Directed by Chano Urueta
El barón del terror
A gritty, slow-burn horror film.
In 1661 Mexico, Baron Vitelius is executed for witchcraft. 300 years later, during a comet's return, he resurfaces as a brain-eating monster seeking revenge on the Inquisitors' descendants.
The Brainiac is showing in 1 cinema in Los Angeles - next screening Sunday 29 November at 17:00 at The Frida Cinema.
Next screenings: Sunday 29 November.
Full schedule
The Brainiac showtimes, refreshed every morning
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The Brainiac makeup is so fucked up and awful looking that it achieves an uncanny horseshoe effect and freaks you out the same way you'd be freaked out to see a man walking down the street with an eyeball dangling out of its socket by an ocular nerve. I can't even begin to imagine what sort of early 60s Mexican cultural anxiety this was a reflection of.
The Brainiac begins as a Gothic horror along the same lines as Black Sunday, as a Baron laughs and sneers his way through a trial by the Mexican Inquisition accusing him of various acts of heresy before he is burned at the stake - but not before he vows to return for revenge at the same time as the return of a passing comet. We then cut to three hundred years later and the film suddenly goes all fifties Sci-Fi b-movie on us as the comet brings back the Baron, but now he's a brain sucking monster from outer space! What a totally bizarre riff on two genres this film is. It's clear from the outset that director Chano Urueta didn't have much of a budget to work with. It's obvious from the flames and the comet, and then becomes even more obvious when the monster appears. It's a lovingly crafted but thoroughly ridiculous man in a rubber suit with a floppy tongue to suck brains with. Despite the rampant silliness, the film pretty much plays it straight for the most part. The bulk of the plot consists of the Brainiac picking off various descendants, while some astronomers try to work out why the comet went missing and the police investigate the deaths. It's not super startling stuff, but really the monster and the premise is more than enough for the film to ride on and at under eighty minutes, The Brainiac doesn't outstay its welcome.
If you’ve spent your life searching for the most impossibly grotesque 20th century monster next to the turkey-headed killer in BLOOD FREAK, the search is over. In THE BRAINIAC, a reincarnated baron appears in mid-century Mexico City to destroy the ancestors of his enemies . . . by sucking out their brains. Literally. An unforgettable combination of artful gothic mood and outrageous camp, BRAINIAC is not of this Earth on a number of levels. But that feeling is mostly due to the presence of the title creature—a hairy wererat who wears a dinner tuxedo and uses his three-foot-long tongue to eat the brains of victims. (Joseph A. Ziemba)
A nobleman executed for witchcraft in colonial Mexico returns 300 years later during a comet's passage to exact vengeance on the descendants of his inquisitors.
The film was directed by veteran Mexican filmmaker Chano Urueta and released in 1962.
Full schedule on Mood.
