B-Movie Review: The Brain That Wouldn't Die

The Brain That Wouldn't Die 1962
Doctor Bill Cortner has been illegally experimenting with transplanting severed limbs, with little success. When he and his girlfriend Jan are in a car accident, he keeps her severed head alive in a pan, and then goes looking for a body to put her head on.

Tim's Opinion:

This is what B horror movies are about, bad acting, and little, no, or cheesy special effects. This movie has them all. The actors were either overacting, or underacting (especially in the case of Dr. Cortner). The car crash effects are almost as bad as those in "Orgy Of The Dead". There is a certain suspense as we're left wondering until the end of the movie, just what is in the closet. When it tore Kurt's arm out of it's socket, I thought it might be a Wookie. Wookies have been known to do that, you know. But it turns out his arm was just tucked into his shirt. But it turns out, that the creature in the closet was a bad imitation of Sloth from "The Goonies".
One thing that I was left wondering is how the hell did Jan's head manage to talk without a body or lungs? And is the movie called "The Brain That Wouldn't Die", or "The Head That Wouldn't Die", as stated on the ending title card.

Really, it is the ridiculous acting, and the cheesy horror movie story line that make "The Brain That Wouldn't Die" enjoyable, especially after a beer or two. This is one of those movies that is fun to watch with friends, and just joke all the way through it.

Lisa's Opinion:

The Brain That Wouldn't Die; A masterpiece of B movie horror that has made one of Mystery Science Theater 3000's choices of movies. Filmed in 1962, it stars Jason Ever's as Dr Cortner; a plastic surgeon that is very promising and has used human beings as guinea pigs for his experiments against the wishes of his father; who was also his supervisor. One day, Dr Cortner and his fiance, Jan, were involved in an automobile accident and Jan was decapitated. Confident in his abilities, Dr Cortner was determined to save his beloved by keeping her brain alive in his personal laboratory and replacing her body with that of the local hottie; by the name of Doris Powell, a figure model at a local college that has had her face disfigured. While Dr. Cortner was searching for that "ultimate body" for his fiance, Jan, now a literal talking head, gets aquatinted with a guy, who toward the beginning of the movie, sounds like he had a bad case of food poisoning. We never see this guy because he is locked away throughout the movie, all we know that he sound like something is wrong with him. One day, Jan, the talking head and is sick and tired of it, and the guy with the weird sounds on the other side of the doorway, who we discovered is actually a monster type being that somewhat resembles Sloth from The Goonies, finally escapes.

The Brain That Wouldn't Die is full of certain "special effects" that only B movies poses. .  For example,

The credits themselves read, "The Brain That Wouldn't Die" at the begriming of the film and " The Head That Wouldn't Die" at the end.

Right before Jan and Dr Cortner's accident, you may hear the squeal of the tires before you see him actually apply the breaks,

And others....

So, if you are planning an iconic b movie night, The Brain That Wouldn't Die would be a great choice in your lineup.