An act of God named Ian has kept me from going to Illinois (for now). To get my fix, here's a forgotten Sci-Fi Thriller shot and set in Illinois.
If the Story feels familiar, just wait. It's...
A bunch of military guys and Scientists investigate.
This is one of those Films with LOTS of narrations to fill in the gaps dialog-wise, so its basically like watching the Film with me describing the Plot here. Hurray?
A strange man is walking around with a strange object as well.
We see people get attacked- like at a Military Blockade-, the man arrives and then they get up like nothing happened.
Figure out what this is yet?
The Lead Scientist sees his Dad act strangely and then they find strange bite marks on the back of his neck. What is the source of it?
He studies a strange furry object that they found by him and it latches onto his arm, so he has to burn it off.
So, to be clear, this is an adaptation of The Puppet Masters, a story that wouldn't get an official adaptation until 1994. It would also get a shout-out in The Faculty as being 'better' than Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
Our Heroes try to contact help, but the lines are controlled by alien-controlled humans. That's how you do the 'No Signal' Cliché in 1958.
Sorry, no Satellites for you.
They figure out that they must destroy the cone on its own.
In the Climax, they meet Dr. Cole, who is the oldest of the controlled humans. He's played by...Leonard Nimoy...in a long beard and wig?!?
Our Hero's Lady is controlled as well and she tries to stop him at the last moment. He manages to electrocute the Cone, killing the aliens, but he dies alongside her.
Oh well, our Secondary Lead- from the beginning- can celebrate. The End.
A pretty fun, but also kind of dry Sci-Fi Film. There's nothing bad here. It has good Acting, decent effects (the creatures only show up like 3x), some Action and a good Plot. It's based on a good Story, so that last part was a given.
The odd thing is just how much Narration you get and how much feels like it happens after the fact. Looking back, the fact that our Lead isn't narrating should have been a clue, huh? Why do they do this? Does it add to the Story? Is it how the Book is written?
Whatever the reason, this makes the Film feel more like a Sci-Fi version of Dragnet? If that works for you, great. As for me, I'd just like the Story told in full without this weird flourish.
The Brain Eaters is a good Film with some odd choices made. That said, I'd still recommend it AND the Film that it was apparently a Double-Feature with...
Seriously, why is there so much Narration as a Post-Script?!? Otherwise, the Film is quite good and has a Leonard Nimoy role before Star Trek.
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