Brainiac (El Baron Del Terror) Review

In a fit of raging hyperbole the front cover of CasaNegra’s new release of Brainiac declares the film “The most bizarre horror movie. Ever.” Which it isn’t really, but it has built and maintained a loyal cult following lasting better than forty years now on the strength of its strangeness alone and that’s saying something. And for fans of classic B movies this edition is pretty much a required item, giving this favored B-film strictly A list treatment.

We begin in 1661, the Baron Vitelius standing trial before Mexican Inquisitors on charges of heresy and experimentation with the black arts, among other things. The Baron scoffs and leers his way through the trial, his impertinence earning him the most severe penalty possible: he is to be burnt at the stake that very night. But things do not go as planned at the burning. The fire is lit but the Baron feels no discomfort, instead calling out each of the hooded and supposedly anonymous Inquisitors by name swearing that he will return in three hundred years to have his vengeance by destroying each of their family lines. He then simply disappears, apparently hitching a ride on a passing comet.

Skip forward to 1961, the comet of three hundred years previous about to make a return pass. The comet falls to earth and a strange creature emerges – a hairy, pincer handed, bulbous headed beast with a long forked tongue with which it bores two holes in the back of a passing victim’s skull and sucks out his brain. The creature then resumes human form as the Baron and sets off on a quest to track down the descendants of his tormentors. The remainder of the film involves numerous brain suckings, said removed brains spooned out of a chilled dish and consumed as a delicacy, more painted backdrops than you can shake a stick at, hilariously rigid seductions, and – finally – flame thrower wielding police.

Brainiac is by no means a good film but it is precisely the right kind of bad one, and very likely deliberately so created by a cast and crew with a great deal of experience in serious horror fare. Highly stylized with the aforementioned backdrops – there’s nary a real exterior shot to be found in the film – a creature designed with no attempt at realism, in jokes scattered throughout the script, and the producer cast in the only villain role he would ever play in his career, this has all the markings of a film made by talented people who simply felt like slumming it a bit for laughs.

Production values are quite good for a low budget film of this era and the DVD presentation is excellent, the transfer struck directly from newly restored film elements. Presented in its original 4:3 ratio and completely uncut it’s safe to say that the film looks as good, or more likely even better, than it would have projected during its original theatrical run. As is standard with all CasaNegra and Panik House release the menu system and features are fully English / Spanish bilingual, the film included both the original Spanish audio with optional English subtitles plus the 1969 English dub. The commentary track is in English with optional Spanish subtitles. Also included are a quality essay that sets the film in context, an ‘Interactive Digital Press Kit’ originally created by an online fan, the original US release radio spot, biographies and stills.

CasaNegra continues to impress both with the quality of their releases and their ability to dig up lost Mexican classics. This begs the question: any chance of a masked wrestler line?