. Perhaps I missed something, but I doubt it. The interactions between the patients and doctors are even less interesting to follow, as really none of them have personalities. So basically, "The Brain Machine" just handles about a bunch of lame people living in an awfully decorated room. The film also could have been half an hour shorter if it weren't for a THOUSAND stagnant shots of buildings! The relocations from the lab to the villa and vice versa are indicated EVERY SINGLE TIME by a five-second shot of the places. Either the makers really needed the padding or they just assumed that all Sci-Fi viewers are morons unable to notice a change of location by themselves. Staring at a forsaken pool with a mansion in the background for the tenth time in only five minutes becomes quite annoying, I assure you. James Best's performance as the reverend with mental issues is rather decent, but one man definitely can't save this thing from being an absolute waste of time. Avoid!
The Whole Truth and Nothing But
bkoganbing15 December 2011
After watching The Brain Machine in stages because I was fighting fatigue to complete this movie I'm still not sure of what I saw. Four people James Best, Ann Latham, Gerad McRaney, and Marcus Grapes all of whom have no close family volunteer to be paid lab rats for an experimental mind control machine. Two firm prerequisites for these people, no close family and they have to tell the absolute truth in that closed environment that they live in now.
Somebody should have told them to watch The Forbidden Planet and how those far superior Krells couldn't deal with monsters from the ID. My guess is that this top secret experiment was to develop some kind of ultimate interrogation machine. That's why so many sinister forces seem bent on achieving success with the experiment, however success is to be measured. The Brain Machine isn't really clear on what's going on.
The whole thing will leave you bored and confused.
Somebody should have told them to watch The Forbidden Planet and how those far superior Krells couldn't deal with monsters from the ID. My guess is that this top secret experiment was to develop some kind of ultimate interrogation machine. That's why so many sinister forces seem bent on achieving success with the experiment, however success is to be measured. The Brain Machine isn't really clear on what's going on.
The whole thing will leave you bored and confused.
Sheriff Rosco as you've NEVER seen him before!
joeblev6 March 1999
James Best (Rosco From "Dukes of Hazzard") plays an emotionally tortured clergyman who volunteers for a secretive government experiment in this tepid, badly-edited thriller. The other participants in the experiment are: a fat slob, a hillbilly woman, and a wimpy guy played by Gerald McRaney. They seem like normal (if annoying) folks at first, but they all have terrible secrets in their past. The government wants to put these people in something called the "E-Box," which looks like a big cubicle filled with lawn furniture. While inside, their darkest, most embarrassing memories are dredged up for the world to see. Of course, the experiment goes horribly, horribly wrong, and there's a lot of pain, suffering, and death in the last half hour of the movie. The rest is just a rather confusing series of scenes showing big office buildings and people in lab coats. There are about 372 shots of a swimming pool for some reason. If you love establishing shots, THIS IS THE MOVIE FOR YOU. They establish the HELL out of these scenes. The exact point of the experiment remains a mystery to me. Surely, there are cheaper and more efficient ways for the goverment to make people feel bad about themselves. So in summary, "The Brain Machine" -- rent it, won't you?
"Stay Away From Me, You Scientific B itch!"
Scott_Mercer30 July 2006
Warning: Spoilers
I hereby give this film a 5. It's not as bad as the other commenters would have you believe, but it's no masterpiece either.
The problem here really is that the filmmakers bit off far more than they could chew. I believe they had ambitions to make a high class sci-fi thriller with a bit of social commentary thrown in. Some great ideas under the surface here. But the people behind this film fell far short of their ambitions, with occasional awkward dialog, (yes) somewhat imprecise editing, and acting that's either too hammy or too underplayed. I am grading on a curve here: this was obviously a low budget production with great ambitions which did a decent job with limited resources.
The word "boring" used by other commentors, I feel represents a failed attempt by the filmmakers to build tension. The film as presented is confusing, but it is meant to be a somewhat complicated thriller, deciphered only after a bit of thought and perhaps more than one viewing.
I'll give you a brief synopsis of the plot as I have come to understand it. I think I have a handle on it, in spite of its confusing presentation. At a government research facility, some sinister things are happening. On the surface, they are performing benign research experiments. And the scientists that work there are in fact, benign.
But some shadowy figures are trying to hijack these experiments for their own means, without the scientists or their subjects knowing about it. These include "The General", possibly a CIA chief or similar, and his enabler, an unnamed Senator. A furtive guard at the facility (supported by various stooges) is their point man.
One of the scientists, Dr. Krisner, finds out about this infiltration. He takes off with documents that will prove the illegal infiltration, but he is killed in short order.
Therefore, the project is "tainted" and The General and his underlings cannot use this Doctor's work to test their own device: The Brain Machine, a mind control device designed to pacify enemy populations, or, more chillingly, our own citizenry here in the USA.
So, they move on to infiltrate "The E-Box" experiment, headed by Dr. Roth. Again, they will use this experiment for their own nefarious purposes without the scientists in charge knowing what is really going on. In this experiment, supposedly used as a simulation of the effects of overpopulation, four test subjects (selected by the fact they have no immediate family and each one has a horrible secret) are placed into a small room which will get smaller and smaller as the experiment goes on, and the subjects are grilled about their shameful secrets of their past, until they breakdown and confess. The importance of telling the truth, "the real truth" is mentioned over and over.
While this is going on, the sinister forces of The General, are installing and testing this "Brain Machine" on the subjects, to the confusion of the scientists and pain of the subjects. I should mention that this machine seems to work by remote control, so they are never in contact with the experiment, and are viewing the results by remote cameras. There's lots of yelling, screaming, fighting and accusations from the four subjects, and electrocutions. Each one of the subjects is also a classic stereotype: the questioning clergyman, the intellectual, the working man, and the blue-collar woman.
Though the IMDb lists a date of 1977, the film bears a copyright date of 1972. This puts the film clearly in a post-Altamont, pre-Watergate period of utter cynicism about the intentions of our government.
** SPOILER !! **
This bears itself out in the film's ending: every single one of the "heroes" are killed, their painful deaths easily swept under the rug by the unseen puppet masters. The "Brain Machine" is proved to work and is last seen on a truck headed for Anytown USA...maybe yours! Only during this short time period in American history (post Easy Rider, also, I might add) could such a "downer ending" be conceived and accepted. Then again, maybe today is the perfect time for a remake, with stories of domestic spying and political retribution in the air. Maybe The Brain Machine is not some stupid little B-movie, but a prophetic document with more to tell us about today than we even realize...
The problem here really is that the filmmakers bit off far more than they could chew. I believe they had ambitions to make a high class sci-fi thriller with a bit of social commentary thrown in. Some great ideas under the surface here. But the people behind this film fell far short of their ambitions, with occasional awkward dialog, (yes) somewhat imprecise editing, and acting that's either too hammy or too underplayed. I am grading on a curve here: this was obviously a low budget production with great ambitions which did a decent job with limited resources.
The word "boring" used by other commentors, I feel represents a failed attempt by the filmmakers to build tension. The film as presented is confusing, but it is meant to be a somewhat complicated thriller, deciphered only after a bit of thought and perhaps more than one viewing.
I'll give you a brief synopsis of the plot as I have come to understand it. I think I have a handle on it, in spite of its confusing presentation. At a government research facility, some sinister things are happening. On the surface, they are performing benign research experiments. And the scientists that work there are in fact, benign.
But some shadowy figures are trying to hijack these experiments for their own means, without the scientists or their subjects knowing about it. These include "The General", possibly a CIA chief or similar, and his enabler, an unnamed Senator. A furtive guard at the facility (supported by various stooges) is their point man.
One of the scientists, Dr. Krisner, finds out about this infiltration. He takes off with documents that will prove the illegal infiltration, but he is killed in short order.
Therefore, the project is "tainted" and The General and his underlings cannot use this Doctor's work to test their own device: The Brain Machine, a mind control device designed to pacify enemy populations, or, more chillingly, our own citizenry here in the USA.
So, they move on to infiltrate "The E-Box" experiment, headed by Dr. Roth. Again, they will use this experiment for their own nefarious purposes without the scientists in charge knowing what is really going on. In this experiment, supposedly used as a simulation of the effects of overpopulation, four test subjects (selected by the fact they have no immediate family and each one has a horrible secret) are placed into a small room which will get smaller and smaller as the experiment goes on, and the subjects are grilled about their shameful secrets of their past, until they breakdown and confess. The importance of telling the truth, "the real truth" is mentioned over and over.
While this is going on, the sinister forces of The General, are installing and testing this "Brain Machine" on the subjects, to the confusion of the scientists and pain of the subjects. I should mention that this machine seems to work by remote control, so they are never in contact with the experiment, and are viewing the results by remote cameras. There's lots of yelling, screaming, fighting and accusations from the four subjects, and electrocutions. Each one of the subjects is also a classic stereotype: the questioning clergyman, the intellectual, the working man, and the blue-collar woman.
Though the IMDb lists a date of 1977, the film bears a copyright date of 1972. This puts the film clearly in a post-Altamont, pre-Watergate period of utter cynicism about the intentions of our government.
** SPOILER !! **
This bears itself out in the film's ending: every single one of the "heroes" are killed, their painful deaths easily swept under the rug by the unseen puppet masters. The "Brain Machine" is proved to work and is last seen on a truck headed for Anytown USA...maybe yours! Only during this short time period in American history (post Easy Rider, also, I might add) could such a "downer ending" be conceived and accepted. Then again, maybe today is the perfect time for a remake, with stories of domestic spying and political retribution in the air. Maybe The Brain Machine is not some stupid little B-movie, but a prophetic document with more to tell us about today than we even realize...
Confusing and messy but I kind of like it
Red-Barracuda23 January 2014
While I watched The Brain Machine I thought I must be kind of dumb because I had to keep on rewinding it in order to follow what was going on. I thought it was pretty bad that I was having so much bother understanding an exploitation flick. But subsequently, I have read other reviews and discovered that thankfully I was not alone and it seems to be generally felt that this is one confusing sci-fi thriller. It's about a secret government sponsored experiment where four volunteers are put through a series of tests that cause them to relive dark psychological events from their past including murder and war flash-backs. That makes it sound relatively straightforward but boy it sure isn't. It's edited together in such a way that it's difficult following not only what is going on but also who is who. While it's never in the least bit obvious what the point of the experiment actually is in the first place. The Brain Machine itself is sort of vaguely defined, although lawn chairs with sensors do seem to be an important component of it. There is also a room in which the test subjects are located in which the walls shrink in, which is a way of testing the psychological consequences of overpopulation! It's so random and strange. We have good people and bad people but it's not always even obvious what their motivations are, so character actions are also somewhat eccentric to say the least.
But despite being very low budget and shoddily made, there is something consistently interesting about this film nevertheless. It's kind of endearing that a film with so little money and made for an exploitation audience is so ambitious. While it may not achieve its goals exactly, it falls short in an entertaining and intriguing enough manner. Its very incomprehensibility actually probably does it some favours too, in that you can watch this again and discover new aspects. Like a lot of 70's movies it has a paranoid thriller element, where the government are up to no good. The mixture of conspiracy film intrigue with science fiction works pretty well. It stars a couple of notable people with James 'The Dukes of Hazzard' Best a pervy priest and Stuart 'Russ Meyer' Lancaster as the Senator. I got to say I liked this one's clunky charm and while the story-line is messy, it was at least a little bit different. And that counts for quite a lot.
But despite being very low budget and shoddily made, there is something consistently interesting about this film nevertheless. It's kind of endearing that a film with so little money and made for an exploitation audience is so ambitious. While it may not achieve its goals exactly, it falls short in an entertaining and intriguing enough manner. Its very incomprehensibility actually probably does it some favours too, in that you can watch this again and discover new aspects. Like a lot of 70's movies it has a paranoid thriller element, where the government are up to no good. The mixture of conspiracy film intrigue with science fiction works pretty well. It stars a couple of notable people with James 'The Dukes of Hazzard' Best a pervy priest and Stuart 'Russ Meyer' Lancaster as the Senator. I got to say I liked this one's clunky charm and while the story-line is messy, it was at least a little bit different. And that counts for quite a lot.
With God as my witness - Get me outta here
manicgecko19 March 2006
I thought watching employment videos on corporate compliance was tedious. This movie went nowhere fast. What could have been a somewhat cheesy half hour twilight zone episode turned into a seemingly endless waste of film on people parking their cars, a picture of some dude's swimming pool (he really needs to answer his phone by the way) a dot matrix printer doing its job, and Heuy and Louey sitting in a yellow lighted control room repeating "T minus 10 and counting" as if something exciting is going to happen. It doesn't so don't get your hopes up. The best thing about this movie is to see James Best and Gerald McC, in something other than there famous TV personalities, and that is stretching to find anything good. And do NOT get me started on the music which was totally composed of a Tympani, some large marine mammals, and microphone feedback. This movie is as close as I have given a one yet, but it gets the 2 because I actually was able to finish this insomnia cure, and didn't have to leave in the middle. AVOID AT ALL COSTS.
A mind control/paranoia conspiracy theory 70's B-movie definitely worth a watch!
talisencrw21 April 2016
This is a low-budget 70's film which stems from the cinematic crazes of both the 'evilly-implemented mind control' ('The Manchurian Candidate' and 'The Ipcress File') and 'paranoia about government conspiracy' sub-genres that were fervently expressed in the Vietnam/Watergate era of American cinema. For me, growing up watching James Best as Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane in 'The Dukes of Hazzard', it was intriguing to watch him here, as a priest selected as one of 4 paid volunteers for an experiment supposedly run by the ECC, an environmental organization. It ends up that it's just a cover to test an experimental mind-control 'Brain Machine' that the U.S. government wants, in order to keep it's citizens in line, in the name of 'keeping social order'. Admittedly, when one of the directors says that the future is surveillance, I couldn't help but shudder at the parallels to society today, in this post-9/11 era. Unfortunately, the more time that passes, the closer these Orwellian cinematic views of civilization and its discontents come to mirroring the way life has become.
No spoilers, but the machine forces the person to tell the truth. Growing up, I have learned that honesty is not always the best policy. In fact, life has to endure the 'little white lie' in order to have things run peacefully. While no cinematic masterwork, this film more than suffices as Exhibit A for evidence. Definitely worth a watch, especially if you can handle 1970's, TV-movie-style filmmaking.
No spoilers, but the machine forces the person to tell the truth. Growing up, I have learned that honesty is not always the best policy. In fact, life has to endure the 'little white lie' in order to have things run peacefully. While no cinematic masterwork, this film more than suffices as Exhibit A for evidence. Definitely worth a watch, especially if you can handle 1970's, TV-movie-style filmmaking.
Worse than just a bad film...but a boring one as well.
planktonrules26 April 2021
"The Brain Machine" SHOULD have been an interesting movie. After all, it's about a top secret project where people are told they'd explore mind reading and memory. Of course, there's a darker reason for the experiment...but I was practically comatose from boredom so I really stopped caring after a while. This is because the film is very low energy, has some poor acting and really could have used some serious editing. Instead, it just goes on and on....and you keep waiting and HOPING something happens. Eventually, the subjects all go mad and start doing bad things...but it was frankly too late when the film actually picked up!
The most problematic thing about this film isn't that it's bad...but it's BORING and bad. Some bad films are so bad they're unintentionally funny and fun to watch. As for this one, nothing happens for so long that you have to force yourself to keep watching...which doesn't happen if you watch bad films like "Plan 9 From Outer Space" or "The Room". So, you'd never want to sit down with your friends and watch "The Brain Machine" to laugh at it....you'd just turn it off and find something else...anything else.
The most problematic thing about this film isn't that it's bad...but it's BORING and bad. Some bad films are so bad they're unintentionally funny and fun to watch. As for this one, nothing happens for so long that you have to force yourself to keep watching...which doesn't happen if you watch bad films like "Plan 9 From Outer Space" or "The Room". So, you'd never want to sit down with your friends and watch "The Brain Machine" to laugh at it....you'd just turn it off and find something else...anything else.
"Eternal surveillance is the price of liberty..."
classicsoncall19 April 2006
Warning: Spoilers
"The Brain Machine" will at least put your own brain into overdrive trying to figure out what it's all about. Four subjects of varying backgrounds and intelligence level have been selected for an experiment described by one of the researchers as a scientific study of man and environment. Since the only common denominator among them is the fact that they each have no known family should have been a tip off - none of them will be missed.
The whole affair is supervised by a mysterious creep known only as The General, but it seems he's taking his direction from a Senator who wishes to remain anonymous. Good call there on the Senator's part. There's also a shadowy guard that the camera constantly zooms in on, who later claims he doesn't take his direction from the General or 'The Project'. Too bad he wasn't more effective, he was overpowered rather easily before the whole thing went kablooey.
If nothing else, the film is a veritable treasure trove of 1970's technology featuring repeated shots of dial phones, room size computers and a teletype machine that won't quit. Perhaps that was the basis of the film's alternate title - "Time Warp"; nothing else would make any sense. As for myself, I'd like to consider a title suggested by the murdered Dr. Krisner's experiment titled 'Group Stress Project'. It applies to the film's actors and viewers alike.
Keep an eye out just above The General's head at poolside when he asks an agent for his weapon, a boom mic is visible above his head for a number of seconds.
You may want to catch this flick if you're a die hard Gerald McRaney fan, could he have ever been that young? James Best also appears in a somewhat uncharacteristic role as a cryptic reverend, but don't call him Father. For something a little more up his alley, try to get your hands on 1959's "The Killer Shrews". That one at least doesn't pretend to take itself so seriously.
The whole affair is supervised by a mysterious creep known only as The General, but it seems he's taking his direction from a Senator who wishes to remain anonymous. Good call there on the Senator's part. There's also a shadowy guard that the camera constantly zooms in on, who later claims he doesn't take his direction from the General or 'The Project'. Too bad he wasn't more effective, he was overpowered rather easily before the whole thing went kablooey.
If nothing else, the film is a veritable treasure trove of 1970's technology featuring repeated shots of dial phones, room size computers and a teletype machine that won't quit. Perhaps that was the basis of the film's alternate title - "Time Warp"; nothing else would make any sense. As for myself, I'd like to consider a title suggested by the murdered Dr. Krisner's experiment titled 'Group Stress Project'. It applies to the film's actors and viewers alike.
Keep an eye out just above The General's head at poolside when he asks an agent for his weapon, a boom mic is visible above his head for a number of seconds.
You may want to catch this flick if you're a die hard Gerald McRaney fan, could he have ever been that young? James Best also appears in a somewhat uncharacteristic role as a cryptic reverend, but don't call him Father. For something a little more up his alley, try to get your hands on 1959's "The Killer Shrews". That one at least doesn't pretend to take itself so seriously.
Dated 'scientific experiment' thriller is one of the dullest of its decade
Leofwine_draca6 November 2016
Warning: Spoilers
THE BRAIN MACHINE is one of those single location thrillers in which a group of voluntary participants come together in a research institute to take part in a scientific experiment, with horrifying results. It's not really a single location film all the way through as there are plenty of exterior scenes and padding that doesn't really add a whole lot to anything. I liked the way that the film's title and trappings attempt to bring in then-modern computer technology into the story even though computers have very little to do with what actually takes place.
This also happens to be one of the dullest films I can remember watching in recent months. Films made in the 1970s either tend to be really, really good, or really, really bad. THE BRAIN MACHINE falls into the latter category as it's just so cheap and amateurish in nature. The first half of the picture is all back story, set up, and exposition, and the second half is all tumult that just doesn't ring true. Add in plenty of histrionic acting and a generally dated feel and you have a film that's really not worth your time.
This also happens to be one of the dullest films I can remember watching in recent months. Films made in the 1970s either tend to be really, really good, or really, really bad. THE BRAIN MACHINE falls into the latter category as it's just so cheap and amateurish in nature. The first half of the picture is all back story, set up, and exposition, and the second half is all tumult that just doesn't ring true. Add in plenty of histrionic acting and a generally dated feel and you have a film that's really not worth your time.
Excellent plot
hms6630 December 2005
Unlike other commentaries, I found this film fascinating, even with all its faults and the zombie acting of some of the actors.
Being a technologist, I found that the experiments interesting and the hardware realistic. Although the reading of people minds via computer sounds fantastic, experiments are being conducted now to do just this. I will note that this experiments are in a very early stage, with results so far not favorable.
The characters in the movie are well cast. The girl, although overacting a bit, looks suitable dumb. The truck driver is a a ringer for real truck drivers. The minister conveys doubt at first, (The principal investigator tells the minister that him (the minister), is not sure whether he believes that God created man or that man created God. But the minute when the chips are down, he falls back on his faith. Only the PhD plays the zombie. The secrets that they harbor are suitably appropriate for their characters. In the face of death they react as real human beings would.
The movie is a warning against the dangers of unlimited surveillance by government. As strictly a thriller, the movie does not have enough thrills. As a scientific exercise with philosophical underpinnings it is fascinating.
Being a technologist, I found that the experiments interesting and the hardware realistic. Although the reading of people minds via computer sounds fantastic, experiments are being conducted now to do just this. I will note that this experiments are in a very early stage, with results so far not favorable.
The characters in the movie are well cast. The girl, although overacting a bit, looks suitable dumb. The truck driver is a a ringer for real truck drivers. The minister conveys doubt at first, (The principal investigator tells the minister that him (the minister), is not sure whether he believes that God created man or that man created God. But the minute when the chips are down, he falls back on his faith. Only the PhD plays the zombie. The secrets that they harbor are suitably appropriate for their characters. In the face of death they react as real human beings would.
The movie is a warning against the dangers of unlimited surveillance by government. As strictly a thriller, the movie does not have enough thrills. As a scientific exercise with philosophical underpinnings it is fascinating.
Some of the actors have probably forgotten they were in this movie
latherzap2 January 2003
I bought this (it was only $3, ok?) under the title "Grey Matter". The novelty of seeing Sherriff Roscoe in a non-DukesOfHazzard role intrigued me. As the other reviewers warned, it's a pretty boring tale of a top secret government experiment gone awry.
And yes, there are plenty of establishing shots, especially of a house with a pool in front of it. Some of the characters and interiors are so nondescript I guess the filmmakers worried we might forget who is who, so they keep tipping us off by first showing the outside of the buildings. It's actually kinda funny. After awhile the pool shot feels like a tv channel's station identification logo, reminding us that we are watching "Grey Matter".
I also enjoyed two bouts of name-calling. At one point an angry test subject taunts somebody in charge by calling her a "Scientific b*tch!". It's just a very inadequate insult. Several scenes later a different subject lets off steam by muttering about that "scientific b**tard!". It just sounded very awkward to me.
Someday this movie will disappear forever. Another decade from now it will likely be impossible to find any copies of it. Almost like it never happened.
And yes, there are plenty of establishing shots, especially of a house with a pool in front of it. Some of the characters and interiors are so nondescript I guess the filmmakers worried we might forget who is who, so they keep tipping us off by first showing the outside of the buildings. It's actually kinda funny. After awhile the pool shot feels like a tv channel's station identification logo, reminding us that we are watching "Grey Matter".
I also enjoyed two bouts of name-calling. At one point an angry test subject taunts somebody in charge by calling her a "Scientific b*tch!". It's just a very inadequate insult. Several scenes later a different subject lets off steam by muttering about that "scientific b**tard!". It just sounded very awkward to me.
Someday this movie will disappear forever. Another decade from now it will likely be impossible to find any copies of it. Almost like it never happened.
Painfully Boring...
WritnGuy-212 September 1999
I rented this as part of a weekly movie night with a friend of mine. We got this, "The Supernaturals," and "Blood Splash," also known as "Nightmare" or "Nightmare in a Damaged Brain." This was the worst of the three.
We got this under the name "Mind Warp," and decided to get it only because it looked like it could be okay. (Well, why else would we rent it?!) The story is pretty basic. Two doctors stick four people in an underground lab and start doing mental tests on them with these Star Trek computers. (Spare the constant "beep-beep...beep-beep" from the TV show.)
Nothing really happens. The film's first twenty minutes is about an escapee from the lab who has a file showing all that goes on. Apparently, these tests are pretty much illegal. He eventually gets caught and killed off. Then the four people (a war veteran, a priest, a girl, and some other guy) are tested on. It's all really boring until finally they all start going mad and either killing themselves, or each other, until the abrupt and pretty unsatisfying ending.
I say...avoid this. Really. It isn't very good at all. I found it in the horror section, and hopefully if you do, too, you will just pass it by. It has nothing to offer.
We got this under the name "Mind Warp," and decided to get it only because it looked like it could be okay. (Well, why else would we rent it?!) The story is pretty basic. Two doctors stick four people in an underground lab and start doing mental tests on them with these Star Trek computers. (Spare the constant "beep-beep...beep-beep" from the TV show.)
Nothing really happens. The film's first twenty minutes is about an escapee from the lab who has a file showing all that goes on. Apparently, these tests are pretty much illegal. He eventually gets caught and killed off. Then the four people (a war veteran, a priest, a girl, and some other guy) are tested on. It's all really boring until finally they all start going mad and either killing themselves, or each other, until the abrupt and pretty unsatisfying ending.
I say...avoid this. Really. It isn't very good at all. I found it in the horror section, and hopefully if you do, too, you will just pass it by. It has nothing to offer.
"You'll have to kill me before I die."
vonnoosh28 June 2012
I'm not sure what exactly led to the Sci Fi fixation of evil secret projects being launched by the government but the late 70's and early 80's flicks are FILLED with them. This era of Sci Fi created almost as many of these types of movies than the bomb did back in the 50's Much of those movies were quite bad, the same can be said about these types of films as well, to that, say hello to The Brain Machine AKA Grey Matter.
Much of what has been said about this flick has already been said so I'll summarize, The flick starts with a Robert Ludlumesque plot of a Doctor finding out some connection between the military and an environmental project. Once this slice of suspense is over (roughly 15 minutes in), the rest of the movie is just ending....
Brain Machine has some overlong skinpealingly boring scenes of doctors trying to get "the truth" from the volunteered patients. How someone telling "absolute truth" helps the environment(you know, pollution, overpopulation not emotional environment), I will never know and don't bother scratching your head about it. IT IS NOT WORTH IT!
The director, editor, maybe screenwriter, I don't know was absolutely obsessed with establishing shots of the clinic and the General's office. Interesting fact for fellow connoisseurs of bad movies, the General's house is the exact same house Peter Lawford's character uses in the Greydon Clark nonclassic (made famous by MST3K) Angel's Revenge aka Angel's Brigade aka Seven from Heaven. It is easy to make this connection because the viewer really gets a lot of long hard looks at buildings.
Aside from the padding, boredom, and confusing script, the dialog is REALLY goofy especially when the patients go in the "E-box" Things go wrong in there and an exasperated patient says things like "You scientific birdbrain!" followed by "You scientific bitch!", another patient follows suit with "You scientific bastards!" and my favorite "You'll have to kill me before I die!"
I recommend watching this movie if you got it like I did in one of those 50 movie budget DVD packs. You basically know what you're getting into when you buy those sets so enjoy the mediocrity and remember DO NOT TRY TO FIGURE OUT HOW TELLING THE TRUTH HELPS THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT! As Lewis Black once said about something similar to that "You'll end up having blood shoot out of your eyeball trying to figure that one out."
Much of what has been said about this flick has already been said so I'll summarize, The flick starts with a Robert Ludlumesque plot of a Doctor finding out some connection between the military and an environmental project. Once this slice of suspense is over (roughly 15 minutes in), the rest of the movie is just ending....
Brain Machine has some overlong skinpealingly boring scenes of doctors trying to get "the truth" from the volunteered patients. How someone telling "absolute truth" helps the environment(you know, pollution, overpopulation not emotional environment), I will never know and don't bother scratching your head about it. IT IS NOT WORTH IT!
The director, editor, maybe screenwriter, I don't know was absolutely obsessed with establishing shots of the clinic and the General's office. Interesting fact for fellow connoisseurs of bad movies, the General's house is the exact same house Peter Lawford's character uses in the Greydon Clark nonclassic (made famous by MST3K) Angel's Revenge aka Angel's Brigade aka Seven from Heaven. It is easy to make this connection because the viewer really gets a lot of long hard looks at buildings.
Aside from the padding, boredom, and confusing script, the dialog is REALLY goofy especially when the patients go in the "E-box" Things go wrong in there and an exasperated patient says things like "You scientific birdbrain!" followed by "You scientific bitch!", another patient follows suit with "You scientific bastards!" and my favorite "You'll have to kill me before I die!"
I recommend watching this movie if you got it like I did in one of those 50 movie budget DVD packs. You basically know what you're getting into when you buy those sets so enjoy the mediocrity and remember DO NOT TRY TO FIGURE OUT HOW TELLING THE TRUTH HELPS THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT! As Lewis Black once said about something similar to that "You'll end up having blood shoot out of your eyeball trying to figure that one out."
pretty odd - this is why we need commentary tracks!
FieCrier22 April 2006
I saw this on VHS under its AKA Grey Matter. Going into it, I wasn't sure what it was about, and having watched it I'm still not entirely sure.
There's a theft of files at a government research facility, and someone in an airplane turns around when he learns of the theft.
Four people participate in what they think is an experiment having to do with population control and pollution, or something. They're kept in uniforms in a room which will get progressively smaller to represent a growing population. The scientists in charge emphasize the importance of the participants telling the truth. It's clear they all have secrets.
Meanwhile, some things seem to be going wrong. A technician dies after touching a hose. Some of the cameras don't work. A guard is mysteriously sinister.
The computer begins asking personal questions, which the surprised scientists repeat to the participants. Sometimes while they're sleeping they appear to be electrocuted and have visions.
In the end, there's a television report in which a newscaster reports falsely on the study while two apparently powerful men watch the report on TV and comment on it.
There's a theft of files at a government research facility, and someone in an airplane turns around when he learns of the theft.
Four people participate in what they think is an experiment having to do with population control and pollution, or something. They're kept in uniforms in a room which will get progressively smaller to represent a growing population. The scientists in charge emphasize the importance of the participants telling the truth. It's clear they all have secrets.
Meanwhile, some things seem to be going wrong. A technician dies after touching a hose. Some of the cameras don't work. A guard is mysteriously sinister.
The computer begins asking personal questions, which the surprised scientists repeat to the participants. Sometimes while they're sleeping they appear to be electrocuted and have visions.
In the end, there's a television report in which a newscaster reports falsely on the study while two apparently powerful men watch the report on TV and comment on it.
LOW BUDGET BOMB
nogodnomasters10 June 2019
Warning: Spoilers
Except for a few anachronisms, this movie could have been made in the 1950s. The movie has some initial confusing scenes of apparent whistle blowers being hunted down. Note: If you are a scientist and want to hide in the woods, doff the white lab coat.
A computer experiments on people's minds. It can read their thoughts and send impulses to their brain. Four people volunteer for the experiment. The military is interested in the device so they can do domestic spying on the citizens, McCarthy era style. The military's computer ties into the brain machine to instruct the subjects.
The dialouge was bad. The music was the classic 1950's kettle drum drama style, used in B movies, which I love. The acting also left a lot to be desired and the special effects didn't materialize. Even when a guy gets shot, the fighting was behind bushes, you hear a gun shot and then there is a man with a splash of red paint on him laying on the ground.
The picture on the box has nothing to do with this movie. It might do well as an MST-3000 flick. Whoever burned this bomb to DVD owes me two dollars.
This is a scene where a woman is sleeping. A man slips into her room and unbuttons the top 2 buttons on her shirt!That is the pillar of the sexual content advertised on the box.
A computer experiments on people's minds. It can read their thoughts and send impulses to their brain. Four people volunteer for the experiment. The military is interested in the device so they can do domestic spying on the citizens, McCarthy era style. The military's computer ties into the brain machine to instruct the subjects.
The dialouge was bad. The music was the classic 1950's kettle drum drama style, used in B movies, which I love. The acting also left a lot to be desired and the special effects didn't materialize. Even when a guy gets shot, the fighting was behind bushes, you hear a gun shot and then there is a man with a splash of red paint on him laying on the ground.
The picture on the box has nothing to do with this movie. It might do well as an MST-3000 flick. Whoever burned this bomb to DVD owes me two dollars.
This is a scene where a woman is sleeping. A man slips into her room and unbuttons the top 2 buttons on her shirt!That is the pillar of the sexual content advertised on the box.
No-brain machine
Chase_Witherspoon4 March 2012
Dull and amateurish z-grade "thriller" concerns an apparently innocent mind experiment being hijacked by shady government interests to test a new brain control concept. Four voluntary subjects (Best, McRaney, Latham and Grapes) have their honesty tested by a trio of intrepid scientists (Collins, Burgess and Peterson) culminating in a population simulation experiment where they recline in fold-out chairs and conjure deep thoughts about a tumultuous event in their past - recollections that are being coaxed by the secret government brain control project, leading to catastrophic results.
Sounds innovative, exciting even - note to self, it isn't. The acting is abysmal, the frequent cut-aways of the pool by the mansion and tall grey building are so over-used they become distracting, and the dialogue is laughable. Poor Gerald McRaney had to start somewhere, and director Joy N.Houck, Jnr was his start. All's well that ends well. James Best can do little to redeem the picture with his morally conflicted priest, quivering and stuttering through a series of awkward admissions, and Latham and Grapes, well, their performances are staggeringly bad. Atrocious isn't a big enough word. Others come to mind.
Doesn't fit the "so bad it's funny" column, nor would it sustain many Gerald McRaney fans - it's difficult to find a reason to watch this movie, but I guess, one man's trash is another man's treasure so if you're terminally bored and up for anything, let the "Brain Machine" take control.
Sounds innovative, exciting even - note to self, it isn't. The acting is abysmal, the frequent cut-aways of the pool by the mansion and tall grey building are so over-used they become distracting, and the dialogue is laughable. Poor Gerald McRaney had to start somewhere, and director Joy N.Houck, Jnr was his start. All's well that ends well. James Best can do little to redeem the picture with his morally conflicted priest, quivering and stuttering through a series of awkward admissions, and Latham and Grapes, well, their performances are staggeringly bad. Atrocious isn't a big enough word. Others come to mind.
Doesn't fit the "so bad it's funny" column, nor would it sustain many Gerald McRaney fans - it's difficult to find a reason to watch this movie, but I guess, one man's trash is another man's treasure so if you're terminally bored and up for anything, let the "Brain Machine" take control.
Do you ever think about the brain? Obviously the writers didn't.
mark.waltz7 August 2022
Warning: Spoilers
This is one of the messiest, senseless science fiction films that I've ever seen, all about brain experiments on four people (one of them looks like Carol Burnett, the other Rob Reiner) of different backgrounds and the audience is stuck for 90 minutes to try to figure out what this is supposed to be about except a huge waste of time. Future TV actors James Best and Gerald McCraney cut their acting teeth early in their career with this convoluted and pretentious movie that takes dreariness to a new level of sanctimonious boredom. This is a film one can say much about other than it's a great cure for insomnia.
The Brain Machine
BandSAboutMovies3 November 2023
Warning: Spoilers
James Best, before he taught Tarantino and chased the Dukes. Gerald McRaney, before he was a Simon and was with Delta Burke. An ESP experiment gone wrong and well, a lot of talking. That said, it's very 1972 and looks every bit as dated as you'd imagine, so I saw that as a very relaxing place to spend time in.
Director Joy N. Houck Jr. Also made Night of Bloody Horror and Creature from Black Lake. He wrote this with Thomas Hal Phillips, who plays the General, and Christian Garrison.
I think this was a government experiment so that anyone who wanted to know about MK Ultra in 1972 would watch this movie and be bored into thinking that it's not worth caring about. It's like The Alpha Incident but somehow more boring, so imagine. Please just imagine. Actually, just do that. Maybe you don't need to watch it.
Hey - Cannon released it on home video in Germany.
Director Joy N. Houck Jr. Also made Night of Bloody Horror and Creature from Black Lake. He wrote this with Thomas Hal Phillips, who plays the General, and Christian Garrison.
I think this was a government experiment so that anyone who wanted to know about MK Ultra in 1972 would watch this movie and be bored into thinking that it's not worth caring about. It's like The Alpha Incident but somehow more boring, so imagine. Please just imagine. Actually, just do that. Maybe you don't need to watch it.
Hey - Cannon released it on home video in Germany.
A true turkey
dbborroughs13 August 2008
Warning: Spoilers
You know you're in trouble when the film your watching has numerous alternate titles. Generally it means that they tried and retried to hide the turkey in various markets. Such a turkey is The Brain Machine which has seven different titles.
Its about some super secret government project that is suppose to be able to use a computer to read people but instead it drives people to kill each other or themselves, or something like that. Its filled with B level TV actors sitting in paneled room with lawn chairs trying to act a script that makes almost no sense.
Its a turkey of the untastey kind. Avoid it.
Its about some super secret government project that is suppose to be able to use a computer to read people but instead it drives people to kill each other or themselves, or something like that. Its filled with B level TV actors sitting in paneled room with lawn chairs trying to act a script that makes almost no sense.
Its a turkey of the untastey kind. Avoid it.
and now for something at least somewhat different.........an impressionistic review of an impressionistic film
jonbecker0321 November 2010
"The Brain Machine" is one of those action films with relatively little action and lots of "filler" sequences between the action scenes. But that's OK in this case, because what we get is intriguing filler. At times endearing filler....entertaining filler....but above all intriguing filler. This is also one of those films in which you don't really know what's going on a good deal of the time, or even most of the time. And at times you don't even know who some of the characters are supposed to be (antagonists? PROtagonists? NEUTRALS??). But that's OK in this case, since what is on the screen is interesting even when it's incomprehensible. "Brain Machine" keeps your attention and gets you to think. I like the way Joy N. Houk, Jr. mixes "modernistic" and "postmodern" elements. The whole production, from a design point of view, has a "modernistic" orientation (obsessive use of the color blue in the decor, the appearance of abstract expressionist paintings as wall murals, the overall sleek and clean look, etc.). Yet the storytelling style and characterization are decidedly POSTmodern, i.e., ambiguous, amorphous, and ill-defined. "Brain Machine" tells the stories of a group of disturbed individuals living in a disturbed, uncertain universe. The film may be more than thirty years old, yet in some respects it is quite contemporary........
After some disconnected opening scenes
wes-connors5 April 2010
"Four people with distinctly different backgrounds all volunteer for an experiment involving mind-altering and manipulation. The volunteers all gather at a secret laboratory and are subject to a series of procedures that border on torture, including shock therapy and psychological torture. The final portion of the procedure involves the test subjects (being) exposed to an experimental device that alters the participants' minds through the exposure of their innermost fears and darkest secrets."
"As it seems to be with such experimental testing, something goes wrong with the procedure and the test subjects and scientists suffer the horrible results," according to the grammatically corrected DVD sleeve synopsis.
"The Brain Machine" aka "Gray Matter" looks so incompetent, it could be that nobody thought it was worth improving on a rough cut. It definitely receives an extra-awful star for the laughable "walls closing in" ending, and wrongheaded performances. Among some lesser-known players, "immortal" Gerald McRaney (as Willard "Willie" West) deadpans, "Kill me before I'll die!" and, wigged-out James Best (as Emory Neill) plays a molesting man-of-the-cloth. Ah, but, they are young...
** The Brain Machine (1977) Joy N. Houck Jr. ~ Gil Peterson, Gerald McRaney, James Best, Barbara Burgess
"As it seems to be with such experimental testing, something goes wrong with the procedure and the test subjects and scientists suffer the horrible results," according to the grammatically corrected DVD sleeve synopsis.
"The Brain Machine" aka "Gray Matter" looks so incompetent, it could be that nobody thought it was worth improving on a rough cut. It definitely receives an extra-awful star for the laughable "walls closing in" ending, and wrongheaded performances. Among some lesser-known players, "immortal" Gerald McRaney (as Willard "Willie" West) deadpans, "Kill me before I'll die!" and, wigged-out James Best (as Emory Neill) plays a molesting man-of-the-cloth. Ah, but, they are young...
** The Brain Machine (1977) Joy N. Houck Jr. ~ Gil Peterson, Gerald McRaney, James Best, Barbara Burgess
confused and unconvincing
myriamlenys18 August 2023
Warning: Spoilers
A handful of people - three men and a woman - have volunteered for a scientific project. They do not know that the project, supposedly an inoffensive study about environmental stress, has been hijacked. Neither do the scientists nominally in charge...
"The Brain Machine" plays around with interesting issues such as environmental pollution, unethical experimentation, mental manipulation, officially sanctioned murder of whistleblowers and so on. Unfortunately, it does not know how to develop or combine them. The resulting hodge-podge is unappetizing. A remarkably dull dialogue does not add any charm to the proceedings.
Some plot points make little sense, like one of the volunteers' belief (or non-belief) in his own mortality. Within the thrust of the plot this is about as important as the man's predilection for one or two lumps of sugar in his coffee. Finally the movie could have used more technical polish. For instance, there are times when a visible microphone intrudes on the action. A certain location is invariably introduced by the selfsame shot of a swimming pool, an umbrella and some kind of Indian-style building - you know the type, a pseudo-Taj Mahal built for vacation clubs and golf resorts. The swimming pool/umbrella/Indian building combo starts to irritate pretty quickly.
"The Brain Machine" plays around with interesting issues such as environmental pollution, unethical experimentation, mental manipulation, officially sanctioned murder of whistleblowers and so on. Unfortunately, it does not know how to develop or combine them. The resulting hodge-podge is unappetizing. A remarkably dull dialogue does not add any charm to the proceedings.
Some plot points make little sense, like one of the volunteers' belief (or non-belief) in his own mortality. Within the thrust of the plot this is about as important as the man's predilection for one or two lumps of sugar in his coffee. Finally the movie could have used more technical polish. For instance, there are times when a visible microphone intrudes on the action. A certain location is invariably introduced by the selfsame shot of a swimming pool, an umbrella and some kind of Indian-style building - you know the type, a pseudo-Taj Mahal built for vacation clubs and golf resorts. The swimming pool/umbrella/Indian building combo starts to irritate pretty quickly.
Some redeeming features
mikesrecords030 March 2007
Warning: Spoilers
This film is actually better than most commentators have suggested, if you approach it with the right viewpoint. The climax sequence is particularly well paced and interesting and, although a bit hard to follow (the characters themselves seem to share this confusion), actually has three competing influences effecting the experiment which involves 4 subjects- first the main actors at the lab are doing some type of environmental experiment, second the government interloper/conspirators are attempting to override the experiment with some mind control experiment of their own. Third, the computer "controlling" the experiment perhaps sensing this conflict seems to have ideas of its own and apparently goes haywire with everyone complaining about computer errors and their failure to achieve their desired ends. All three are entwined in a rapid fire climax that shows walls closing in, an attempted escape by the subjects, and a last minute attempted government cover-up (pre-watergate).
Perhaps the filmmakers were themselves disputing the type of movie plot they want in an on-the-fly improvisation with one faction wanting a government intrigue film and the other interested in some film about environmental ethics, computer malfunctions or whatever. If so, the film stands as a testament to their conflict and attempt for a resolution. Whether intended or not, the conflict presented is quite interesting. Loads of dramatic irony in this one.
All in all, a rather entertaining film. Mainstream movies are generally too slick and unwilling to experiment to be able to achieve this level of free wheeling improvisation.
Perhaps the filmmakers were themselves disputing the type of movie plot they want in an on-the-fly improvisation with one faction wanting a government intrigue film and the other interested in some film about environmental ethics, computer malfunctions or whatever. If so, the film stands as a testament to their conflict and attempt for a resolution. Whether intended or not, the conflict presented is quite interesting. Loads of dramatic irony in this one.
All in all, a rather entertaining film. Mainstream movies are generally too slick and unwilling to experiment to be able to achieve this level of free wheeling improvisation.
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