Friday, November 12, 2021

The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962)

An incredibly bizarre and sleazy horror film. Top surgeon Bill (Jason Evers) is in a car accident with his girlfriend Jan (Virginia Leith). As she lies dying in a burning car he... decided to cut off her head and then run to his secluded house where he is conducting twisted medical experiments. He manages to keep Jan's head alive and now he seeks a new body for her.



Despite the fact Jan has only a limited time left, Bill seems in no hurry to secure a new body. Indeed, he fancies an upgrade and cruises sleazy clubs looking for a suitable body and even a beauty pageant! Finally, he finds the suitable body in the form of a model, Doris (Adele Lamont) and takes her to his home. But things are going wrong in the lab. Jan has gained a kind of psychic power and directs the mutant beast Bill keeps locked away (the result of earlier experiments that did not quite go to plan) to kill Bill's assistant Kurt (Leslie Daniel). Then when Bill prepares to cut off Doris' head, the mutant (Eddie Carmel) breaks out of it's cell and wrecks havoc!

A low budget and low rent film. Shamelessly exploitative, including a scene where two strippers have a fight on the floor. It is macabre, pretty evil and rather cheesy. It isn't that good either, the film is a little too weird to be a trash cult classic and rather too dark at it's core. However, it should be experienced at least once.