THE BRAIN EATERS (1958) ¢ 1/2
D: Bruno VeSota
Ed Nelson, Cornelius Keefe, Alan Jay Factor,
Joanna Lee, Jody Fair, Orville Sherman,
David Hughes, Henry Randolph, Leonard Nimoy
Parasites start to attack the good people of Riverdale, attaching themselves to the back of the neck and turning their victims into robotic zombies. Not only that: The parasites are organized, and they've got a plan. Can a tough-talking senator and a pipe-smoking scientist stop them before it's too late? The picture only lasts an hour, so it won't take long to find out. You never get a good look at the parasites, which are kind of like big cockroaches, except when they're hidden behind a lot of smoke and fog, and then you can't see them at all. That's just as well, since producer Ed Nelson apparently made them out of wind-up toys, pipe cleaners and pieces cut from an old fur coat. Also somewhere in all that smoke and fog is Leonard Nimoy, and you can't see him at all, either, but there's no mistaking Mr. Spock's voice. In a movie like this one, the pointy ears would not have helped.
