Brain Dead

"You have nothing to lose... except your mind."

1990 1h 25m EN

😐

5.6

MID

★5.6TMDB · 143

ThrillerHorrorScience Fiction

Synopsis

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In a battle of man versus machine, Martin, a top neurosurgeon who's studying brain malfunctions that cause mental illness, delves deep into his own mind to save himself from a megalomaniacal corporation.

“You have nothing to lose... except your mind.”

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Cast

Bill Pullman
Dr. Rex Martin
Bill Paxton
Jim Reston
Bud Cort
Jack Halsey
Nicholas Pryor
Man in Bloody White Suit / Ramsen / Ed Conklin
Patricia Charbonneau
Dana Martin
George Kennedy
Vance
Brian Brophy
Ellis
David Sinaiko
Berkovitch

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Adam Simon
Writers: Adam Simon, Charles Beaumont, Dimitri Radoyce
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

85 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $2.0M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

36 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Adam Simon, shot by Rohn Schmidt. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Carol Oblath shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Bill Pullman and Bill Paxton and Bud Cort carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "You have nothing to lose... except your mind.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0099173 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Adam Simon directs. Rohn Schmidt behind the camera. Carol Oblath cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

185 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.
2Shot for just $2.0M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
336 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
4Directed by Adam Simon, shot by Rohn Schmidt. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Editor Carol Oblath shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
6Bill Pullman and Bill Paxton and Bud Cort carry the top of the cast.
7Marketing tagline: "You have nothing to lose... except your mind.".
8IMDB entry: tt0099173 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
9Classified under 12 themes, including "showdown", "experiment", "nightmare", "insanity".

The technical file

Cinematography: Rohn Schmidt
Editing: Carol Oblath
Production design: Catherine Hardwicke
Costume design: Catherine Taieb
Makeup / hair: Angela Moos
Sound: Dennis Patterson
Stunt coordinator: Patrick J. Statham
Runtime: 85 min · 1h 25m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $2,000,000
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Brain Dead (1990)

Also by

Adam Simon

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Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2024-02-08
★ 5/10
"Dr. Martin" (Bill Pullman) is a renowned scientist who usually works in a room full of brains preserved in gelatine! Then he is tasked with actually applying some of his theorem and is to evaluate "Halsey" (Bud Cort). Now he used to be a very important mathematician before he became a bit of a paranoid schizophrenic. "Martin" concludes that it might be medically possible to carry out some surgery and restore his memories. This is manna from heaven for his ambitious corporate pal "Reston" (Bill Paxton) and their unscrupulous boss "Vance" (George Kennedy) so his plan is green-lit, and surprisingly successful. On leaving the office shortly after carrying one of his many jars, he is hit by a car and when he awakes he seems a bit different. His personality has changed. Even his wife "Dana" (Patricia Charbonneau) cannot recognise his personality as everyone around him thinks he's lost the plot - totally! He keeps seeing a man in a blood-spattered white coat and is convinced he is being manipulated and conspired against! What's going on? Is it what we think has gone on? The last fifteen minutes or so redeem this slightly in our search for an answer, but for the most part it takes a really flat ping at sci-fi horror delivering a weakly predictable story that ran out of steam quickly and permanently fairly early on. Pullman isn't really my idea of a good comedy actor and the constant vacillation between "dream" and "reality" from auteur Adam Simon ended up more wearisome and repetitive than entertaining. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood - but I struggled to engage with this and found it all just a bit banal.

Production companies