Michael Bower (Edward Furlong) is a 15 year-old loser who walks with a limp and still has nightmares about the night his mother was killed in a car wreck. Brainscan is the new PC game that Michael makes the mistake of playing. In the game, Michael is encouraged by The Trickster (T. Ryder Smith) to kill both his friends and complete strangers. When Michael starts finding body parts around his house, he realizes that whenever he kills someone in the game, he kills them in real life too.
Though it may be forgotten now, Brainscan was heavily promoted when it was first released. I think the producers were hoping to turn The Trickster into the new Freddy and get a new horror franchise out of it. Like most films from the 90s that dealt with computers and gamers, Brainscan is now as dated as dial-up internet. T. Ryder Smith does ok as the Trickster but it is difficult to take him seriously because he has a big red mohawk skullet and he dresses like the keyboard player in every new wave band that has ever synthesized. As for Furlong, he had apparently already entered the I-no-longer-give-a-shit phase of his career when he made Brainscan. Add to that one of the worst endings that I have ever seen in a horror movie and Brainscan is one film that is easy to forget.
It is easy to say what Brainscan is lacking: suspense, gore, and horror. It is less easy to say what would have made it better. Considering its suburban setting, I think Brainscan would have been improved by cameos from the stars of Shattered If Your Kid’s On Drugs.
With Burt Reynolds and Judd Nelson around to serve as mentors, Eddie Furlong never would have gotten addicted to playing video games in the first place.
Right, Burt?
To quote a wise man named Forrest Gump, shit happens … especially if there is a clown nearby.
When med student Rick Westford (James Spader) is found hung at the free clinic where he worked, the police say that he committed suicide. Rick’s estranged twin brother, John (James Spader), does not agree and launches an investigation of his own. With the help of Rick’s co-worker, Chris (Cynthia Gibb), John discovers that Rick may have learned the identity of a serial killer who has been copying the crimes of Jack the Ripper and murdering prostitutes in Los Angeles. However, the killer knows that John is getting close to discovering his identity so the killer sets out to frame John not only for the prostitute murders but for the murder of his brother as well.
When writer Ted Fletcher (Edward Albert) moves his family into a house in Kyoto, Japan, he does not know that the house comes with a violent history. 140 years ago, the house was occupied by a samurai and his wife. When the samurai discovered that his wife had taken a lover, he killed both them and himself. The three spirits remain in the house, haunting Ted and his wife, Laura (Susan George). When a possessed Laura starts an affair with Ted’s best friend (Doug McClure), will history repeat itself?
Dumb. Just dumb.
Josh Baker (Eric Roberts) is an extroverted artist for Marvel Comics who meets Cheryl (Janine Turner) while walking around New York City. Josh and Cheryl hit it off but when Cheryl suddenly collapses, she is picked up by a mysterious ambulance. When Josh goes to the hospital to check on her, he is told that Cheryl was never brought in. Soon, Josh discovers that people all over New York have been put into back of the ambulance and have never been seen again. Unfortunately, nobody believes Josh. Not the veteran NYPD detective (James Earl Jones) who Josh approaches with his suspicions. Not the staff of the hospital. Not even Stan Lee! The only people willing to support Josh are an elderly investigative reporter (Red Buttons) and an inexperienced detective (Megan Gallagher).
Who is Adam Hart?
