BRAIN DEAD is a low rent horror film that feels like an indie rip-off of RE-ANIMATOR. It's best known today for being confused with the Peter Jackson classic BRAINDEAD, with which it has nothing in common. It goes for a psychological approach to the material, but the story has been done better and more convincingly elsewhere. The cheapness is apparent throughout, particularly in the way a couple of white-painted rooms stand in for laboratories and the like. I was surprised that mainstream actors like Bill Pullman and Bill Paxton took roles in this as personally I think the material is beneath them. The story sees Pullman's brain surgeon going crazy and believing that he's a hallucination in a disturbed brain; the story becomes a thriller of sorts as his behaviour becomes more and more bizarre. It's oddball indeed, but not at all satisfying.

Mind bending horror Brain Dead (not to be confused with the 1992 Peter Jackson film of the same name) is one of those films where it's hard to determine what is real and what is imaginary. It features dreams within dreams (and maybe even dreams within dreams within dreams),with a central character who becomes increasingly unsure about his own identity. Based on a story by Twilight Zone scribe Charles Beaumont, the film becomes more and more labyrinthine, leaving the viewer in a state of bewilderment, waiting for a coherent conclusion that never comes.

Starring the two Bills Ps, Paxton and Pullman (which might be confusion enough for some viewers),the film sees neurosurgeon Rex Martin (Pullman) approached by associate Jim Reston (Paxton),who asks Rex if he can perform surgery on an old employee, mathematician Jack Halsey (Bud Cort),who has some vital information locked in his brain, but who is now residing in an asylum, having slaughtered his own family. What follows is a hallucinatory trip of a movie that delivers plenty of weirdness, all of which proves moderately entertaining, but would have been a whole lot more satisfying if director Adam Simon had managed to wrap up matters in a more comprehensible manner.

4.5 out of 10, rounded up to 5 for IMDb.

Dr. Rex Martin (Pullman) is a brain specialist who is asked by his good friend Jim (Paxton) to help him with a matter at his corporate job. A man named John Halsey (Cort) who at one time worked for the company may have murdered his entire family and it is Dr. Martin's job to get some key figures from the man. Dr. Martin gets pulled in and is soon sharing the same paranoid and delusional visions Halsey is suffering from. Some of these bizarre visions include a creepy looking man who is splattered in blood who is following them around. Is this weird state of reality really happening, or not? No doubt Director Adam Simon wants to keep the audience off balance, but the film shifts reality so often it gets too confusing. Simon's direction is sharp, and all though it is confusing as hell, it remains interesting and entertaining for the audience. This movie features two future big stars in Bill Pullman and Bill Paxton who are early in their careers and provide strong acting in this well made and original chiller. The gore is minimal minus a few shots of some heads being cut open for brain examinations. This film isn't designed for jump scares but the bloody stranger haunting the two characters delivers some chills. 'Brain Dead's' biggest problem is its confusing narrative and ends up being a little too weird for its own good.