31 Days of Halloween: Man with the Screaming Brain (2005)

It’s Day 10 of 1428 Elm’s 31 Days of Halloween, and today we’re looking at the Bruce Campbell horror comedy flick directed by the man himself, the 2005 Man with the Screaming Brain.

“I’m on fire!” – William Cole

Welcome to Bulgaria

Man with the Screaming Brain – William – Jackie – Yegor – Courtesy of Sci Fi Pictures, ApolloProScreen Filmproduktion, FWE Picture Company

After reading Bruce Campbell’s terrific memoir, Hail to the Chin and all the hilarious stories about filming Man with the Screaming Brain in Bulgaria, I went on a mission to track this film down. This feature reminds me of the mad scientist flicks from the 50s that would play at a local Drive-In theater.

From the opening title card sequence to the screaming sound effects that play over it, I was transported back to my childhood where I would be watching Dr. Shock’s Mad Theater with the lights out in my living room.

Bruce plays William Cole who is a high powered, moneyed executive. His wife Jackie (Antoinette Byron) is a bleached blond nightmare on two legs. It is obvious this couple just tolerates one another. You can tell immediately that things are not going to go well for them when Bruce can’t figure out how to get his cell phone to work.

This forces the happily wedded twosome to hire the services of skeevy cabbie, Yegor (Vladimir Kolev). As it turns out, Yegor isn’t just a taxi driver. He is so much more. Let’s just say he is like the Russian Liam Neeson in Taken with a penchant for breaking the fingers of people who displease him.

After observing his particular set of skills where driving is not one of them, Yegor almost runs over a gypsy woman name Tatoya (Tamara Gorski). She gives him the “what for” but then she and William lock eyes and Sinatra’s Close to You begins to play. Yes, this seems like a huge piece of foreshadowing.

William decides to hire him on as a sort of babysitter for his high maintenance ball and chain. Basically, he tells Yegor to take her shopping. Sweet.

Stacy Keach vs Rip Torn

More from 1428 Elm

As it turns out, veteran actor, Stacy Keach is the mad scientist, Dr. Ivanov. I must confess. At first glance, I thought it was Rip Torn. They have a similar voice and with his crazy hair I thought that it could have been Zed from Men in Black.

Anyway, Ivanov is in this dank laboratory working on brain transplants. Because if you are a scientist in a basement, apparently that is what you do. He has an Igor, well, Pavel (Ted Raimi). Let me just tell you, from the first frame Ted is in, you will immediately start to laugh.

When he approaches William with a letter bearing an opportunity to fund Ivanov’s experiments, he does so very humorously. Since Cole is such a shrewd businessman, he rebuffs the letter by walking away and saying rather surly, “Good day!”

The viewing audience gets treated to Pavel doing his very best to be a DJ rapper. Step aside, Eminem. T-Money is in da house! You have to see this scene to believe it.

Backseat Antics

While William is in a business meeting underground, he attempts to use his cell phone but it doesn’t work. He then asks if he can borrow one of his colleague’s cell phones. Meanwhile, Yegor is ploughing into Jackie in the backseat of his cab. Mmm. Nothing like a hot tryst where I am almost positive people threw up.

William can’t get through to his wife because she is banging her babysitter. He is relegated to asking one of the guys in his meeting for a ride back to his hotel. Once there, he walks in on the maid who happens to be Tatoya. Cole feels the need to suck face with this random chick while she steals his wallet and almost cuts him.

Jackie walks in and witnesses the entire thing. Disgusted, she tells William that she is leaving him. Before he can throw any money at her to shut her up, he realizes his wallet is missing. Well, that’s what you get for trying to go all the way with a stranger.

The Day We Died

Man with the Screaming Brain – Bruce Campbell 3 Dead- Courtesy of Sci Fi Pictures, ApolloProScreen Filmproduktion, FWE Picture Company

William decides to track down Tatoya to claim his wallet. He heads into the hotel staff locker room on a hunch, locates her and she bolts. He follows her outside only to be killed by a shovel to the head.

Is this the end of the movie? Hell, no! It’s just starting! Nobody dies like Bruce Campbell. NOBODY. Yegor, the cabbie and wifesitter witnesses the murder. He attempts to confront her when she knifes him and kills him too!

Pavel happens to be monitoring a police scanner when he picks up the tragedy about Cole and Yegor. Ivanov asks him to fetch the bodies so that he can do his experiment.

Jackie, William’s widow wants revenge. She seeks out Tatoya and manages to find her house out of all the potential lodgings in Bulgaria. Amazing. The two duke it out like a pair of beach blanket bimbos with cat fighting sound effects.

Tatoya ends up tossing Jackie down two flights of stairs. Now, Jackie joins the body count. Hey, Pavel! Looks like another clean up job for you.

Meanwhile, at the lab, Ivanov is working on transplanting tissue from Yegor’s brain into William’s brain. The result is a very hideous forehead scar like Frankenstein for Cole. He is also going to have another voice in his head. Is this crazy enough?

I, Frankenstein

Man with the Screaming Brain – Bruce Campbell 4- Courtesy of Sci Fi Pictures, ApolloProScreen Filmproduktion, FWE Picture Company

After Ivanov explains the procedure that he did on William, Cole is super pissed and bolts. Thus, he is wandering around like Frankenstein in the old 30s movie. Learning how to move with his extra friend is a delight. Campbell is a deft physical comedian.

Yegor and Cole come to an agreement to find Tatoya. While all this is going on, Ivanov and Pavel are concentrating on turning Jackie into a fembot. They are successful and she also escapes.

Jackie has luck and locates Tatoya. The two are back in Fight Club again while William is tooling around on a pink Vespa that he “borrowed.” He meets up with Jackie. Who helps him out of an untimely death number two scenario.

Tatoya gets away and heads for a local watering hole with Cole in hot pursuit. When he tracks her down in the bar, she distracts people and William is in the midst of all this chaos which quickly escalates into an epic bar fight.

Once he gets away from that, he tracks down Tatoya again but this time she has Fembot Jackie. Before William can do anything, Jackie gets thrown off a bridge.

Am I going to give anything away? Of course not! Does Jackie live? What happens to Tatoya? What about William?

So many questions……suffice it to say, the ending is satisfying.

The Verdict

Man with the Screaming Brain is a terrific B movie. I enjoyed every frame. It took over three decades to make but it was worth it. This flick is a fun time because of the performances.

Ted Raimi. Just his name alone makes me break out in a smile. I think he is one of the most underrated character actors around. He is extremely versatile. Accents come easy to him, he doesn’t shy away from physical shtick plus his goofy persona brings the right amount of levity to this type of film.

Bruce Campbell wears many hats in this flick. Actor, writer, producer and director, he is quite adept at all of those positions. He has exactly the right touch to prevent this film from getting too campy. The script is B movie writing at its very best and harkens back to all of those entertaining films from the 50s featuring mad scientists like The Fly.

What can I say about Stacy Keach? He obviously relishes his role in this film and plays it with sincerity. Since he believes that he is Ivanov doing these wacky experiments, as an audience we can suspend our disbelief and go along with him. We can believe that he is able to pull off these brain transplants.

Next: 31 Days of Halloween: My Name Is Bruce (2007), the ultimate self parody

I highly recommend Man with the Screaming Brain as an enjoyable little diversion from typical slasher Halloween fare.

Have you ever seen Man with the Screaming Brain? What did you think of the film? Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section below. We want to hear from you!

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