Flashback Friday: The Brain Eaters

Welcome to Flashback Friday! Every Friday we pick a movie from the history of movies and we talk about it. It could be from last year or 50 years ago. Join us!

Have you ever watched a movie because the poster looked cool or the name seemed like something that would be fun? Of course you have, you’re a consumer of media. That’s what happened to me when I saw The Brain Eaters from 1958. The poster is freaking amazing and I was super into the name. Boy was I mislead.

The Brain Eaters starts with a voiceover of a man telling you that he and his girlfriend just got engaged and they were on their way to tell his father when something strange happened. Typical 50’s sci-fi stuff. There was a flash and when the couple investigates, they find a metal cone out in the woods.

Then it cuts to a very gruff man that we find out is a senator and he wants answers about that metal cone in the Illinois wilderness! He goes to the small town to demand answers and action. Seriously, he says this like five times in the movie.

When he gets there, he finds Dr. Kettering and his assistant. Where’s the mayor? Oh, he’s missing…and he is the man from the beginning of the movie’s dad. Shock. They haven’t been inside the cone yet so the good doctor goes in. He says it’s a spiral and it keeps just going back on itself. This is important so keep that in mind.

The mayor is found and before the group rushes to see him he is struggling with something and almost kills himself. Once the group gets there he is erratic and tries to kill the doctor. The doctor then kills him and during an autopsy they find out that at one time there was a parasite attached to his spine and once that parasite leaves the victim has about 24 hours before an acid kills them.

There’s a lot of filler that happens after this. The group tries to stop the parasites from taking over by going to the local radio station to try to get the military to help. The radio station is taken over by the parasites so it doesn’t work. It’s a whole thing.

Then a man is found, half dead by the cone. It turns out it is a former doctor that Dr. Kettering had in college. He and a professor went missing five years ago. Before the man dies Dr. Kettering tries to get more information out of him. This is where my favorite quote from the whole movie happens. The mayor’s son asks if he will live and Dr. Kettering says “No, but he’s going to, at least as long as science can make him”. The next scene is the doctor dying so…apparently not long.

This is where it really goes…places. So after a whole thing of them trying to get help, the woman that Dr. Kettering loves gets a parasite. This woman is also the mayor’s assistant but that’s not really important. So they go back to the cone and he is determined to save her even though he knows that once the parasite leaves the person dies. So they have this thing where he is like I will find a way to save you. Blah, blah, blah.

At some point the Doctor goes into the cone which now has a big room, remember what he said before? Where did this room come from? In it he finds the professor that has been missing. They talk about how the parasites are peaceful but they will attack if provoked. This professor is played by Leonard Nimoy. You can’t really tell it’s him though. I won’t tell you the ending but just know it’s very underwhelming. It was almost as if they didn’t know how to end it.

If you choose to watch this, you can watch it on Pluto TV and Tubi. I was very disappointed by the lack of actual brain eating. Oh, and the Misfits wrote a song called The Brain Eaters because of this movie. Just a little fun fact for you.