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Michael runs a horror film club at high school. His mother
is dead and his father spends much of his time working away
from home, so Michael (a horror tecno-freak) spends his free
time hanging out with his best friend or spying through the
window on Kimberly, the beautiful teenage daughter of the
neighbouring house. When he is told about Brainscan,
supposedly the most frightening interactive game ever, he
is naturally dubious. After he phones to enquire, the disc
is automatically sent to him without him giving any details.
A series of pulses starts the game. A voice directs him as
he breaks into a house and is goaded into stabbing a man and
taking a trophy by cutting off a foot. After some intense
gameplay he gets a drink, only to find the foot in the fridge
and later to discover there has been a brutal killing in the
district. An insubstantial character calling itself the Trickster
emerges from thin air to tell him he has to play the second
disc, because there was a witness. Michael gets himself deeper
and deeper in trouble and can't see a way out; his best friend
is murdered, Detective Haydon (played by Frank Langella -
a man who knows a thing or two about horror) takes an unhealthy
interest in him, and now he is being persuaded to kill the
beautiful Kimberly...
When
I first sat down to watch this film I had two immediate thoughts.
The first was where has Edward Furlong been since Terminator
2? I really can't remember seeing him in many things.
Here he has a brooding thing going on. The other relates to
the format. It reminded me of Killer Net, the brilliant
Linda La Plante thriller screened on Channel 4 a few years
back (please release it on DVD). In that story a psychology
student sends for a game via the Internet. In it he has to
successfully stalk, kill, dispose of the body and negotiate
his way through a police investigation. Finally he is allowed
to choose his own victim, and when he does an old girlfriend
who flamed him on the net is found murdered. Brainscan
is not too dissimilar in its premise.
There's
some nice tension-building moments, and some light relief
for the viewer which only appears to be desperation for the
key character. In the scene where Michael is attempting to
bury the foot, a dog arrives from nowhere and runs away with
it. Under his breath he asks the dog to drop the foot and
go away, and he will never ask it anything again. As a nice
piece of poetic symmetry the dog shows up again later in the
film when he is hiding from the police. A good example of
the random factor. The dog even gets the swansong during the
final credits.
There
is real danger and real tension in this film, but it is let
down by one major cringeworthy character. The reason for the
inclusion of the ethereal being Trickster is beyond me. Imagine
a cross between Freddy Krueger and Betelgeuse and you'll get
the idea. I like Michael Keaton as an actor, but his Betelgeuse
character was plainly silly and annoying. So it was no surprise
that I reacted to the Trickster in the same way. Quite frankly,
whenever it appears it almost totally destroys the ambience
of the piece; strange, as the film seems to be hinged on the
character. Personally, a creepy inner voice would have been
far more effective. But having said all that this remains
a fine and quite original film.
Ty
Power
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