The Brain Eaters Blu-ray

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S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r

(aka "Attack of the Blood Leeches" or "Earth vs. the Brain Eaters" or "The Keepers" or "Battle of the Brain Eaters"

or "Keepers of the Earth" or "The Brain Snatchers" or "The Keepers")

Directed by Bruno VeSota
USA 1958

When a strange structure emerges from the earth in a small Illinois town, scientist Dr. Paul Kettering is sent to investigate its mysterious origins and purpose. Kettering soon discovers the shocking truth: the object houses subterranean parasites capable of controlling the minds of anyone by attaching themselves at their necks. With the citizenry slowly infiltrated and overtaken and the town cut off from the outside world, Kettering and a small band of those left unenslaved must take on the insurmountable task of halting this menacing invasion from spreading. Starring Ed Nelson (Peyton Place) and Joanna Lee (Plan 9 From Outer Space) and featuring a cameo by Leonard Nimoy (Star Trek), The Brain Eaters is a spellbinding science-fiction nightmare!

***

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.

Posters

Theatrical Release: July 1958

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Review: Shout! Factory - Region 'A' - Blu-ray

Box Cover		CLICK to order from: Bonus Captures:
Distribution	Shout! Factory - Region 'A' - Blu-ray
Runtime	1:01:02.700
Video	1.85:1 1080P Single-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 17,355,995,404 bytes Feature: 17,229,533,184 bytes Video Bitrate: 34.00 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate Blu-ray:
Audio	DTS-HD Master Audio English 1670 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1670 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit)
Subtitles	English, None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Shout! Factory 1.85:1 1080P Single-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 17,355,995,404 bytes Feature: 17,229,533,184 bytes Video Bitrate: 34.00 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video Edition Details: • None Blu-ray Release Date: January 25th, 2022 Standard Blu-ray Case Chapters 12

Comments:

NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Shout! Factory Blu-ray (March 2022): Shout! Factory have transferred Bruno VeSota's The Brain Eaters to Blu-ray. Shout! Factory are selling it on their site as 'exclusive, limited to 1,500 units.' It is cited as being from a "NEW 2K Scan Of A Fine Grain Film Element". The image is quite strong - good contrast, sporadic detail (more due to the production limitations) and a generally pleasing 1080P presentation with depth present and nice fine textures. Despite the Blu-ray case - the aspect ratio is 1.85:1 not 1.37:1.

NOTE: We have added 60 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Shout! Factory use a DTS-HD Master dual-mono track (24-bit) in the original English language. The Brain Eaters has some low-budget aggressive scenes that don't carry excessive bass. The score is by Tom Jonson (his only film credit), that doesn't infuse itself into the film in a dynamically effective way, although some may appreciate the practicality of that as charming. Shout! Factory offer optional yellow English subtitles on their Region 'A' Blu-ray.

The Shout! Factory Blu-ray offers no commentary, no extras nor a poster etc. Nothing.

Bruno VeSota's The Brain Eaters is better than I expected for this genre of pragmatic production-valued 50's science-fiction efforts. It steals from 1956's Invasion of the Body Snatchers - notably in the scene where they can't get through on the phone to any government authority making a veiled reference to the extent the creatures have infested the community. It has an intriguing premise, limited effects and Ed Nelson gives it some underpinning. Fans of these films will enjoy the weaknesses as much as the strengths. It is certainly not a great movie when you take into account the hour-long final product, but there is bona-fide nostalgia. Personally, I love these Corman-Brickman produced Drive-In style cheapies, although I expect I am a dying breed. There is no way we can recommend the bare-bones Shout! Factory Blu-ray at this current exorbitant price. It really feels like they are gouging and taking advantage with zero extras and the wrong AR published on the case. Even at 1500 copies (why?) I don't see future value here, but that is their rationale to charge so highly for it, although there are DVDs of The Brain Eaters that are out-of-print fetching big bucks. Yes, some completists will consider it a must-own. To that group, I expect they will love throwing it in the home theatre system on a rainy Sunday afternoon as a double or triple feature of similar entries.

NOTE: David tells us in FB: "Actually this film ripped off Robert Heinlein’s novel “The Puppet Masters.” Heinlein sued the producers of this film for plagiarism. Don’t remember how the court case came out but anyone who has seen this film and read Heinlein’s novel can figure out the movie rips off a lot of it." (Thanks David!)

Gary Tooze