“The incredible Space-Brain invades a human body with its destructive evil power!”
Nuclear physicist buddies Steve and Dan head off to the aptly named Mystery Mountain to investigate strange radioactivity waves that have been unsettling their trusty Geiger Counter. What they discover, buried inside the oh so mysterious mountain, is a 10ft high Space Alien Brain, named Gor, who kills poor Dan and promptly possesses Steve, heading back to town in his body, hell bent on taking over the world like some Evil Communist Bastard™ or something…
Made hot on the heels of fellow “Space Monster in the Mountain” feature, It Conquered the World, Nathan Juran‘s Brainsploitation B-Movie goes one step further than the normal Sci Fi flick by making Tarantula‘s John Agar the unwilling host (sorry, “dwelling place”) of a floating cerebrum, turning him into a rapey, glass-eyed fiend along the way. And if that wasn’t enough, his girlfriend Sally’s dog George has to be taken over by Vol – a “brainy” intergalactic bounty hunter of sorts, who is chasing after the criminal masterMIND, Gor.
Yes, you read that right – a “heroic” alien brain has to possess a fucking dog in order to save the world from a “bad” alien brain that’s gone and possessed a fucking scientist! Ha! Incredible!
BRAIN BEAST!
The Brain from Planet Arous truly takes things to the next level of what the fuckery. I mean, gigantic, detached brains that hover around and convince the first people they come in contact with to give up their bodies in order to wage an intellectual war with each other? Come on!
Sally and her Dad go along with Vol’s plan, but it doesn’t prevent Steve blowing up a plane with his eyeballs, making frequent seedy advances on his knowing girlfriend (“I can give it to you, believe me!”), killing the town sheriff OR making incredibly suspicious remarks about “rivalling Hiroshima” at the planned local Atomic Bomb testing event…
BRAIN DOG!
Anyway, Poochie Vol knows that Gor’s main weakness is the bit of his oversized brain (the fissure of Rolando, didn’t you know?) that is exposed when he comes out of Steve for some air, and that’s when he’s preparing to pounce.
Beyond the oversized brain that possesses a dog, and the oversized brain that possesses a scientist, turning him into a rapist creep hell bent on world domination, The Brain from Planet Arous could be considered standard (ultra paranoid) 50s fayre. Except, of course, the whole “dog brain rapist possession” thing makes that completely impossible. How could anyone in their right mind (!) NOT enjoy this?!
Of course, good wins out and full blown Atomic catastrophe is narrowly averted. Steve takes an axe to Gor’s hovering cerebra and the safe, domesticated ideal of the pleasant, normal American way of life is restored. Steve is returned to his wholesome nuclear physicist ways and no one (not least his poor girlfriend) so much as bats an eye lid at his recent murderous rampages, overly aggressive come-ons or weird looking eyes…
Juran’s film has to be considered the high water mark in Brainsploitation. It’s completely cuckoo and bags of fun. The 50s saw plenty of batshit alien invasion pictures, but few had the bollocks to be quite as barking as The Brain from Planet Arous. Best of all though, so far as I can deduce at least, no dogs were actually harmed during the making of this film…
