Welcome to a different 31 Days Of Horror for 2023 with Super Marcey (that’s me), this year due to my health being a bit difficult to deal with thanks to Fibromyalgia, I wont be able to watch and review a film a day for October. Instead I have revived ‘Review Rewind’, which is where I review older films (at least 10 years older than the year we are in) that I have either seen before or watching for the first time.
For October/31 Days Of Horror I will be doing relaxed reviews/mini reviews for the films I’ll be watching and the theme for the month with ‘Review Rewind’ is 90s horror!
90s Horror Review Movie 01
Brainscan (1994)
To kick off 90s Horror Month, I decided to watch a film that I believe I have seen parts of but not the entire thing with Brainscan (1994). I do remember vividly seeing this VHS on the shelf growing up, there was something about the cover I found enticing but a tad scary and I didn’t end up ever renting it. I have memories of seeing parts of it when it hit TV, for some reason I didn’t end up watching the entire film. For years I have thought about this film, random memories of it just pop up in my mind and with doing this 90s Horror theme it felt like the right time to finally sit down and watch the entire film.
This is a mid-90s technology horror film, a theme that was done quite often in the 90s whether it was technology horror or thriller, they were very much everywhere. What sets Brainscan aside from most others is this story is about a horror video game, a horror video game that is unlike the usual game and playing it may have real world consequences. The main character of the story is Michael (Edward Furlong), he’s a teenager with a mad love of horror and video games (relatable), he’s naturally got issues (his mother died, father is absent), he spies on his neighbour (it is creepy dude) who he seems to shy to ever ask out and his escape is losing himself in horror. His best friend Kyle (Jamie Galen) tells him about a new horror game that’s advertised in Fangoria magazine, Michael rings the number and the next day has the game disk. After he plays the game, which seems to be beyond virtual reality, it seems what he did in the game might have actually happened and a strange entity called The Trickster (T. Ryder Smith) shows up as the most insane NCP (non-playable character) that a game could possibly have.
Through the modern lens, Brainscan is quite the silly film, the use of technology may have felt cutting edge back in the mid 90s but not so much these days. Michael’s room set up is like the equivalent of having a smart home, everything is wired up in some way and he uses his voice to command his computer. I am not sure if that was actually possible back then, but they sort of predicted the future in a way with what our phones can do. The game itself looks fairly straight forward at first, but this is a game that some how manages to access the players brain and insert them into the game itself. There is no VR head set, it is played out as if there was and this element is a bit unsettling as the first play of the game involves murdering someone and it is seen through that first person view. Interesting elements like this are stronger parts of the film, there’s some intriguing ideas and commentary on whether games should be so immersive. Michael’s first game is creepy, when he awakens the next day and finds out a man was murdered and the similarities to what he played out are obvious is unsettling. The film at this stage has a more serious and sinister tone, this changes when The Trickster shows up and the tone switches around to darkly comedic. The balancing of tones does not quite work however the performance by T. Ryder Smith as The Trickster more than makes up for it as he steals the show.
The film progresses with more games, despite Michael not wanting to proceed knowing what happens if he does and his world starts to collapse around him as the police lead by Det. Hayden (Frank Langella) start to suspect he may be involved with murder. There is a lot to like and enjoy with the film, as stated earlier there are some great elements that set the film aside from other tech driven ones and the game itself being quite creepy. The Trickster changes the tone when he shows up and it struggles to balance whether it wants to be serious or a dark comedy or both. T. Ryder Smith is the stand out actor in the film, it is worth the watch for him alone and he delivers the best performance in the film. Edward Furlong was 15 when he shot the film, he feels like that troubled teenage boy but struggles through some of the performance. The other main teenage characters of the film with Kyle and neighbour Kimberly (Amy Hargreaves) don’t feel as natural because they were in their twenties at the time and the contrast between Furlong is obvious. Frank Langella is underused but makes the most of the time he has and attempts to be more than a generic Detective. Brainscan may not always work (the spying part is iffy too), it is a fun one to watch and as I was a teenager (and adult) obsessed with horror I likely would have sought out and played this game much like Michael. There is a charm to 90s tech horror, it is all very silly now but there was a genuine truth there as well and I would recommend seeking this one out as it’s worth the watch, especially for The Trickster.
RATING
Review written by Marcella Papandrea (Super Marcey)
The Super Network 