Review of Man with the Screaming Brain (2005) by Dan K — 04 Dec 2006

Incredibly disappointing. I'm a massive fan of Bruce Campbell but there's not enough here to warrant a second viewing. The basic idea is pretty groovy and there are some funny scenes of Bruce and Ted Raimi acting like spazzers but there is far too much emphasis on plot. Much of the time characters just stand around explaining rather dull background information to each other (or themselves).

The film could do with some really heavy editing. I got the feeling a lot of the script was just padding to get the film to 90 minutes. It takes Bruce and his wife 20 minutes to get a taxi to their hotel room! Not an especially captivating way to start a goofy sci-fi/horror comedy.

It kills me because Bruce wrote the film as well but the script really isn't very good. The characters are all one-note and the dialogue is dreadful (though that's half the fault of the awful acting, I guess). This could all be forgiven if it was a funny film, but it's not. There's just not enough jokes or ideas to fill the running time. Maybe it would make a pretty entertaining 30 minute TV show episode.

The Man With The Screaming Brain is a Sci-Fi channel movie and it looks like one. The lighting is poor even by TV's standards and the direction is pretty run of the mill stuff. The sets, too, are cheap and nasty, and not in a comical way because they're really rather bland to look at and all clearly constructed in the same warehouse.

It's meant to be cheesy and cheap and that's the problem. There aren't enough ideas to carry it. There are plenty of cult films that look like total shit and have the hammiest actors imaginable but that is NOT why people like them. The same way nobody liked Pearl Harbour even though it looked very shiny and professional. This movie isn't clever or stupid enough. It's very average and boring as bad movies go. Annoying or what?