May 5, 2010

Brainwaves (1983)

Written by K-Fleet

If you live in the world of only Region 1 DVDs, then you’re really missing out. I recently purchased multiple region-free players for older friends of mine who have yet to make it into the internet age, and the list of DVDs for me to pick up for them grows by the day. While many of these movies are either out-of-print or have yet to be released here in the states, Europe, Asia, and the UK have them aplenty. So, for under a hundred bucks, you can enjoy better prints of your favorite movies presumed to be lost on DVD format, or if you’re a hi-def high roller, a multi-region blu ray player will only set you back a few hundred, if not less. Quite a small price to pay for boundless entertainment!

As my purchases for them start rolling in, I'm taking time to watch some before passing them to their rightful owners. My first feature, although a Region 1 from Image Ent, but now out-of-print, was Ulli Lommel’s Brainwaves. This thing screams 80’s straight-to-video b-horror in sound, body, and picture quality, but did get some airtime on HBO back in the day. Some of you may be familiar with Ulli’s more recent films: BTK Killer, Diary of a Cannibal, Green River Killer, and Black Dahlia (all available from Lionsgate). Most of these are crap, but offer boobs and violence in place of coherent storytelling. While I liked Green River and BTK, I usually steer far away from anything Lommel does, because I know I'll regret the hour and a half I wasted on subpar cinema (which sadly, I do often), and Brainwaves is no different, as it appears that he has yet to hone his talent, even decades later. Sure, if you’re a fan of bad movies, then Ulli’s your man, but other than boobage, I couldn’t justify another reason why I continued to watch this film.

The premise is simple, another organ transplant gone awry. In this case, a chick gets hit by a car, busts her head on the windshield, and is rushed to the hospital. Unable to come out of a coma, a new procedure is used to help her regain consciousness, the brainwaves of a recently deceased person. But, it’s a murder victim’s brain that is used, so the transplatee has dreams of the grisly death (death by boombox in a bathtub) over and over. Based off her flashbacks, her husband becomes quite the detective and figures out the whole thing, but the killer has come back to finish off even the memory of what he’s done, only to meet his own demise (but possible rebirth as a future organ donor).

This is totally intended to be watched on VHS, and can be picked up on Amazon for under $5 (and that's with shipping). Sadly, the DVD has a MUCH higher ticket, but looks like a VHS transfer, so blow the dust off your VCR if you can't seem to fight the urge to buy it. I’m sure this is one of those titles that sparked curiosity while sitting along side other horror VHS box art, but sadly, it doesn’t even live up to what it suggests. Yet another case of the misleading marketing team winning. Next on my list is Death Spa, which has yet to get an official U.S. DVD release, but the PAL version is rather enticing, even if the movie is straight garbage, as it focuses on only a portion of the original coverart, which is a classic.