Brainscan (1994): Deep Cuts #22

Brainscan is a 1994 sci-fi slasher film, much in the vein of those 90’s wise cracking pun cracking Freddy Krueger wannabe killer films. I can remember watching this and being relatively unimpressed until the ending. If you’ve seen the film, the one thing you remember is the ending. At least, I think my old man memory is correct.  

Synopsis:

A teenager is part of an interactive video game where he kills innocent victims. Later, the murders become real. 

IMDb: 6.0 

Rotten Tomatoes: 13% 

Tagline: Goodbye Reality! Welcome Virtual Reality! 

This was at that time in the 90’s when Edward Furlong was the next great James Dean actor. The “it” kid. He had done T2, Pet Sematary 2, and this film, doing American History X in ‘98, and then his career would basically be over. His prima donna attitude on set was a turn off. His drug use was rampant. He apparently had a 6-year-old son that tested positive for cocaine while in his custody. You know, the usual Hollywood stuff. 

We meet The Trickster (T. Ryder Smith), who is the wise cracking host of the video game, and he encourages Michael to kill people. But when he does, he finds out that same person had died the same way in real life.  

The first person POV with the disembodied voice encouraging him to “Do it, what are you waiting for?” followed by gruesome and brutal stabbing and loud metal music, make for a disturbing watch. The black gloved killer is very giallo-esque and I had forgotten how stylish this was He even brutally cuts off his victim’s foot, leaving a bloody mess behind. And this is a 15-year-old high school kid acting out this fantasy!  

The movie was ahead of its time. Considering Igor, the rip off Alexa, and the online video game that is basically an immersive virtual reality simulator, it feels very current. Themes of becoming someone else through video games and the internet is not something that was prevalent in 1994, which is why it might not have connected with audiences back then. The kid who is all alone in his mansion, dealing with issues other people don’t particularly know or sympathize with, who turns to brutal murderous fantasies sounds like any story ripped out of today’s headlines involving a school shooting.  

We further the outcast themes here when he visits Kimberly in her bedroom and she explains that she has been doing the same thing he has been doing, watching and photographing him. This allows him to not feel so isolated and weird, being that someone else is just like him and cares in that same way. His feelings of being different are quelled, perhaps long enough to not murder anyone, but The Trickster, his Id, is his ultimate undoing. 

The music is completely 90’s. Remember that metal vibe that permeated our subconscious back then? It included White Zombie, Butthole Surfers, Mudhoney, and Primus, a who’s who of bands who had their moment in the sun. 

Trickster is annoying, and over the top. Admittedly, he is supposed to look like Alice Cooper, but he comes out looking more like an ugly hair metal lead singer in the vein of David Coverdale, with a hair sprayed long mane that would make the most feminine glam rocker blush.  

The special effects are reminiscent of Lawnmower Man in sections, but the gore and the kills are good.   

I enjoyed it. Trickster is an embodiment of 90s badness, but I feel he is a necessary evil for a subconscious voice in your head. The ending fits, and I am glad it ended the way that it did. The whole film is a metaphor for mental illness and escaping reality and your problems and acting out to the voices in your head. It’s better than you remember. It’s better than history will give it credit for. It deserves another watch. 

 6.5/10 Stab Wounds  

About RetRo(n) 84 Articles
I like the 80s, slasher films, Italian directors, Evil Ed, Trash and Nancy, Ripley and Private First Class Hudson, retro crap but not SyFy crap, old school skin, Freddy and Savini, Spinell and Coscarelli, Andre Toulon, and last, but not least, Linda Blair.