Man with the Screaming Brain

Man with the Screaming Brain (2005) starring Tamara Gorski, Ted Raimi, Stacy Keach, also starring and directed by Bruce Campbell.

The Rambo of B Movies directs his first film and it is a horror comedy. Campbell plays William Cole a rich American Industrialist who comes to Bulgaria to invest his money. He and his cab driver are murdered by a beautiful crazy gypsy, Tamara Gorski, and their brains are fused together and then placed into Campbells body. This is the foundation for creating a tale of freaky revenge and twisted comedy horror.

Now I know that this is supposed to be a Bö movie, maybe even a ôCö movie, so I gave it some leeway. By far the best part of the film is Bruce Campbell. His directing is competent and he knows how to tell a story. I would have to wonder with a bigger budget and perhaps a more Hollywood film crew could he have accomplished something a little bit better? ItÆs possible. The gem in this rough diamond of a ôBö horror movie is that Campbell does what made him so popular to begin with. He basically acts with himself and no body else. There are a lot of moments that invoke classic Bruce Campbell from the Evil Dead films. He is, after all, playing a guy who is talking to himself, fighting with himself, and throwing himself all over the place. So if you are a fan of Campbell and his movies you will enjoy the Man with the Screaming Brain.

Campbell brings into his film long time collaborator and friend Ted Raimi to play the dim witted inventor Pavel. He lets Raimi go wild and most of the times it distracts from the film. You would think that since Ted is the brother of Sam Raimi (director of Spider-Man, Evil Dead, and Simple Plan) he would know how to pull it back and give just enough to not go over the top. He doesnÆt and it hurts the film.

If you are not a fan of Campbell and do not enjoy the ôBö movie genre stay away. The film is extremely low budget and dull at times. There involves a subplot with CampbellÆs wife and a robot that is insulting to one intelligence or completely brilliant depending on your taste in movies. If you enjoy schlock horror movies this will probably amuse you. As for myself, a fan of the genre and a fan of Bruce Campbell, I was a little bored.