The Brain Eaters

The Brain Eaters (1958)

Crawling, Slimy Things, Terror-Bent on Destroying the World!

A huge, alien structure resembling an inverted cone, appears in the woods outside a small rural town. Sent from Washington to investigate the origin of the mysterious object, a team of investigators discovers that intelligent parasites from inside the "cone" can attach themselves to humans' nervous systems and control their minds, taking control of the authorities and workers, making communication with the outside world impossible, and leaving the responsibility of stopping the invasion up to seven people who have thus far been able to avoid possession by these creatures from parts unknown.

Date of release
1958-09-01
TMDB
4.9 / 10 (46)
Runtime
1h 1m
Genres
Science Fiction, Horror
Director
Bruno VeSota

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Based on: The Puppet Masters

The Brain Eaters is a 1958 independently made American black-and-white science fiction-horror film, produced by Ed Nelson, and directed by Bruno VeSota. The film stars Nelson, Alan Jay Factor, and Joanna Lee, and includes a brief appearance by Leonard Nimoy. The Brain Eaters was distributed in October 1958 by American International Pictures on a double feature in some areas with Earth vs. the Spider (1958), and in others with Terror from the Year 5000 (1958).

Production

The Brain Eaters was known during production as, variously, The Keepers, The Keepers of the Earth, Attack of the Blood Leeches, and Battle of the Brain Eaters.

Bruno VeSota (who had directed Female Jungle for the predecessor to AIP in 1955) wanted to direct a film, so he approached Corman with the script. Corman helped him raise the modest financing needed, as well as arranging distribution through AIP. The film was shot over six days on a budget of $26,000.

After its release, science fiction author Robert A. Heinlein sued for plagiarism, asking for damages of $150,000, claiming that The Brain Eaters was based on his 1951 novel The Puppet Masters. Corman insisted that he was unfamiliar with Heinlein's work, both while reading the script and during the film's production.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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