Beast From Haunted Cave/The Brain That Wouldn't Die

Customer Reviews:

A Corman produced quickie and the great "Jan in the Pan".......2005-07-20

I rarely comment on the print quality of a film, so that when I tell you "Beast From Haunted Cave" is in sad shape, you need to know that it is pretty bad if I am actually inspired to complain. The audio track bothered me even more than the picture quality, because I was having a hard time understanding what the characters were saying for most of the film, but since I did not especially care it was not a great loss. This 1959 film is a quickie produced by Roger Corman and is the first credit for Monte Hellman ("Two-Lane Blacktop") as a director. Filmed during winter at a ski resort in South Dakota, the story is about a group of thieves whose big plan is to cover their robbery of gold with a bomb exploding in the mine, but end up tangling with a monster.

Frank Wolff is Alex, the head of the gang, with Sheila Carol as his hard drinking moll Gyspy, and Wally Campo as Byron and Richard Sinatra as Marty, the dimwitted henchmen. Michael Forest, who will go on to some small measure of fame as the god Apollo on the original "Star Trek," is Gil Jackson, the local ski instructor who is hired by the gang to take them on a cross-country ski trip to an isolated cabin where a ski plane will show up and fly the gang and the gold to Canada. But the plan gets off track when Marty takes Natalie (Linné Ahlstrand) the barmaid to a cave (in winter) for some hot action while he sets up the bomb (otherwise he could find a more comfortable place for the desired hot action). Marty discovers a strange egg and then Natalie is attacked and killed by a strange beast. Is it an insect? Is it an octopus on dry land? What IS that thing? Driven from its cave by the explosion, the Beast (now "Formerly from Haunted Cave") trails the gang on their trek and starts picking them off.

You will have no problem figuring out which two people will be left alive at the end of this one, although you might be surprised when suddenly the movie is over. The acting is not bad for this kind of film, and if they did a better job of blending together the disparate types of music in this one it probably would not seem as tacky. It would still be nice not to have a problem understanding what everybody is saying and maybe there are better prints of "Beast" out there that would justify giving it higher marks.

When it comes to gloriously bad movies you are not going to find anything besides Ed Wood's "Plan 9 From Outer Space" that is on the same level with "The Brain That Wouldn't Die" (a.k.a. "The Head That Wouldn't Die", which is the better title because we are talking an entire head not just a brain). Dr. Bill Cortner (Jason call me Herb Evers) is unhappy with the outdated surgery practice by his father, Dr. Cortner (Bruce Brighton), who warns him about higher laws and other nonsense. Bill has a fiancé, Jan Compton (Virginia Leith), who keeps talking about how she cannot wait for them to get married. So when they are in a car accident he rescues Jan's head and takes it back to his private laboratory. There his assistant, Kurt (Leslie Daniels), who has a transplanted arm that has not exactly taken from one of Bill's earlier experiments and who also rails against the doctor's plan to find his fiancé (now the infamous "Jan in a Pan") the perfect body. Bill only has 48-50 hours (you have to love the specificity) to come up with a new body and heads for the nearest strip club. When that does not pan out (hehehehe) he starts stalking women on the street and finds his way to a Beautiful Body contest. But Bill will accept nothing less than the best for Jan and that ends up being Marilyn Hanold, Playboy Playmate of the Month for June 1959.

Meanwhile, Jan would rather be dead than just be a detached head; besides, she has some questions about the soundness of the whole procedure, which she discusses with Kurt. The rest of the time she carries on a one sided conversation with whatever is on the other side of the bolted door in the basement (Kurt will not let the cat out of the bag, but we know it is pretty bad and that it is another result of Bill's insane desire to play god). In the bloody climax of this film, the situation comes to a head...

Oh, you just cannot have too much fun at the expense of this film. Director Joseph Green and producer Rex Carlton came up with the story, and you have to admit that any movie that combines a talking disembodied head, a monster behind a locked door, and exotic dancers is a movie that is going to be made. The dialogue and the strong sexual subtext are what really stand out in this film. It is amazing that the actors could say some of these lines with straight faces. It is very easy to read this film being all about lust: Jan is ready to make Bill very happy and when he is left with just her head he insists on getting what is clearly an even better body so that they can consummate their destiny.

Also included on this double-featured DVD are trailers for both of the films plus Corman's "The Little Shop of Horrors," with a Popeye cartoon for intermission. Obviously I think everybody should experience "Jan in the Pan" at least once and while it is out there in lots of versions, as part of a double feature is not a bad way to go. We are not talking a stellar print, but it is much better than "Beast."

Entertaining Movies and the Horrors They Endure.......2003-02-05

While looking for Creature From Haunted Cave, a Corman movie listed in the annals of my movie-watching past as something akin to a giant insect feature, I happened upon this double set of it and The Brain That Wouldn't Die, an absolute classic. Now, both of these movies are something worth watching, The Brain that Wouldn't Die a bit more than the almost monster-devoid Beast From, and both rank right up there in the cinema hall of fame that sprouted from the B-movie halls of shame. Still, since both movies have been covered in depth here and on there separate movie pages, I'll focus my attention on the DVD at hand (Killer Creature Combo) and the utter lack of quality it has so you'll perhaps go and buy a better version of both.

Its truly a shame to see these movies cast in the green haze of Killer Creature films as it eats away at the black and white and makes certain scenes wretched and vacant. The darker aspects of the screen sometimes disappear altogether and sometimes the brighter scenes seem to be overcast, ruining the effects of many a movie that would have otherwise been a lot better and killing the moods when monsters decide to drop in and wreak havoc. Added to this is the sound quality of the most abysmal variety, where voices fade in and out and sometimes become so low that one can't hear them, and the fact that the menu to this DVD is an utter annoyance.

If you decide to buy these films, which are both worth a watch, you should definitely spend a little more and go for a transfer that has been remastered. Otherwise, you'll be disappointed when scenes disappear along with your patience!

Amazing Film, But..........2003-01-25

"The Brain That Wouldn't Die" is a masterpiece of the kind of filmmaking that's so bad that it's great, but there are many incomplete prints of this film which cut out the best scenes, including one of a pinhead tearing the arm off the mad doctor's assistant.

Since I have no idea whether or not the Mystery Science Theatre version of the film, for example, is complete, but knew that Madacy had a rather complete copy of the film with a bonus feature tagged onto it, I decided to give this cheap version a try despite the adage that you get what you pay for.

When Madacy does things right, they put out great deals. The thing with Madacy however is that they do not go to the expense of remastering films or tracking down the best film elements. Sometimes they have great prints, and it is unrealistic to expect perfect prints of any of these old turkeys which nobody made any effort to preserve in the first place. Even some of the ones which are slightly degraded have a fun midnight movie feeling to them with their scratches, etc. And for an apparently complete cut of "The Brain..." I was even willing to lower my standards. However, the picture quality of this print of "The Brain..." is particularly terrible. The print is all washed out and there is very little black and white contrast or detail. Watching this version, I believe I have a good idea of what it is like having a cataract.

Well, I was willing to take a gamble because the disc is cheap and contains a second movie, and usually at least one film on Madacy's double features is worthwhile. But "Beast From Haunted Cave" is merely boring. There are only approx. 5 minutes of the film that are interesting when the aforementioned beast, a character apparently added to the film as almost an afterthought, is on the screen, but this isn't enough to make the film worthwhile.

I still enjoy owning what seems to be a complete cut of "The Brain That Wouldn't Die", but I would recommend looking into the running time of other releases as it is worth some extra cost to get a better complete print (the complete cut is usually listed as running approx. 92 minutes), especially since the extra feature of "The Beast From Haunted Cave" provides no incentive to buy this version.

Bad movie vs. good movie.......2001-10-11

The Beast from the Haunted Cave is a terrible movie. Besides the film being all washed out, the plot is long and drawn out. I could hardly stay awake for this snoozer. The beast is seen for a total of about maybe 10 seconds the entire film, and is genuinely scary looking; but not good enough to redeem the movie.

The Brain that Wouldn't Die, on the other hand is a perfect B-movie horror flick. It's just so bad, it's good. You've got to see this one! A mad scientist-type loses his main-squeeze in a firey auto accident, but manages to salvage her head from the wreckage! He keeps the head alive, while scouting out the babes for a suitable body to attatch the head to! Hilarious! Although the sound quality is pretty poor, this is one classic that you CAN'T afford to miss.

Skip the Beast, and buy this just for the Brain!

Beautiful!.......2001-09-14

Ah, the joys of found footage! It is truly a lost art form. Beast:
Anyone that can take footage from their ski vacation and turn it into a movie deserves an Oscar. Just goes to show how corrupt Hollywood is, I guess.

There is a certain charm in watching these people try to act as if they are in a ski resort by bumbling about in front of projected footage. But the kicker is watching them depict warm breath by, get this, stealing drags off of cigarettes and blowing the smoke out while they talk! Yep, a classic.

Brain:
Wow, stunning. The world has never seen special effects like this before, and probably never will again. If silly tubes and vials filled with percolating fluid and dry ice are your idea of a mad-scientists lab, you're in for a real treat. There are a "few" plot holes that you could probably drive a Mack truck through, but why would you watch this for deep meaning? Kick back, grab some popcorn, and prepare to laugh yourself silly.

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