I was reminded of 1981's Strange Behavior, with a mad scientist who is supposed to be helping troubled high schoolers actually using his techniques to take over their minds. I'm a bit surprised to see that there are more people who've rated this movie on IMDb than that one, since Strange Behavior is on DVD and this one isn't, and I would guess is out of print on VHS.
However, The Brain has an alien in it. Or that's presumably what it is: at first, a giant disembodied brain in a vat, though it is able to open its two hemispheres to engulf and devour a person, after which a face emerges from the brain, which looks a little horrific, and a little silly.
The Brain is able to control people's thoughts to some degree, with the help of a TV program called "Independent Thinking" put out by the Psychological Research Institute, where the brain is kept by the program's host. It either causes people to hallucinate and kill other people and sometimes themselves, or else when people's mind reject the attempt at control their mind causes hallucinations and the deaths. The hallucinations are pretty good. The one that opens the movie has a girl in her room seeing a teddy bear come to life and bleed from its eyes, a demon hand breaking out of a TV set, the room's walls pressing inwards and so on.
An intelligent but problem teenager is sent to the PRI to straighten him out, but he is able to resist the programming, and the attempts to have him kill himself. He gets away and then must figure out how to save his friends and the town and destroy the brain.
There are some funny lines in the movie. I liked the exchange between the high schooler and a school official: "We learned in civics class that people are innocent until proved guilty!" "You think you're in America? You're in high school!"
The ending of the movie is a bit odd. Two of the characters drive off uneventfully, and there is a peculiar triangular-shaped wipe effect that had been seen earlier in the movie showing the face of the enemy. Personally, I was expecting a new similar TV show to come on the air.
However, The Brain has an alien in it. Or that's presumably what it is: at first, a giant disembodied brain in a vat, though it is able to open its two hemispheres to engulf and devour a person, after which a face emerges from the brain, which looks a little horrific, and a little silly.
The Brain is able to control people's thoughts to some degree, with the help of a TV program called "Independent Thinking" put out by the Psychological Research Institute, where the brain is kept by the program's host. It either causes people to hallucinate and kill other people and sometimes themselves, or else when people's mind reject the attempt at control their mind causes hallucinations and the deaths. The hallucinations are pretty good. The one that opens the movie has a girl in her room seeing a teddy bear come to life and bleed from its eyes, a demon hand breaking out of a TV set, the room's walls pressing inwards and so on.
An intelligent but problem teenager is sent to the PRI to straighten him out, but he is able to resist the programming, and the attempts to have him kill himself. He gets away and then must figure out how to save his friends and the town and destroy the brain.
There are some funny lines in the movie. I liked the exchange between the high schooler and a school official: "We learned in civics class that people are innocent until proved guilty!" "You think you're in America? You're in high school!"
The ending of the movie is a bit odd. Two of the characters drive off uneventfully, and there is a peculiar triangular-shaped wipe effect that had been seen earlier in the movie showing the face of the enemy. Personally, I was expecting a new similar TV show to come on the air.