I didn't expect much from this movie, but it turned out to be decent thriller given its low budget and its cast - Bill Pullman and Bill Paxton, arguably the two dullest actors in Hollywood! Bill Pullman is Dr. Rex Martin, a brain scientist who has developed a technology to manipulate a person's thoughts and therefore their reality. He is recruited by a sleazy corporate administrator, Jim Reston (Bill Paxton), to use this technology on a former corporate genius, Dr, Hasley, turned paranoid psycho killer, to pry some valuable corporate information from his memory. Martin then suffers an accident, and then descends into a world of madness and paranoia, where objective reality is turned upside down. In true twilight zone fashion, it appears that Dr. Martin's technology is now being experimented on him. Pullman plays the part of the eccentric Martin well, and Paxton does a reasonable job as the ambitious, yet, sleazy, corporate type. I found the ending, at least my interpretation of it, somewhat conventional and a little disappointing. This movie has some genuine scenes of suspense without needing to resort to lavish special effects. There is also a gratuitous nude scene involving Martin's Wife, Praticia Charbonneau, which, of course, is always a bonus. Again I didn't expect much from this movie, and I was pleasantly surprised. For those who enjoy movies that involve the theme that objective reality is, or can be made to be, an illusion, this movie is worth seeing as a pre cyber version of this theme; the cyber version of course being the Matrix, The 13th Floor and Existenze.
Review of Brain Dead
