Brain Dead
Two escaped convicts, a couple of attractive lost hikers, and a televangelist with car trouble and his pretty, young assistant, all stumble into a deserted fishing lodge, miles from civilization. Every single window is boarded up, and there's no sign of the fishermen who own it.
The convicts capture the others at gunpoint but are soon forced to put aside their differences and work together when they discover that the missing fishermen have been murdered and decapitated or turned into zombie-like brain-eaters by an alien goo, accidentally brought to earth within a falling meteorite.
As the zombies outside assault the lodge, the people inside realize that with no way out, the shelter they sought earlier may now become their final resting place.
Director's Notes
When my partner, Greg McKay, and I decided to form Prodigy Entertainment, we wanted our company's first film to be a fun and funny, over-the-top, politically-incorrect throw-back to the hard-core horror films of the '80's, using real-time make-up and gore FX, vs, the CGI FX that are so popular in today's studio horror films, although not so popular with today’s horror fans.
First, we needed a screenplay, and I knew just the one. Dale Gelineau, a friend of mine from U.S.C Film School, had written a script about a group of quirky, mismatched characters trapped in a deserted fishing lodge by a giant spider, stalking the surrounding woods. Although the set-up was frightening, the characters’ banter-like dialogue was quick and witty, as if the sit-coms CHEERS or FRIENDS had been melded with the film ARACHNOPHOBIA.
I knew our budget would never allow us to create a spider realistic enough to be effective, so we re-wrote the spider into a group of alien-infected, amoeba-controlled zombies, and the final draft was even better than we’d hoped. The screenplay was leaner and meaner as a Zombie Film.
Next, we got Gabe Bartalos to agree to do all of the Special Make-Up Effects. Gabe had worked with me previously on PINOCCHIO as well as having created Warwick Davis’ make-up for the extremely popular LEPRECHAUN franchise.
The finished film is an extreme, gory, cult, zombie, horror-comedy in the vein of EVIL DEAD, RE-ANIMATOR, and my own NIGHT OF THE DEMONS. So fasten your seat belts, leave your good taste at the door, and enjoy the E-ticket roller coaster ride entitled, BRAIN DEAD.
It's gotten great reviews...
Nivek Yennet — Tue, 04/29/2008 - 20:25From the director of Night Of The Demons and Witchboard, Brain Dead has already won 3 Best Film Awards, 3 Best Effects Awards, and 1 Writing Award at seven separate film festivals so far.
ICanSmellYourBrains.com says, "...This flick is almost guaranteed to have the theater rolling in the aisles, both cheering at the gratuitous nudity as well as shrieking at the super gory, head splitting, brain gobbling special effects; a rip roaring good time, not to be missed."
RogueCinema.com says it's, "...A treat for horror film fans to watch," while DeadPit.com Radio says, "...We can honestly say, we don’t think we’ve seen that much mindless and gratuitous splatter and gore since Dead Alive; fans of '80's horror films will wondercum all over this movie. Brain Dead kicks ass!"
Dorkgasm.com says, "...This was the first film I had the honor of seeing at this year’s [Michigan film festival], and boy, was it a doozy; this film [is] incredibly entertaining," while ScreamTV.net says, "...It's been a long time since I've had this much fun with a film; Brain Dead is a blast. Everything good about ‘80s horror flicks is here (the gore, the humor, the gratuitous female nudity) with none of the bad."
Worth a watch for sure!
Rowan Ashe — Wed, 04/30/2008 - 08:40I liked it. It reminded me a lot of early Peter Jackson.
Check your brain in at the door...
howard — Tue, 04/29/2008 - 22:04Real effects for once and not badly done CGI. Love the brain splittings and eye popping fun.