It's not a good start. The nice art direction in the opening scene loses its allure in the face of an astounding, wholly unnecessary amount of dialogue, a verbosity that quickly elicits laughter. Yes, that opening scene sets up the remainder of the plot, yet even setting aside all the dialogue, it further suffers from weak pacing that kills what mood it could have had; ten minutes feel absurdly long. Sadly, neither the script nor the pacing really improve. It's possible that I'm being too harsh, and that these facets aren't truly any worse here than they are in other contemporary fare; on the other hand, perhaps one feeds into the other here. Meanwhile, this was released into the world just barely out of the 50s, which weren't exactly known as a golden age for genre flicks, and one should perhaps grant some allowances for a low budget and modest presentation. Why, look at Roger Corman - he made a lot of titles much like this, and some of them were surprisingly good! Be that as it may, the effects and costume design are, shall we say, highly variable in their quality, and the sound design and use of audio are wildly inconsistent; the phrase "dead air" comes to mind, even though it commonly applies to broadcast radio. So much here leaves a lot to be desired.
'The brainiac,' originally released under the name 'El baron del terror,' isn't particularly great. There are some splendid ideas underlying the story, and the horror facet is distinctly more vibrant here than in many, many other features of the same timeframe. A lot of the craftsmanship contributed from behind the scenes is perfectly solid. These qualities, however, can't compete against weak scene writing, poor dialogue, flagging direction, woefully imbalanced audio, and performances that range from unremarkable to overdone. Quite plainly, it's hard to have fun here, not least as no few scenes seem to be drawn out just to pad the length. Moreover, for as straightforward as the premise is, and easily understood - the antagonist has a clear, defined intent - the violence in the first half is just pointlessly random and wanton. (Unless we are to suppose that all of "present-day" Mexico is descended from the baron's enemies?) Frankly, the writing is just outright thin: in granting Vitelius apparent status in the present-day, seemingly from out of nowhere; in spending a scene in the latter half rehashing what transpired in the opening scene; in the basic (failed) effort to construct a cohesive, compelling narrative.
Yes, there are some splendid ideas underlying the story. There is more value here than can be said for no few pictures of the 40s, 50s, and early 60s. That isn't necessarily saying very much, however, and to be honest the shortcomings in this instance are more numerable and more noticeable than its strengths. For all that there is to appreciate in 'The brainiac,' there is at least as much and surely more to criticize; the enjoyment to be had is minimal, and marked with an asterisk. Watch if you want, I won't stop you, and may others get more out of it than I have. With so many other movies to watch, however, there's no real reason to spend time here, and I rather regret doing so. I see what it could have been, had more care been taken, but "could have been" does not make for a satisfying viewing experience.
'The brainiac,' originally released under the name 'El baron del terror,' isn't particularly great. There are some splendid ideas underlying the story, and the horror facet is distinctly more vibrant here than in many, many other features of the same timeframe. A lot of the craftsmanship contributed from behind the scenes is perfectly solid. These qualities, however, can't compete against weak scene writing, poor dialogue, flagging direction, woefully imbalanced audio, and performances that range from unremarkable to overdone. Quite plainly, it's hard to have fun here, not least as no few scenes seem to be drawn out just to pad the length. Moreover, for as straightforward as the premise is, and easily understood - the antagonist has a clear, defined intent - the violence in the first half is just pointlessly random and wanton. (Unless we are to suppose that all of "present-day" Mexico is descended from the baron's enemies?) Frankly, the writing is just outright thin: in granting Vitelius apparent status in the present-day, seemingly from out of nowhere; in spending a scene in the latter half rehashing what transpired in the opening scene; in the basic (failed) effort to construct a cohesive, compelling narrative.
Yes, there are some splendid ideas underlying the story. There is more value here than can be said for no few pictures of the 40s, 50s, and early 60s. That isn't necessarily saying very much, however, and to be honest the shortcomings in this instance are more numerable and more noticeable than its strengths. For all that there is to appreciate in 'The brainiac,' there is at least as much and surely more to criticize; the enjoyment to be had is minimal, and marked with an asterisk. Watch if you want, I won't stop you, and may others get more out of it than I have. With so many other movies to watch, however, there's no real reason to spend time here, and I rather regret doing so. I see what it could have been, had more care been taken, but "could have been" does not make for a satisfying viewing experience.