ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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A trio of less-than-pleasant movies which deal with troubling subjects like brains, blood, bugs, and sadistic teenagers — the latter of which is the most disturbing of the bunch!

The cast of these movies contain some very familiar names: Grant Williams ("The Incredible Shrinking Man", "The Monolith Monsters") and Kent Taylor ("The Day Mars Invaded Earth"), and Malcolm McDowell (“Time After Time”).
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Brain of Blood (1971)

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[Also released as: "The Creature's Revenge]

Another movie from producer-director Al Adamson, a man whose consistently awful film-making challenges Edward D. Wood, Jr. himself.

As in several other Adamson films, his shapely wife (Regina Carrol) is the heroine. Grant Williams ("The Incredible Shrinking Man", "The Monolith Monsters") is the hero, and Kent Taylor ("The Day Mars Invaded Earth") is a mad scientist who gets to molest Regina and several other captive women. So does John Bloom, as the monster which Taylor creates.


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The brain in the monster belongs to a deceased monarch, and it undergoes several body changes during the story, although the voice with which it speaks stays the same for each body so that the viewer will know it's the same brain. (Oh, these clever movie people!)
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Clockwork Orange (1971)



Three years after "2001", Stanley Kubrick made a very different kind of science fiction film, one that was even more controversial.

Set in a near-future England, Malcolm McDowell plays a member of a gleefully sadistic youth gang which the fascist government attempts to reform with the use of some very disturbing brain-washing techniques.

McDowall's character is presented as the unfortunate victim of a heartless political system. The film was shocking to its original audiences, but today's audiences (jaded by the deluge of cinema brutality) are less affected.

"A Clockwork Orange" was originally given an "X" rating, but this was later changed to "R" with the deletion of a few scenes. The music is by Mr. Walter Carlos, who later become Miss Wendy Carlos -- proof that the real world is getting just as weird as the one presented in "A Clockwork Orange". Mr./Ms. Carlos later did the music for "Tron".
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Bug (1975

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Producer William Castle, the man responsible for "Rosemary's Baby" (with a little help from the Devil) and many other horror films, wrote the screenplay for "Bug", based on Thomas Page's novel "The Hephaestus Plague".

An earthquake opens a fissure in a farmer's field and releases a swarm of three-inch beetles which have the strange ability to start fires.

Scientist Bradford Dillman mates the big beetles with cockroaches and produces large carnivorous cockroaches (an experiment of questionable scientific value).

Worse yet, the roaches are intelligent, and groups of them can spell out messages with their bodies, like a marching band during half-time at a football game.




* Note to Wayne: See how much fun it can be to add pictures to your posts? Photobucket sucks, but Imgur is your friend!

Be prepared for some unpleasant moments. Patty McCormack, the little girl who was hit by lightning in "The Bad Seed" in 1956, doesn't fare so well in this movie either.

This was the last film William Castle was associated with, and it's surprisingly well done! Directed by Jeannot Swarc.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)