The Brain that Wouldn't Die (1962)

16 January 2020

I think I originally saw this film on Mystery Science Theater 3000 ("Wouldn't die, or couldn't die?"), which is not a good sign. But in any case, yeah this isn't a very good film. The basic plot is a surgeon's love interest gets decapitated and killed, and the surgeon takes it upon himself to try and get her head onto a new body.

The film took on a cult hit status, though I don't really see why. It was listed on Prime Video as Comedy, Horror, and Science Fiction, although it didn't do any of it very well. I think maybe there's some situational humor but I didn't find anything in the acting very humorous. The horror is dated, and although some of the effects aren't terrible for the time period there wasn't anything new. The science fiction part was mainly the idea of organ transplants, but the contentious aspects that come up in modern similar stories (animal testing, ethics of organ harvesting, cloning) actually go somewhere in other films. This film with it's eh acting and ill-paced story makes a relatively short film (1h22m) feel like it takes forever. If you want awful B-movie horror films for Halloween this may be a good fit though. 4/10