For over the last month, aside from going to school and working, I have been sitting in my dimly-lit room wondering how the hell my brand laptop became fried and also playing Castlevania: Symphony of the Night on the Xbox live arcade. I stared into the outdated graphics reminiscent of 1990s video games and remembered that Brainscan existed.
Before Stay Alive was released in 2003, Brainscan became the first mainstream killer-video game movie and had excuted the idea better.
Starring Edward Furlong (Terminator 2’s John Connor), the movie revolved around a teenage gorehound that sees an ad for a horror video game in an issue of Fangoria and decides to order it after it is practically claimed to be the scariest game ever made. While playing it, he murders a man in his sleep and cuts off his foot. The next morning, he discovers that he actually murdered the man in real life and is naturally scared shit-less. The next time he enters his room, he encounters the Trickster, a mohawk sporting Primus loving psycho-manic who is connected to the game.
At the end of the film, a nice twist caps off a wild and somewhat psychedelic ride and to this day still leaves me all tingly when I watch it. As a film I love, and a film that everyone I’ve asked about it loves, no one should miss out on this cult classic.
Review by JBirdman
