Search - The Brain Eaters on DVD

Content Advisory: Questionable for Children Movie Release: 1958 Format: DVD SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Studio: Direct Video Members Wishing: 4 Genres: Science Fiction, Horror, Sci-Fi Horror

When a mysterious cone, 50-feet tall by 50-feet across at its base, is discovered sticking out of the ground near the town or Riverdale, IL, a group of investigators from Washington, D.C., are sent in to determine its origins. They discover that various townspeople have been murdered, while others, including the mayor, have disappeared; and when they reappear, they're under some form of outside control. The interior of the cone seems to violate every known law of physics and, from somewhere inside, there emerges a horde of hideous, insect-like creatures that attach themselves to human bodies for purposes of taking control. The team soon finds itself overwhelmed by thane increasing number of humans under alien control, and not even close to finding out what these creatures want or why they're here. The Brain Eaters was adapted without permission -- or the knowledge of distributor American International Pictures -- from Robert A. Heinlein's novel -The Puppet Masters, and the makers were later forced to pay a settlement. The movie vanished from theaters but found a second life on television during the 1960s. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Ed Nelson - Dr. Paul Kettering
Alan Frost - Glenn
Jack Hill - Senator Powers
Joanna Lee - Alice Summers
Jody Fair - Elaine

It says something about the state of the video business in the world when a British concern can release a Region 2 disc of this hour-long 1958 low-budget U.S.-made chiller, complete with souvenir postcards and a bonus audio supplement of a lecture by producer/distributor Samuel Z. Arkoff, when there's not a hint of its showing up in America as a Region 1 disc. For those unaware, The Brain Eaters was an unauthorized adaptation of Robert A. Heinlein's -The Puppet Masters, made in 1958 as an offshoot of American International Pictures' drive-in movie-making operation. A settlement was paid and the movie withdrawn, but it was later reissued to television and, in retrospect, has enough chills to make it more than competitive with the authorized film The Puppet Masters, made for a lot more money several decades later. The transfer here is excellent, not only in terms of the image but the sound, capturing Tom Jonson's eerie music score perfectly, and the eight chapters are more than adequate for a movie that has the running time (and feel) of a long Outer Limits episode. Also, the Arkoff lecture is worth the price of the disc by itself. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide