“The same twin orifices in the cranium. And the victim’s brains have been sucked out.”
The Baron Vitelius d’Estera (Abel Salazar) is a devil worshiper. In Mexico in 1661 the Inquisition puts him on trial. He was accused of witchcraft, heresy, necromancy, for having seduced married women and maidens and for a bunch of other stuff. They subject him to ‘torment’ and should he be maimed at anytime or if he should shed blood or die during said torment that it would be proof of his guilt. He was tortured. His hands were tied behind him and the rope twisted thirty times. He was then subject to the rack. The third degree to extreme but the Baron merely laughs.
Marcos Miranda (Ruben Rojo) stands before the inquisitors and tries to defend the Baron. For that he gets 200 lashes. He has not done a good job of defending the Baron. The Grand Inquisitor sentences the Baron to be burned to death. As the fire is blazing a comet passes overhead. (Actually a picture of a comet.) The Baron curses the descendants of the four Inquisitors. He promises to come back in 300 years when the comet passes overhead again to exact his revenge by killing them.
In 1961 astronomer Professor Saturnino Millán (Luis Aragon) sees the passage of the comet picture. With him are his assistants Reinaldo Miranda (Ruben Rojo) and Victoria Contreras (Rosa Gallardo). And with the flash of a sparkler and the crash of a Styrofoam boulder, voila, the comet brings the Baron back to life in the form of a brain sucking monster. The Baron then proceeds to suck the brains out of everyone he can find.
When the baron finds the descendants of the Inquisitors, his vengeance begins.
“The Brainiac” was released in 1962 and was directed by Chano Urueta. It is a Mexican horror film with what has got to be the silliest monster I have ever seen. It looks like a guy wearing a paper mache head, with yak hair stuck to it that has been left out in the rain. When needed a giant foot long forked tongue comes out of his mouth. And don’t forget the hairy lobster hands. I loved it.
Perhaps the actors in the movie could act, I don’t know. I do know that the actors who did the dubbed voices could not. And the voices they used are very mismatched with the actors. I usually don’t expect a big bald hard-boiled police detective to sound like a 20 year old.
It’s all so unfortunate for the star of the movie Abel Salazar. He was a famous and well respected Mexican actor, director and producer. His career spanned five decades. This was not his best undertaking.
The movie is both bizarre and funny. It is a camp-fest and a cult magnet. Those who have not seen it, but are looking for something with a little extra over-the-top should check it out.