The Brain From Planet Arous (1957)

A strange alien ship crash lands in the California desert, bringing a terrifying evil intelligence from another planet whose mission is to conquer the world using subversive mind control. Wonderful Atomic Age entertainment with floating brains, telepathic possession, atom bombs and a scientist whose eyes can destroy planes in mid-flight, plus a sex-starved alien brain monster with lustful desires for beautiful leading lady Joyce Meadows, who delicately refuses its advances with a meat ax. Not to be missed!

no budget , just right

gloriously seat-of-ones-pants filmaking with infinitesimal funding and grand aginst type turn . AGAR and the FX crew have a field day with their respective gifts and provide ample laughter , charm and thrills . accept no substitutes . bask in the festivities and emerge smiling broadly . September 8, 2008

A NO-BRAINER!!!

It doesn't get any better than this! Camp cult favorite John Agar stars in his best 50's sci-fi role ever, that of Gor-possessed Steve March! He's nice and bland and bad and dangerously over-the-top all in the same movie. He blows up planes and test sites laughing insanely to the delight of every hardcore fan of campy schlock!
Produced by cinematographer Jacques Marquette this film has much in common with his ATTACK OF THE 50FT. WOMAN, produced the same year and no doubt shot back to back. Both feature the same locations, even the same shot of the car in the opening of 50FT. appears in BRAIN when Sally (Joyce Meadows) and her father drive into the desert to investigate where Steve and Dan(Robert Fuller) disappeared for a week. Both films were directed by Nathan Juran (as Hertz). And both films even feature some rather risky kissing, lurid and sexy!
John Agar, my favorite 1950's sci-fi/horror actor (my God, he was in almost everything!)is perfect as the alien controlled victim, finally getting to play opposite his straight-arrow image in so many of these films (TRANTULA, MOLE PEOPLE, ATTACK OF THE PUPPET PEOPLE,etc.), and he really appears to be enjoying it as well!
A classic of it's kind THE BRAIN FROM PLANET AROUS has to be seen to be appreciated...or at least believed.
Once Gor is defeated and killed and Steve March reverts back to his good ol' self, he certainly has a lot of explaining to do to the Army brass who saw him destroy planes and kill people at random...." I really didn't do it, you see I was taken over by this floating alien brain from the planet Arous and he made me kill all those people!!!"
...Great stuff. June 22, 2008

Brain Revisited

The last time I saw this movie, I was a kid, maybe 8-10 years old, living in Canoga Park, CA. As frightening as I remember it being as a child, it is equally, by contrast, hysterical today. Just love those cheesy 1950's special effects. Pay particular attention towards the end of the movie, when you can clearly see the wire that the "bad brain" is being suspended from!!
All in all, a must see for the science fiction nostalgia buff like myself! November 22, 2007

The Decade of Schlock

There's something about schlocky 50s movies that sets them apart from the
rest. Let's face it, ever since man captured images on film, we viewers
have been subjected to low budget gems, which are quickly forgotten and
rightly so. With the introduction of the atomic age, the space age plus
the troubling social phenomenon, juvenile delinquency, the bargain basement films produced in the decade of the 50s, takes a sharp turn from
the conventional formula of earlier efforts, produced on shoe-string bud-
gets and targeted for similar audiences.

What emerges from these social and technological developments, is a genre
here-to-fore unknown. What's astonishing about these movies, is that what
would normally be panned, is now praised but not for the intended reasons.
The Brain From Planet Arous is a prime example of a picture never intended
to generate laughs, yet audiences for the past fifty years have done lit-
tle else. Think of it. Has anyone ever turned away in horror from a hid-
eously distorted face seen through a water cooler? Or how about any claims of a conscious contact with a higher power when John Agar offers
Barstow or Victorville to Joyce Meadows, in the "Temptation of Christ"
scene? As for Steve March's randiness, if you're not transfixed on the
suspension wires, notice the deficiencies of Gor's (the villain brain) an-
atomy. It becomes clear why he's so content in the human form. As for
Val (the hero brain), well that's another story, you know how rude dogs
can be.

This movie is a pleasure to watch, every time I see it. I recommend it,
and hope you enjoy it half as much as I do. Have fun! October 14, 2007

The Brain from Planet Arousal!

Well, if you are an empath, you'll enjoy this film. Empaths, in case you didn't know, love getting inside of others, wanting to be able to feel how others feel and feel how they think. This film, in my view, builds from that premise of soul to body consciouness and body to body transfer of the soul's yearning to experience other personality types other than its own.

The premise of this movie is real simple: A "bad" or "evil intentioned" brain, named "Gore", from the planet Arous, flees to the earth, to escape judgement for his crimes done on his own world. This brain is able to "phase shift" its atomic structure so it can enter into an organic body while taking control of it. However, every 24 hours it must take on its organic form to breathe oxygen, making it vulnerable or mortal, otherwise it is immortal in its phase shifted, spiritual state of existence. When Gore takes over John Agar's character, Gore discovers the pleasures of the earthly flesh and makes many an attempt to come onto his wife, Jane Meadows, which is why I entitled this "The Brain from the Planet Arousal". The "come ons" are very toned down by today's standards, but no doubt if this was ever updated, allot more would be showed if the story were ever remade.

Anyway, back to the plot. Enters in the "good" brain named "Vol", sent to retrieve Gore and take him back to Arous for his punishment. Until Vol can trap Gore out of the human body he has taken possession of so he can be destoyed, Gore works his plans for world dominance over the earth. The whole film is great actually, including the optical effects for its day; that is until the final scene of the film where you see the wires holding Gore up in the room, while the scientist, whose body was inhabited by Gore, tries to kill Gore with an axe.

The whole ending is a real dissappointment which is why I only gave the movie 4 stars, not 5. You go from this real serious movie to out right hysterics when you see the wires holding up the "materialized" Gore brain in the room. If more had been done to better resolve the final scene in this film, this would have been a sci fi classic in my view, perfect in every way, otherwise the rest of the movie is very well done, both in premise and execution.

It certainly is worth anyone's time to view for the sake of the first 95% of the film. Its almost a total empath's delight to view this film, except for the final scene at the end. September 2, 2007

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