User Reviews

This low-budget exploitation oddity is a bit better than you might expect, thanks to a glossy sheen on the surface which belies the rather small amount of money which was spent making it. Although it may not be original or particularly complex, the film's main focus are the many gore effects on view here, and it does not disappoint. Indeed, strong stomachs are required for the many graphic images shown in the camera's unflinching view.

While the bad points are obvious (poor script, stupid comedy, over the top acting, unoriginality), there are also many things for the exploitation fan to enjoy. For a start we have some exceptionally poor acting which harks back to those old, classic days of the Italian zombie film...it really deserves to be dubbed, but isn't. Most of the actors (including the baddies) seem to have been chosen for their looks rather than their acting abilities. For instance, the main hero of the film has only ever appeared in this one item, as far as I can tell. The four teenagers who make up the victims are all flawless and immaculate, the girls having been plucked from a centrefold spread rather than a drama school. The mad doctor of the title is an overweight old man who lacks personality. I mean, Jeffrey Combs had his own unique kookiness, while other mad scientists just went for effective over the top mania. This guy is relatively harmless. All acting is amateurish and in some cases painfully bad to watch.

The music looks to have been composed on a synthesiser. The plot, what little of it there is, has been ripped from many other films. Indeed, the genre fan can reel off a list of film titles that THE IMMORTALIZER borrows from, a list including such classics as RE-ANIMATOR and DAY OF THE DEAD to other oddities like THE CORPSE GRINDERS, ZOMBIE HOLOCAUST, and DEATH WARMED UP. The much-hyped nudity is minimal as well, which leaves us only the gore to deal with.

The special effects are surprisingly good. From the brain transplants - realistic and sick-looking - to the sight of people being ground into mincemeat, they are easily entertaining. The flesh munching zombies are quite funny while being imposing as well, although they appeal to the lowest common denominator - loud, brain dead, and ridiculous. There are quite a few death scenes which mainly involve impaling and some bad '80s computer effects of someone being electrocuted. These violent bits serve to pad out the film's short running time and definitely make things a bit painless. THE IMMORTALIZER may not be good, but at least it's not shy in showing us the effects.

Scientist use Hulk Zombies to kidnap young adults to be used for brain transplants for old people. The film followers two double dating couples.

The production was campy and at best silly fun. However it is dated and the humor isn't there to make it a classic. Playboy Playmate of the Month September 1986 Rebekka Armstrong provides the nudity.

No swearing. Implied sex. The newer release of the film cuts out the goon groping scene.

I just saw this movie on Flix after timer-taping it. I grew up watching F Troop and had a major hard for Wrangler Jane so I was shocked, literally shocked, to find out after seeing this film that the degenerate homicidal nurse was Melody Patterson, who looks pretty good but also looks completely different and is unfortunately poorly photographed. I would never have guessed it was her in a million years. What the hell is she doing in a picture like this? I agree with the guys here that the movie lacks what it's pushing. No sex, no gore, no tease. It's also a remake of the Atomic Brain aka Monstrosity (1964 or thereabouts). Most of the action is tedious; the main character spends enormous amounts of time running around the crazed doctor's house and basement, and the neighborhood in general, or being roughed up by the cop, all of it boring and time-filling. Now if the Italians would have made this, half the film would have been the Slingblade/Uncle Ernest/Jack Elam henchman fondling the unconscious nude girls. But you only get that for 20 seconds.

How's this for a hokey premise?: a mad surgeon and his team are transplanting the brains of rich, elderly clients into the healthy young bodies of kidnap victims. Not all of the abductees take to the procedure, which involves an injection of luminous green goop (a la Re-animator) to the base of the skull, and become cannibalistic mutants with superhuman strength.

Sounds like a lot of schlocky B-movie fun, doesn't it, and it would have been had they crammed the film with wall-to-wall messy gore and gratuitous nudity: we get a couple of cheezy brain transplants, a glimpse of Rebecca Armstrong's boobs, and Cynthia Chase naked from behind, but it's not nearly enough to recommend the film to fans of trashy horror. For the most part, it's dull filler, with protagonist Gregg (Chris Crone) escaping the house where he and his pals are being held, trying to convince an unbelieving cop (Bo Byers) of his predicament, and then launching his own investigation/rescue mission with the help of nosey neighbour Agnes (Elmarie Wendel).

There's a not totally unexpected but still enjoyable twist at the end where unsuspecting surgeon Dr. Timmons (Steve Jamieson) is betrayed by his evil boss Dr. Divine (Ron Ray), but I imagine all but the most avid purveyors of low-budget tosh would have given up by then.

3.5/10, rounded down for having the post operative transplant patients talk with their old voices, which is just plain dumb.

This film takes the common premise of most of these films. Rich people are paying to have their brains put into younger bodies.

There's about 20 minutes of plot in this film that they've stretched out into 90 minutes of Direct to Video chewy goodness to give all those video stores something to put on their shelves.

Most of the movie is the hero futilely trying to get back into the house while his friends are turned into mutants or have old people's brains put in their heads. It's mostly filler, and not even good filler.

There's a nice little twist at the end where the old doctor puts his brain in the young doctor's body, and his assistant leaves the young doctor's brain in the old guys body as a prank. Other than that, it's kind of the boring thing you get when you have a budget of $500.00 before the days of CGI.

i have to say that despite what other reviewers have said about this movie i liked it . it has a decent plot and the acting isn't that bad . The movie is once again about a group of teenagers who become kidnapped and then taken to a house where there are doctors who perform brain surgery to switch the brains of the young and old 'to give the old eternal youth 'But if there surgery fails the victims turn in to flesh eating monsters . The special effects in this movie are decent and has a fair amount of violence ' I recommend watching this movie if you liked THE SURGEON (1995) ' RE-ANIMATOR (1985) or DR GIGGLES (1992) . I rate this movie a 8/10 . this movie has only been released on VHS and LASER DISC so if your local video store still has it i recommend renting it'

Too much sex?...NO.Too much nudity?....NO. Too much violence? Too much gore? hmmm...Too much bad plot?..YES. Too much bad acting?....YES. Too much bad movie....YES oh YES. I got this movie because I was curious to see how Melody Patterson has aged. She appeared to have done well as she was an attractive 42 year old. But, apparently her acting skills went no where since F troop. This was her last movie,understandably. This is a tired old plot about swapping brains,this time between octagenerians and curvacious young co-eds. Happily,Melody and her husband Dr.Devine survive to operate again.I hope not in my lifetime,though. The cinematograhy is poor and the sound is ditto. This low buck horror flick would make even Roger Cornman heave. Seriously, I didn't think they made movies like this any more. Melody still looks decent,but time waits for no one.

I wanted something to watch while I was pedaling on my exercise bike today. I decided to pick something I wasn't expecting much from based on the ratings. A film that had a plot that sounded interesting anyway. The movie I figured might fit the bill was 'The Immortalizer' from 1989. I'm not going to say this is a good film, just that it did hold my interest from start to finish. The acting was pretty bad. Still I've seen plenty worse. The premise is one I've always found scary. Doctors who find young healthy bodies for extremely wealthy old people. In this case they use a glowing green serum that looks like something out of the re-animator films. The use of this serum allows them to transplant living brains from one body, kidnapped young people, to another. The idea's been done before in films like 1963's 'The Atomic Brain'. Or in variations on the theme as in 'Seconds' (1966), 'The Skeleton Key' (2005) and 'Free Jack' (1992). Some of these stories don't involve actually transplanting a brain, still an old person gets a young body. There was even a Twilight Zone once with a more lighthearted variation with a moral to it. The problem I had most with this film was too much gore. I had to look away from many scenes. That's one reason it's not for everyone. There were the usual characters doing stupid things, like the sheriff who refused to believe one of the guys when they escape. On the plus side it did have predictable yet still fun twists especially at the end. I did laugh out loud at the absurdity of a few scenes so the Mystery Science Theater fans might enjoy this. The ending was fitting...and frightening. Overall I'll give it a 4 out of 10 rating.