Man With The Screaming Brain
Alright knuckleheads, get ready to scream your brains out!
Not long ago, I was able to attend one of the few public screenings of Bruce Campbell's directorial debut film, “Man with the Screaming Brain". The screening was attended by Campbell himself, who did one of his legendary Q & A sessions before the film. Campbell was hilarious, of course, cutting loose with all the sarcasm and insults that fans have come to love and expect. It may come as no surprise to those who have read the recent “Man with the Screaming Brain" comic books (published by Dark Horse Comics, which liberally adapt the film) that the Q & A wound up being the highlight of the evening. The “Screaming Brain" film, made exclusively for the Sci-Fi Channel (that should be the first red flag), is slow to get going, but is ultimately amusing in its own over-the-top low budget design. Shot in garish Bulgaria on an apparent shoe-string, I can safely say that the $12 admission fee is probably the most money I've ever spent to see a film this cheap. (Here, the average cost of seeing a full price screening is around $8.00.) Perhaps I'd have a higher opinion of the film if it hadn't cost quite so much money to see (I fully expect to see the upcoming DVD selling for less money sooner than later), or maybe I'm just a cheapskate who's gotten too used to free press screenings. Whatever the case, Campbell fans will not want to miss this one, although there is probably precious little here for the rest of the world.
For his long-in-the-making first feature (you can read all about the aborted early attempts at making this in his first book, “Confessions of a B-movie Actor"), Campbell perhaps wisely directly exploited his established reputation by erring on the side of cornball stupidity and nonsense. As if starring, directing, and producing weren't enough, Campbell also co-wrote this hokey curiosity (along with David M. Goodman). He plays an arrogant American pharmaceutical mogul whose business trip to Bulgaria goes horribly wrong when he is unexpectedly murdered by a knife-wielding Gypsy looker. His body is recovered by a mad scientist and his requisite dopey assistant (played respectively by Stacy Keach, who must've owed Campbell some serious favors, and Ted Raimi, who Campbell claims he likes because he makes his own acting look subtle by comparison), and brought back to life sharing a brain with a former tough-guy KGB operative who was killed by the same woman. The conflicting personalities argue and bicker, pulling the body in multiple directions, thus providing Campbell the chance to prove he can still do the zany physical comedy we got know and love him for. One may assume that the conflicting ideologies of the capitalist businessman and the communist KGB op would be a major point of the story, but one would be wrong, despite the fact that the pre-brain surgery first half-hour very much point to that being the case. By the end of the film, the man with the screaming brain must find the woman who killed him (them?), and save his marriage to a spiteful, aging trophy wife who end up becoming the dippiest looking robot in movie history. (And that's coming from someone who's seen “Judge Dredd"!)
In the theater lobby, they were hawking all manner of “Man with the Screaming Brain" merchandise, including t-shirts, comics, and pricey collectible busts. On the way out, it occurred to me that if they sold everything on that table for the prices they were asking, they would probably make up a third of the film's budget. Campbell had to fight like heck to get this made, and although its cheapness overwhelms all else most of the time, he does prove himself a competent director of this material. Acting-wise, Campbell plays his specialty – an arrogant prick turned screwy, highlighted by the times he beats himself stupid on camera. Keach makes a convincing mad scientist in an otherwise altogether unconvincing movie, and Antoinette Byron does a good job as the bitter wife-turned-robot. (And for those who've seen the comics, do not expect the robot to look the same. There's no gleaming silver android in this movie. More like someone doing “the robot" in a bargain-basement jumpsuit, mask, and wig. Yes, the brain-transplant robot keeps her original hair.) It's Ted “Rhyme Throwah" Raimi's forced, loopy performance that almost hurts to watch. With all the kooky abandon of someone who's happy to be on a free trip to a foreign country and in an old friend's screwy movie, Raimi hams it up right down to his ill-fitting sideways ball cap and his groan-inducing Snoop Dogg “izzle" talk. But longtime fans of the actor shouldn't be surprised; this is just the type of niche filmmaking in which he can indulge his shameless tendencies.
Last year, I worked on another Bulgaria-centric Sci-Fi Channel production that did principle photography in my hometown. Throughout the entire disheveled production, every potential Ed Wood-ian gaffe was met with the answer, “we'll fix that in Bulgaria" (in post). That surefire classic has yet to air, but between that experience, and Campbell's baffled exclamation for why he had to transform an L.A. centric script into a middle-eastern former Communist setting, I still have no idea what Sci-Fi's fascination is with that country. I mean, it can't be THAT much cheaper to send everyone and everything over there to shoot – can it?? The setting did “Screaming Brain" no favors, that's for sure. But whatever the case, Campbell did an ace job, considering the limitations of the location, not to mention his own script. I'm sure the legions of Bruce Campbell fans have already got the movie's airdate and DVD release date marked down. It's no “Evil Dead II", but it's no “Maniac Cop", either. Fans will find sufficient fun in “Man with the Screaming Brain", even if it doesn't leave them exactly screaming its praises. At least the DVD commentary is sure to be a lot of fun. Maybe I just should've waited for that…
- Jim Tudor
