WEBVTT - Weirdhouse Cinema: The Brainiac 0:00:00.440 --> 0:00:03.519 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:11.000 --> 0:00:13.920 Hey you welcome to Weird House Cinema. This is Rob Lamb. 0:00:13.920 --> 0:00:16.520 And I am Joe McCormick. And today on Weird House 0:00:16.560 --> 0:00:18.960 we're going to be talking about the nineteen sixty two 0:00:19.320 --> 0:00:24.680 Mexican horror film The Brainiac, starring Abel Salazar Rosa, Maria 0:00:24.720 --> 0:00:30.320 Gallardo or Guyardo, and Rubin Rojo. And this is one 0:00:30.360 --> 0:00:33.040 that I saw many, many years ago. I think I 0:00:33.080 --> 0:00:36.040 watched this with a friend in high school. I remembered 0:00:36.200 --> 0:00:40.120 very little about it except the exquisitely bizarre design of 0:00:40.159 --> 0:00:44.320 the monster, and this was such a treat upon revisit. 0:00:44.440 --> 0:00:47.120 It is so absurd, but it also just takes your 0:00:47.159 --> 0:00:50.920 soul on a ride, and in counterintuitive ways, is more 0:00:50.960 --> 0:00:53.160 thought provoking than some viewers may think. 0:00:53.520 --> 0:00:57.160 Yeah, I had seen it previously, I think in a 0:00:57.240 --> 0:01:02.160 rift tracks form so on. I was not expecting expecting 0:01:02.240 --> 0:01:04.960 to have my thoughts provoked much at all, and yet 0:01:05.000 --> 0:01:06.760 that they were provoked, So I will agree with you 0:01:06.800 --> 0:01:10.720 on that. You know, I haven't referenced Michael Weldon's Psychotronic 0:01:10.760 --> 0:01:14.240 Encyclopedia film recently, so I made sure to bust it 0:01:14.280 --> 0:01:17.360 out to look up his entry for the Brainiac and 0:01:17.600 --> 0:01:21.120 sure enough he also praised the creature design as well 0:01:21.160 --> 0:01:25.120 as quote surprisingly surreal elements in the picture, and then 0:01:25.160 --> 0:01:27.839 also adds if you can't find it on television, rent 0:01:27.840 --> 0:01:33.080 the video cassette, which which which makes sense considering that 0:01:33.160 --> 0:01:37.839 this is a film that was widely seen on cable 0:01:37.880 --> 0:01:41.000 television at least back in the day, and probably pre 0:01:41.160 --> 0:01:43.720 cable television as well, so it had it has had 0:01:43.720 --> 0:01:48.240 a long long history of popping up unexpected on television 0:01:48.280 --> 0:01:52.240 sets and then as a rental across various formats. 0:01:52.840 --> 0:01:56.520 I think before there was as much of a market 0:01:56.560 --> 0:01:59.960 as there is today for weird, low budget horror film, 0:02:00.920 --> 0:02:03.280 this was one of the few. This was one of 0:02:03.320 --> 0:02:05.840 the ones that was on people's radar, along with maybe 0:02:06.000 --> 0:02:07.400 ed Wood and stuff like that. 0:02:08.000 --> 0:02:10.720 Yeah, yeah, I mean there are various references to it. 0:02:11.639 --> 0:02:13.840 For example, some of you may be familiar with it 0:02:13.880 --> 0:02:17.280 because Frank Zappa references it in a song from nineteen 0:02:17.320 --> 0:02:20.800 seventy five called Debra Cadabra. This is the one where 0:02:20.960 --> 0:02:24.160 he says, make Negro brainiact fingers but with more hair, 0:02:25.880 --> 0:02:29.120 and he also there's also a line in that says 0:02:29.160 --> 0:02:33.400 from the puffed and flabulent Mexican rubber goods mask, which 0:02:33.440 --> 0:02:38.080 I believe must also be referencing the monster in this picture. 0:02:39.520 --> 0:02:42.520 Now, if you at home are wondering what are Brainiact fingers, 0:02:42.840 --> 0:02:45.920 how are they different from regular fingers, you gotta stay 0:02:45.919 --> 0:02:46.799 tuned you'll find out. 0:02:47.960 --> 0:02:51.320 Essentially, what we have here is a resurrected warlock revenge picture, 0:02:51.560 --> 0:02:55.600 a subgenre that I honestly love. We've covered various examples 0:02:55.639 --> 0:02:58.480 of this on the show before, but there are some 0:02:59.040 --> 0:03:02.280 neat sci fi type. There's a there's some creative use 0:03:02.320 --> 0:03:06.560 of dissolve effects, and again a monster that is deliciously 0:03:06.639 --> 0:03:10.639 creative in conception and an execution is you know, at 0:03:10.639 --> 0:03:13.520 times comical, as low budget monsters often are, but also 0:03:13.560 --> 0:03:17.160 at times pretty terrifying and always absolutely weird. 0:03:17.600 --> 0:03:21.320 And this is also an example of inquisition'sploitation. Is the 0:03:21.360 --> 0:03:22.960 reshorter version of that word. 0:03:23.160 --> 0:03:27.120 No no, I think I think that's it in quisploitation, maybe, 0:03:27.120 --> 0:03:29.120 but I don't. I don't feel like that conveys the 0:03:29.120 --> 0:03:29.680 full meeting. 0:03:30.000 --> 0:03:33.840 Now, as far as resurrected warlock revenge films go, how 0:03:33.880 --> 0:03:36.960 does Brainiac square with your other favorites of the genre. 0:03:37.000 --> 0:03:39.400 I assume you the main one I would think you're 0:03:39.400 --> 0:03:41.920 referring to there is Horror Rises from the tomb Am. 0:03:41.920 --> 0:03:44.560 I wrong, That's That's one of my favorites. So though, 0:03:44.560 --> 0:03:48.920 there was also Piranha Mandir uh Parana Mandir the the 0:03:49.040 --> 0:03:52.960 the Bollywood horror film from the Ramsey Brothers, a very 0:03:52.960 --> 0:03:55.480 similar plotline, and I'm sure I'm forgetting some other ones, 0:03:55.920 --> 0:04:00.720 probably some major examples outside of the Weird House episode list. 0:04:01.320 --> 0:04:04.760 Now, there's a question that has really been interesting me 0:04:04.920 --> 0:04:10.560 since I rewatched Brainiac here, and that is how sympathetic 0:04:10.880 --> 0:04:14.560 is the baron we were talking? We just recently last 0:04:14.600 --> 0:04:18.120 week did an episode on Todd Browning's Dracula in which 0:04:18.120 --> 0:04:22.719 we discussed changes to the character of Dracula as he 0:04:22.760 --> 0:04:26.800 has been The story has been retold and reimagined through 0:04:26.880 --> 0:04:30.640 different adaptations and films over the years, and one of 0:04:30.680 --> 0:04:33.320 the big changes is that in the novel there's really 0:04:33.360 --> 0:04:37.279 nothing sympathetic about Dracula. You're not gonna like Dracula in 0:04:37.320 --> 0:04:41.120 the novel. He's just nasty, horrible, demonic. And then in 0:04:41.160 --> 0:04:44.479 these later versions you get a more tragic Dracula, Dracula 0:04:44.520 --> 0:04:47.280 who there are some good things about him, or maybe 0:04:47.320 --> 0:04:49.960 at least he's got a sad backstory and so you 0:04:50.040 --> 0:04:54.080 sympathize with him, even if it drives him to dark places. 0:04:54.680 --> 0:04:57.760 In this movie, I feel like the backstory really rides 0:04:57.839 --> 0:05:01.440 the knife's edge on whether we should consider the Barren 0:05:01.600 --> 0:05:05.800 character originally sympathetic or not. There are some things said 0:05:06.000 --> 0:05:09.960 about him that are both quite evil and quite good, 0:05:10.080 --> 0:05:12.159 and you don't know which ones to believe because we 0:05:12.240 --> 0:05:14.720 never see the truth of the matter, so we only 0:05:14.760 --> 0:05:17.360 see him in revenge mode, and we don't know if 0:05:17.400 --> 0:05:23.680 he's like truly a wronged man who was just suffering 0:05:23.760 --> 0:05:27.279 at the unjust hands of the Inquisition and then came 0:05:27.320 --> 0:05:30.160 back for revenge, or was he always a nasty warlock? 0:05:30.480 --> 0:05:33.599 True? True to what extent are these charges by the 0:05:33.640 --> 0:05:38.320 Inquisition valid at all? Again? Are they all just trumped 0:05:38.400 --> 0:05:41.440 up charges against a man who did some good in 0:05:41.480 --> 0:05:45.520 the world, And there's some strong questions regarding whether he 0:05:45.640 --> 0:05:48.960 was a man to begin with. Perhaps we have indeed 0:05:49.440 --> 0:05:52.560 an alien visitor here who does some good in the 0:05:52.600 --> 0:05:55.559 world and is punished for it, or it just doesn't 0:05:55.560 --> 0:05:57.400 know how humans work and does a mix of both, 0:05:57.520 --> 0:06:00.880 not really understanding how one act falls on the side 0:06:00.880 --> 0:06:02.640 of evil. In one act that it falls on the 0:06:02.680 --> 0:06:03.240 side of good. 0:06:03.880 --> 0:06:06.760 Okay, so I was gonna say, elevator pitch. This is 0:06:06.800 --> 0:06:08.680 not really an elevator pitch, but it might be a 0:06:08.680 --> 0:06:11.840 good tagline for like a repackaging of the film, and 0:06:11.880 --> 0:06:15.640 that is the Spanish Inquisition could not have expected this. 0:06:15.960 --> 0:06:18.440 Oh that's pretty good, pretty good. The only thing that 0:06:18.480 --> 0:06:20.599 came to my mind was Dracula. But make it weirder, 0:06:21.080 --> 0:06:23.000 not that it has much to do with Dracula other 0:06:23.080 --> 0:06:26.560 than the evil the baron. The Baron of Terror in 0:06:26.600 --> 0:06:30.359 this picture is dracula esque in some regards. You know, 0:06:30.360 --> 0:06:34.600 he's a suave dude who does weird eye hypnosis stuff, 0:06:35.360 --> 0:06:41.040 and you know, enjoys the ladies, enjoys not their blood 0:06:41.279 --> 0:06:44.320 but their brains. Loves them for their minds, but not 0:06:44.400 --> 0:06:45.000 in the good way. 0:06:45.520 --> 0:06:49.040 I think there are some fairly strong similarities. 0:06:48.720 --> 0:06:52.880 Yeah, yeah, but not in terms of like plot or 0:06:52.920 --> 0:06:53.800 anything outside of that. 0:06:54.080 --> 0:06:56.400 I think one of the big differences is that clearly 0:06:56.839 --> 0:07:00.360 Crosses would not work on the Baron of Terror. Here. 0:07:00.400 --> 0:07:02.760 The brainiac would laugh at your at your crucifix. 0:07:03.360 --> 0:07:06.200 That's right, all right, Let's hear just a little bit 0:07:06.240 --> 0:07:07.159 of the trailer audio. 0:07:10.400 --> 0:07:15.200 The RADIANC, I. 0:07:15.160 --> 0:07:19.800 Shall return to your world within three hundred years. When 0:07:19.840 --> 0:07:22.200 that comment completes its cycle, it is once again in 0:07:22.240 --> 0:07:28.120 these latitudes. Three hundred years later, the Count returns to Earth. 0:07:28.320 --> 0:07:36.200 In The Brainier, see horrible and insane killings. As the 0:07:36.280 --> 0:07:42.480 Count turns into a monster and seeks his revenge, see 0:07:42.520 --> 0:07:48.679 that Count feast from human brains. Don't miss the most 0:07:48.880 --> 0:07:50.600 horror film film of. 0:07:50.480 --> 0:08:01.040 The scripture, The Radiac, The RADIANC, The RADIANC, The Rainier, 0:08:01.720 --> 0:08:05.480 B B B. 0:08:10.040 --> 0:08:13.120 All right, now, if you want to watch The Brainiac 0:08:13.200 --> 0:08:16.320 as well, certainly you can follow follow Michael Weldon's advice 0:08:16.360 --> 0:08:18.200 and watch it on TV or look for the video 0:08:18.240 --> 0:08:22.679 cassette upgrading that for today. There's a really nice looking 0:08:22.720 --> 0:08:26.000 blu ray from Indicator. But again, the film has a 0:08:26.000 --> 0:08:29.200 long history of playing on cable on television. It's been 0:08:29.240 --> 0:08:33.040 available on DVD for quite a while. The Riff Tracks 0:08:33.200 --> 0:08:36.120 guys covered it at one point. I didn't give myself 0:08:36.240 --> 0:08:38.200 enough time to get my hands on a physical copy, 0:08:38.280 --> 0:08:41.360 so I streamed it on Prime. But even though it 0:08:41.400 --> 0:08:43.560 was good quality, I could only pull up the non 0:08:43.640 --> 0:08:45.160 Rift Tracks version at first, and I had to go 0:08:45.240 --> 0:08:48.760 on the app on my phone to find the unriffed version, 0:08:49.679 --> 0:08:51.360 added it to my list, and then was able to 0:08:51.360 --> 0:08:53.640 pull it up in the big screen. I will also 0:08:53.760 --> 0:08:57.599 point out that the version I watched is is the 0:08:57.960 --> 0:09:02.800 English dub like the old Kay Gordon Murray English dub. 0:09:03.240 --> 0:09:06.920 But there's one scene that's completely in Spanish with no subtitles. 0:09:07.280 --> 0:09:09.920 Yep. Yeah, if we watched the same version, I had 0:09:09.920 --> 0:09:12.480 the exact same search problems as you like. Search often 0:09:12.520 --> 0:09:15.040 wouldn't bring it up. I had to get it like 0:09:15.559 --> 0:09:18.280 in my library on one device before I could actually 0:09:18.360 --> 0:09:22.560 view it on another one. So yeah, same issue. And also, yes, 0:09:22.679 --> 0:09:24.880 the scene in Spanish in the middle of the movie, 0:09:25.160 --> 0:09:28.120 it's the scene where the characters are like reading newspaper 0:09:28.200 --> 0:09:29.840 articles about the brain murders. 0:09:30.040 --> 0:09:33.600 Yeah. Luckily the context is pretty much implied. You don't 0:09:33.640 --> 0:09:35.840 need to speak Spanish or have a translation to know 0:09:36.040 --> 0:09:37.440 basically what's going on here. 0:09:37.760 --> 0:09:39.800 So maybe they were just trying to cut costs on 0:09:39.840 --> 0:09:42.400 the dub, you know, the scenes that are just a 0:09:42.440 --> 0:09:44.280 recap of what you've already seen anyway. 0:09:44.600 --> 0:09:47.160 Yeah, and or if you see enough of movies like this, 0:09:47.240 --> 0:09:58.559 you essentially know what's going on. All right. Let's get 0:09:58.559 --> 0:10:03.559 into the people behind this film. The director is Chano Iwerta, 0:10:03.920 --> 0:10:07.360 who lived nineteen oh five through nineteen seventy nine. Mexican 0:10:07.360 --> 0:10:11.600 film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor active behind the camera 0:10:11.640 --> 0:10:15.600 from nineteen twenty eight through nineteen seventy four. So while 0:10:15.720 --> 0:10:18.480 certainly active during the golden age of Mexican cinema, which 0:10:18.520 --> 0:10:23.199 is roughly thirty six through fifty six, his career expands 0:10:23.440 --> 0:10:27.120 beyond it in both temporal directions. Among his most well 0:10:27.160 --> 0:10:32.319 regarded films or nineteen fifties Legotta di Sangria, fifty two's 0:10:32.480 --> 0:10:37.559 Labestia Magnifica, and fifty seven's El Raton. His genre films 0:10:37.559 --> 0:10:40.000 include nineteen fifty four As the Witch, nineteen sixties The 0:10:40.040 --> 0:10:44.200 Witch's Mirror, sixty three is the Living Head, That's a 0:10:44.240 --> 0:10:48.360 Living Severed Head film, and several Blue Demon Luca movies, 0:10:48.520 --> 0:10:52.240 beginning with nineteen sixty five's Blue Demon and also including 0:10:52.360 --> 0:10:55.600 Blue Demon Versus The Satanic Power from sixty six that 0:10:55.640 --> 0:10:58.520 one co starred El Santo, and then there are two 0:10:58.520 --> 0:11:02.000 sixty eight films, Blue Demon Versus The Diabolical Women and 0:11:02.679 --> 0:11:05.200 Blue Demon Versus The Infernal Brains. 0:11:05.840 --> 0:11:08.120 I think I've gone looking for a couple of these 0:11:08.160 --> 0:11:09.120 in the past. 0:11:10.480 --> 0:11:13.800 He also acted again, especially later in life. His credits 0:11:13.800 --> 0:11:17.120 on this front include two Sam Peckinpah films, The Wild 0:11:17.120 --> 0:11:19.160 Bunch from sixty nine and Bring Me the Head of 0:11:19.200 --> 0:11:24.000 Alfredo Garcia from seventy four. All Right, in terms of 0:11:24.240 --> 0:11:28.080 the script and the story, here we have Fredrico Kiel, 0:11:28.520 --> 0:11:32.840 who lived nineteen seventeen through nineteen eighty five. Adaptation story 0:11:32.840 --> 0:11:37.160 credit here Mexican writer who also directed in the early sixties, 0:11:37.240 --> 0:11:40.200 kicking things off with the first Neutron movie in nineteen 0:11:40.280 --> 0:11:43.600 sixty that we referenced this in one of our recent 0:11:43.600 --> 0:11:50.000 episodes because this starred Wolf Ruvinsky's and co starred Claudio Brook. No. 0:11:50.400 --> 0:11:54.160 Yeah, Wolf Rovinski's was one of the bad guys, one 0:11:54.160 --> 0:11:56.840 of the Martians in Santo Versus the Martian Invasion. 0:11:57.160 --> 0:12:00.880 Yeah, a luchador turned actor, but not a mass lucidor 0:12:01.160 --> 0:12:01.959 too handsome for. 0:12:01.920 --> 0:12:04.600 That, so he played kind of like Kirk Douglas. 0:12:04.720 --> 0:12:08.240 Yeah. So there's another Neutron film in sixty three, and 0:12:08.559 --> 0:12:12.280 career also wrote and directed several Santo and Blue Demon films, 0:12:12.520 --> 0:12:16.199 as well as some Nostra Damis films and vampire films. 0:12:16.800 --> 0:12:19.000 He's also acted and is in fact one of the 0:12:19.000 --> 0:12:22.520 detectives in this film. He was also a cartoonist. Oh, 0:12:22.440 --> 0:12:24.960 which of the detectives is he? Is he the comic 0:12:25.000 --> 0:12:27.680 relief one or the serious one? I am not sure. 0:12:29.400 --> 0:12:31.079 I've will had a note getting it. When we get 0:12:31.080 --> 0:12:33.640 into the cast here, I found some contradictions on the 0:12:33.720 --> 0:12:38.080 cast lists between two of the major movie databases, specifically 0:12:38.080 --> 0:12:41.520 concerning the actresses. I think I got it straightened out, 0:12:42.360 --> 0:12:45.920 but it also led to me not going as in 0:12:46.000 --> 0:12:47.600 depth on the supporting cast here. 0:12:48.200 --> 0:12:50.080 Okay, all right. 0:12:50.160 --> 0:12:54.079 The other adaptation story credit goes to Aldolfo Lopez Portillo 0:12:55.080 --> 0:12:57.760 dates unknown, credited on several films from the sixty seventies 0:12:57.760 --> 0:13:00.400 and eighties, mostly westerns, but also including sixties. There's The 0:13:00.400 --> 0:13:06.080 Living Head. And then, according to IMDb, Antonio Arelana nineteen 0:13:06.080 --> 0:13:10.520 twenty three through twenty eighteen, uncredited writer on this one. 0:13:10.840 --> 0:13:14.000 Mexican writer, actor and occasional director. He wrote on several 0:13:14.040 --> 0:13:17.320 Santo films, including sixty two Santo Versus The Vampire Women. 0:13:17.760 --> 0:13:19.840 I also have to single out a title from nineteen 0:13:19.920 --> 0:13:25.280 ninety one called El Ninja Mexicano, and that has Germain, 0:13:25.600 --> 0:13:29.960 Roeblis and Roberto Canito. One name that's going to come 0:13:30.000 --> 0:13:32.320 up in a minute, and another name we've referenced in 0:13:32.480 --> 0:13:37.240 multiple episodes on Mexican films. Okay, all right, but the 0:13:37.240 --> 0:13:39.920 star of this picture the Baron of Terror himself, and 0:13:39.920 --> 0:13:44.840 I guess the brainiac playing Baron Vastilius Destera and also 0:13:44.840 --> 0:13:47.800 the producer of the picture. We have Abel Salazar, who 0:13:47.800 --> 0:13:52.280 lived nineteen seventeen through nineteen ninety five. He also directed 0:13:52.320 --> 0:13:57.880 fourteen pictures. He played vampire hunter doctor Enriquez in fifty 0:13:57.920 --> 0:14:01.920 seven's The Vampire and also in fifty eight's The Vampire's Coffin. 0:14:02.760 --> 0:14:05.800 He also acts in two well regarded old school Mexican 0:14:05.800 --> 0:14:08.800 horror films, fifty nine's Black Pit of Doctor m and 0:14:08.880 --> 0:14:12.200 sixty three's Curse of the Crying Woman. He's also in 0:14:12.240 --> 0:14:15.760 The Living Head and nineteen fifty nine's The Man and 0:14:15.840 --> 0:14:18.400 the Monster. He produced several of those as well. 0:14:18.960 --> 0:14:21.600 The Living Head keeps coming up. Maybe this is a 0:14:21.640 --> 0:14:22.920 sign that we need to go to that. 0:14:22.960 --> 0:14:24.960 Next Yeah, yeah, the posters look cool. 0:14:25.280 --> 0:14:27.400 I've also seen a lot of references to the Curse 0:14:27.440 --> 0:14:31.120 of the Crying Woman. Is the Urona movie? Yeah, I 0:14:31.160 --> 0:14:35.760 actually I just looked it up. The Malediction de la Youurona. 0:14:35.480 --> 0:14:37.600 Yes, this is not a film I've seen, but I'm 0:14:37.880 --> 0:14:40.080 familiar with it just by reputation. It shows up in 0:14:40.080 --> 0:14:43.440 a lot of lists of films that I've considered checking out. 0:14:43.800 --> 0:14:47.840 So this guy really kept reminding me of somebody. He's 0:14:48.080 --> 0:14:50.600 great in the film. He's got a lot of scenes 0:14:50.600 --> 0:14:53.960 where he actually just doesn't say anything, like other characters 0:14:54.000 --> 0:14:56.840 are talking at him and he is sitting there silently, 0:14:57.000 --> 0:15:00.960 either staring at them menacingly or just king and laughing 0:15:01.080 --> 0:15:04.520 and you know, scoffing at whatever they're throwing in his face. 0:15:05.080 --> 0:15:07.440 And so he does a lot of that. But also 0:15:07.520 --> 0:15:10.920 he's got some some some swagger when he talks. But 0:15:11.600 --> 0:15:14.520 the face he makes, especially when he kind of looks 0:15:14.560 --> 0:15:19.120 skeptical with one raised eyebrow, he was really really reminding 0:15:19.160 --> 0:15:22.880 me of Garrett Graham as Beef in The Phantom of 0:15:22.920 --> 0:15:25.680 the Paradise. Do you see the comparison. 0:15:25.520 --> 0:15:28.000 Yeah, yeah, I can see some Garrett Graham there. I 0:15:28.040 --> 0:15:32.360 also kept thinking of the actor, contemporary actor Patrick Fischler, 0:15:33.200 --> 0:15:35.920 who's in like Mulholland Drive and a ton of other things. 0:15:36.240 --> 0:15:40.920 I can see that too, but with more swaggering charisma. 0:15:41.040 --> 0:15:45.160 Yeah, but also disdain, just judgment, looking at people who 0:15:45.200 --> 0:15:47.440 he who are who are lesser than him. 0:15:48.000 --> 0:15:51.800 Yeah, all right, so we'll talk more about this performance. 0:15:52.960 --> 0:15:56.520 On the good guy side of things. We have again 0:15:57.600 --> 0:16:03.200 Rubin Rojo playing a role. Again. This is a this 0:16:03.280 --> 0:16:05.160 is there's a revenge element to this, but it's a 0:16:05.200 --> 0:16:09.720 revenge across time, which we sometimes see with undead Warlock pictures. 0:16:10.040 --> 0:16:13.440 So in the past he plays Ronaldo Miranda and in 0:16:13.440 --> 0:16:16.920 the present he plays Marcos Miranda or any other way around. 0:16:16.960 --> 0:16:21.000 Okay, Marcos is the one in the seventeenth century, the 0:16:21.040 --> 0:16:23.960 modern one. They say Rinaldo online. I don't remember if 0:16:23.960 --> 0:16:25.520 they ever say that in the movie. In the movie 0:16:25.560 --> 0:16:26.600 they call him Ronnie. 0:16:26.880 --> 0:16:29.040 Okay, dub at least that's the thing about the dove 0:16:29.080 --> 0:16:31.560 they do. They do streamline some things. 0:16:31.680 --> 0:16:35.640 Yeah, in the dub he's Ronnie and Victoria Contreras is Vicky. 0:16:36.240 --> 0:16:41.160 Okay. Well. Rojo lived nineteen twenty two through nineteen ninety 0:16:41.160 --> 0:16:44.240 three Mexican actor, perhaps best known for his award winning 0:16:44.240 --> 0:16:47.800 supporting role in nineteen forty eight Soldad. He also played 0:16:47.840 --> 0:16:50.680 Matthew in the nineteen sixty one American Bible epic King 0:16:50.720 --> 0:16:55.640 of Kings, which I think mostly it had a large 0:16:55.720 --> 0:16:59.600 American cast, but also made use of multiple Mexican actors 0:16:59.600 --> 0:17:03.760 as well. Rip Torn plays Judas in That By the Way. 0:17:05.480 --> 0:17:08.280 Rojo's other credits include fifty six is Alexander the Great, 0:17:08.440 --> 0:17:11.560 sixty three Santo in the Wax Museum, seventy nine's The 0:17:11.600 --> 0:17:16.159 Whip Versus Satan, and nineteen sixty nine's Romero starring Roald Julia. 0:17:16.720 --> 0:17:18.560 I feel like we haven't seen the last of him. 0:17:19.600 --> 0:17:22.040 No offense to to Ruben, but he's not really the 0:17:22.119 --> 0:17:25.720 highlight of this film. He is there to just be 0:17:25.880 --> 0:17:27.840 the good guy. He doesn't have a whole lot to 0:17:27.880 --> 0:17:28.439 do often. 0:17:28.880 --> 0:17:32.320 Yeah, and the kind of ghosts for most of the 0:17:32.359 --> 0:17:34.040 rest of the cast. Really, I mean everyone is this 0:17:34.160 --> 0:17:37.600 kind of fulfilling a basic role and you know, doing 0:17:37.920 --> 0:17:42.000 a good job within those roles. But yeah, this is 0:17:42.040 --> 0:17:43.439 about our villain and our monster. 0:17:43.760 --> 0:17:46.360 It's Brainiac's world. We're just in it, that's right. 0:17:47.080 --> 0:17:51.400 Okay. We have Vicky as you referenced earlier, or Victoria 0:17:52.240 --> 0:17:57.440 Contrena's contreras. This is our leading lady. This is one 0:17:57.440 --> 0:18:01.160 of the situations where I found some confusing casting information 0:18:01.240 --> 0:18:04.760 between the databases, but I believe I have it correct here. 0:18:05.000 --> 0:18:09.080 Played by Rosa Marie Gallardo. Her other films include sixty 0:18:09.119 --> 0:18:11.480 one's Mark of the dead Man, sixty five's Creature of 0:18:11.520 --> 0:18:15.120 the Walking Dead, sixty fives she Wolves of the Ring. 0:18:15.240 --> 0:18:17.480 That's a luchadora movie. In nineteen seventies. 0:18:17.560 --> 0:18:19.879 Ruby Okay, so she is usually going to be in 0:18:19.920 --> 0:18:24.320 the same scenes as Ruben Rojo. Again, they're mostly they're 0:18:24.359 --> 0:18:27.199 the good characters, but they're mostly just reactive. They're like 0:18:27.320 --> 0:18:31.439 young people who are studying astronomy and they're just sucked 0:18:31.440 --> 0:18:34.480 into the world of the Baron of Terror, and they 0:18:34.560 --> 0:18:37.000 kind of hang around in that world until finally he 0:18:37.040 --> 0:18:40.000 tries to suck their brains out, and fortunately they're saved 0:18:40.000 --> 0:18:40.960 at the last minute. 0:18:41.040 --> 0:18:44.840 That's right now. One of the victims is noteworthy, at 0:18:44.920 --> 0:18:48.119 least one of the victims credited just as bar Girl. 0:18:48.880 --> 0:18:52.040 She is the you'll know when we come to this scene. 0:18:52.280 --> 0:18:54.840 She is a lady hanging out at the bar that 0:18:54.920 --> 0:18:59.480 the baron ends up killing and brain gobbling. Played by 0:19:00.320 --> 0:19:04.720 Erodny Welter. She lived nineteen thirty through nineteen ninety eight. 0:19:05.119 --> 0:19:08.320 Mexican actress with a ton of Golden age credits. She 0:19:08.440 --> 0:19:11.600 was in the Lewis Bunnell film The Criminal Life of 0:19:12.119 --> 0:19:15.639 Archibaldo de la Cruz from fifty five, but she pops 0:19:15.680 --> 0:19:19.000 up in various horror films. She's in the Lucidora film 0:19:19.000 --> 0:19:22.080 The Panther Women from sixty seven. Her other credits include 0:19:22.119 --> 0:19:25.560 El Gampiro sixty one's The Devil's Hand and The Vampire's Coffin. 0:19:26.160 --> 0:19:27.720 She has a good scene in fact, one of the 0:19:27.800 --> 0:19:29.960 ones I was just talking about in a minute ago, 0:19:30.000 --> 0:19:32.160 where people talk at the baron and he doesn't say 0:19:32.160 --> 0:19:35.400 anything back to them. She's drunk at a bar and 0:19:35.560 --> 0:19:38.040 is I guess, falling in love with him while he 0:19:38.119 --> 0:19:40.920 just stands there staring at some place like behind her head, 0:19:40.960 --> 0:19:45.120 over her shoulder, and then suddenly he brainiacts out, and 0:19:45.640 --> 0:19:47.280 we'll describe what happens. 0:19:47.040 --> 0:19:49.160 Later, but yeah, she gets a great scream in, that's 0:19:49.160 --> 0:19:49.560 for sure. 0:19:49.720 --> 0:19:53.800 Yeah, there's a brainiac process. He goes into processing mode. 0:19:53.680 --> 0:19:57.199 All right. The lead detective, the Commandant, is played by 0:19:57.240 --> 0:20:00.720 David Silva, who lived nineteen seventeen through nineteen seventy six. 0:20:01.960 --> 0:20:04.840 Pretty standard performance here, but he was an opera singer 0:20:04.880 --> 0:20:08.520 and actor with some great connections, connections to some shining 0:20:08.560 --> 0:20:11.359 gems of Mexican weird cinema. He pops up in The 0:20:11.400 --> 0:20:14.480 Batwoman from sixty eight, which we previously referenced. 0:20:14.560 --> 0:20:18.080 Really fun flick starring one of the Martians from zetto 0:20:18.200 --> 0:20:20.920 in Yes, the Martian Invasion. Yeah, yeah, it's little Lichadora 0:20:20.960 --> 0:20:25.600 film with fish people in it. But Silva also appears 0:20:25.840 --> 0:20:30.439 in both Alejandro Jodowski's Al Topo from seventy and Holy 0:20:30.520 --> 0:20:34.159 Mountain from seventy three. I don't recall him in that, 0:20:34.320 --> 0:20:36.800 but that would make sense. He feels like he's from 0:20:36.800 --> 0:20:39.800 a different world than most of the cast. This is 0:20:39.840 --> 0:20:42.840 the serious one, right, not the comic relief cop. The 0:20:42.840 --> 0:20:45.160 comic relief cop is Benny. 0:20:46.160 --> 0:20:49.359 Yeah, this is the serious one. I'm pretty sure. He's 0:20:49.440 --> 0:20:54.720 also in a pair of weird films from Juan Lopez Montezuma, 0:20:55.560 --> 0:20:58.960 The Mention of Madness from seventy one and Alokarda from 0:20:59.000 --> 0:21:02.359 seventy seven. They are both those both star Claudio Brook. 0:21:03.040 --> 0:21:05.199 I have not seen Alacarta yet. It's supposed to be 0:21:05.200 --> 0:21:08.680 pretty terrific. I've seen The Mansion of Madness and it 0:21:08.760 --> 0:21:12.159 is super weird as well. I would say almost Holy 0:21:12.200 --> 0:21:14.800 mountain Es, well, not Holy mountain esk its. Holy Mountain 0:21:14.920 --> 0:21:17.320 is kind of on its own level, but let's say 0:21:17.320 --> 0:21:20.239 it has a lot of surreal elements. It is a 0:21:20.280 --> 0:21:23.320 film in which the inmates run an asylum, and the 0:21:23.400 --> 0:21:27.399 leader of the of the asylum folk is played by 0:21:27.400 --> 0:21:30.240 Claudio Brook in a very spirited performance. 0:21:30.720 --> 0:21:32.080 That's a recipe for fun. 0:21:32.440 --> 0:21:36.720 Yeah, all right, now, just a few other characters. There's 0:21:36.760 --> 0:21:39.720 another double role here, someone who is an inquisitor in 0:21:39.760 --> 0:21:42.679 the past and is a victim in the present. This 0:21:42.720 --> 0:21:44.760 is the one that gets to make some really crazy eyes. 0:21:45.240 --> 0:21:49.480 Played by Germain Roeblis Live nineteen twenty nine through twenty fifteen, 0:21:50.000 --> 0:21:52.400 Mexican actor in horror movie legend in his own right, 0:21:53.240 --> 0:21:55.960 the Vampiro movies that I mentioned, well, he plays Count 0:21:56.200 --> 0:22:00.680 Caro di luvade Le Lavoud in those. He plays Nostradamus 0:22:00.760 --> 0:22:03.600 in the Nostradamus films, which I don't know much about, 0:22:03.600 --> 0:22:05.960 but it looks like they center around an evil Nostradamus, 0:22:06.400 --> 0:22:10.639 and he's in the Living Head as well. Also pops 0:22:10.720 --> 0:22:13.119 up in the Jess Franco film from seventy one, She 0:22:13.280 --> 0:22:14.280 Killed in Ecstasy. 0:22:14.520 --> 0:22:17.120 This is the guy who plays in his modern of course, 0:22:17.160 --> 0:22:19.080 he's one of the inquisitors, as you said, but in 0:22:19.119 --> 0:22:23.080 his modern form he is the professor. He's a professor 0:22:23.119 --> 0:22:25.680 of history, and he gets to invite the baron over 0:22:25.720 --> 0:22:28.600 to his house to meet his beautiful daughter and then 0:22:28.960 --> 0:22:31.879 talk about the history of the Inquisition. What do you know, 0:22:32.040 --> 0:22:33.879 it's just his area of specialty. 0:22:34.119 --> 0:22:37.480 It's not going to go well. And one, I'll say 0:22:37.520 --> 0:22:40.040 a couple of others here. This film was not directed 0:22:40.040 --> 0:22:43.399 by Renee Cardona, but just because he didn't direct it 0:22:43.400 --> 0:22:47.000 doesn't mean he can't show up anyway. He also plays 0:22:47.000 --> 0:22:51.840 one of the inquisitors, slashed like doomed aristocrats that is 0:22:51.920 --> 0:22:53.959 ultimately killed by the baron. 0:22:54.440 --> 0:22:57.520 He's like the head inquisitor. And then in the modern 0:22:57.600 --> 0:23:00.480 day he's the guy who's an industrialist coming up with 0:23:00.560 --> 0:23:01.960 new metal alloys. 0:23:02.680 --> 0:23:05.760 Yes, let me show you my alloys in the basement. 0:23:05.880 --> 0:23:08.480 Yeah, you want to see my alloys? 0:23:08.520 --> 0:23:13.359 Bro. And then there's there's one more one of the 0:23:13.440 --> 0:23:19.320 let's say. Senora Mensis is played by Ophilia Gomin. She 0:23:19.440 --> 0:23:22.720 lived nineteen twenty one through two thousand and five, Spanish 0:23:22.760 --> 0:23:25.520 actress whose other films include sixty two Is the Exterminating 0:23:25.560 --> 0:23:29.639 Angel and The Man in the Monster. Now. I mentioned 0:23:29.680 --> 0:23:32.480 Kay Gordon Murray earlier, who lived nineteen twenty two through 0:23:32.600 --> 0:23:37.359 nineteen seventy nine, producer and distributor of the English dub 0:23:37.560 --> 0:23:40.440 of this film. Murray is a familiar name here because 0:23:40.480 --> 0:23:43.800 he was responsible for the US theatrical distribution of several 0:23:43.840 --> 0:23:47.080 different Mexican films back in the day, including fifty nine 0:23:47.119 --> 0:23:50.920 Santa Claus and sixty three's Doctor of Doom. I think 0:23:50.960 --> 0:23:54.520 that's maybe his voice is the inquisitor during the opening sequence. 0:23:54.760 --> 0:23:58.399 Oh interesting, I was gonna say, it's very similar. The 0:23:59.000 --> 0:24:01.879 so we get some narra in the prologue of the film, 0:24:01.880 --> 0:24:03.480 and I'll talk about this in a bit, but it 0:24:03.520 --> 0:24:08.360 felt familiar. It felt like the narrator from Santa Claus. 0:24:08.840 --> 0:24:11.800 Yes, yes, like it would be. The voice should be saying, Lupita, 0:24:11.920 --> 0:24:14.600 do not sentence the baron to death. 0:24:15.640 --> 0:24:16.400 Yeah, exactly. 0:24:17.000 --> 0:24:20.720 And then finally, the composer on this picture is Gustavo 0:24:20.880 --> 0:24:24.760 Caesar Carrion, who lived nineteen sixteen through nineteen ninety six. 0:24:25.040 --> 0:24:27.880 Mexican film composer who worked on a number of horror films, 0:24:28.160 --> 0:24:30.960 including several of the titles we already mentioned, The Witch 0:24:31.040 --> 0:24:34.880 Is Mirror, El Vampiro, Curse of the Crying Woman, and more. Now, 0:24:34.920 --> 0:24:37.159 this guy recently came up on my radar because I 0:24:37.200 --> 0:24:41.200 was reading a twenty twenty four interview with jess Oborn 0:24:41.720 --> 0:24:46.840 of Electric Wizard in Psychedelic Baby magazine, and they're asking 0:24:46.880 --> 0:24:49.119 him a lot of questions about, you know, old horror 0:24:49.119 --> 0:24:53.480 movies as these as they tend to and he said, quote, 0:24:53.480 --> 0:24:55.800 I'm really into the music from Mexican horror films. It 0:24:55.800 --> 0:24:58.840 has a strange mix of sinister orchestral music with primitive 0:24:58.880 --> 0:25:04.240 electronic noise like Gustava Caesar, carry on. It's really cool stuff. 0:25:04.400 --> 0:25:07.280 And I have to say I think that largely pans 0:25:07.280 --> 0:25:09.280 out at least early on in the film. The music 0:25:09.320 --> 0:25:13.560 is certainly very sinister and orchestral, very dramatic. But then 0:25:13.560 --> 0:25:16.359 when the sci fi elements start bleeding into the picture, 0:25:17.119 --> 0:25:19.560 we do get some electronic elements, like a little dash 0:25:19.560 --> 0:25:20.880 of space music here and there. 0:25:21.440 --> 0:25:24.439 Yeah, And I can see how that's also a change 0:25:24.440 --> 0:25:29.560 from the kind of core of that band's musical musical 0:25:29.600 --> 0:25:31.720 movie kind of crossover space, which I would say is 0:25:31.720 --> 0:25:33.400 something like The Witchfinder General. 0:25:34.880 --> 0:25:37.920 Yeah. Yeah. Having said, I am curious to check out 0:25:37.960 --> 0:25:40.960 some of his scores for these other films of note, 0:25:40.960 --> 0:25:43.040 like Curse of the Crying Woman. I wonder if if 0:25:43.080 --> 0:25:45.840 those have any of these electronic elements, or if this 0:25:45.920 --> 0:25:48.760 is just a case where's he's scoring this film and 0:25:48.760 --> 0:25:52.760 it's like, oh, a comet shows up astronomy factors into 0:25:52.800 --> 0:25:55.080 the picture, so we need to add some sci fi noises. 0:25:55.119 --> 0:25:56.959 I wonder if those are present in these other pictures 0:25:57.119 --> 0:26:00.880 or not. So I would say, for myn a more 0:26:00.920 --> 0:26:04.399 memorable score than a lot of the Mexican genre films 0:26:04.400 --> 0:26:07.159 from this period have been in that we viewed for 0:26:07.160 --> 0:26:10.240 Weird House Cinema. Well, they're not counting Santa Claus. Santa 0:26:10.240 --> 0:26:13.560 Claus has very memorable music, but in a different way. 0:26:14.240 --> 0:26:17.640 You know, a really great ending of this film would 0:26:17.640 --> 0:26:20.800 have been if instead of death for the baron, he 0:26:20.960 --> 0:26:24.399 just became Santa Claus. Did you see that transition? It 0:26:24.400 --> 0:26:28.200 would make sense Santa Brainiac. Yeah, I think it would work. 0:26:28.359 --> 0:26:30.880 Someone should do it. He sees you when you're sleeping, 0:26:30.960 --> 0:26:33.200 he knows when you're awake. He knows if you've been 0:26:33.200 --> 0:26:34.840 bad or good. I mean Brainiac would know. 0:26:35.160 --> 0:26:37.280 Yeah, you need to leave a bowl of brains out 0:26:37.320 --> 0:26:40.240 for him in a little spin. 0:26:48.880 --> 0:26:50.399 All right, you ready to talk about the plot. 0:26:50.480 --> 0:26:51.280 Let's get into it. 0:26:52.119 --> 0:26:57.000 So the credits play over some very nice Goyademonia illustrations. 0:26:57.359 --> 0:26:59.879 We've got some kind of winged imp with a lion 0:27:00.160 --> 0:27:02.800 head sprouting out of his crotch, who appears to be 0:27:02.840 --> 0:27:06.440 swooping around in the air or terrorizing the peasantry. There's 0:27:06.480 --> 0:27:09.480 also imagery of the tortures of the damned. We get 0:27:09.520 --> 0:27:14.040 penitents writhing in agony and these naked wretches fusing into trees. 0:27:14.280 --> 0:27:17.520 So I think there's a bit of Dante stuff going 0:27:17.520 --> 0:27:21.160 on here. Also, there's a really good one under at 0:27:21.160 --> 0:27:24.440 one point in the credits of two Witches. So of 0:27:24.480 --> 0:27:27.119 these witches cruising on a broom, two on one broom, 0:27:27.440 --> 0:27:30.119 and then an owl in the background looking at them 0:27:30.160 --> 0:27:34.080 like you're overloading that broom, and then the title, of 0:27:34.119 --> 0:27:37.320 course appears. It's not Brainiac in the original. The original 0:27:37.359 --> 0:27:40.399 title is El Baron del Terror, The Baron of Terror. 0:27:42.560 --> 0:27:45.960 But plenty of sick six sketches with the credits, also 0:27:46.119 --> 0:27:50.000 witches with melting mask faces, a lady with breasts on 0:27:50.040 --> 0:27:54.119 her back, more gargoyles, feathers and talons in places they 0:27:54.160 --> 0:27:58.640 shouldn't be, and predator head groins. Now, when we come 0:27:58.640 --> 0:28:01.120 to the action, we're told it is the year sixteen 0:28:01.200 --> 0:28:04.760 sixty one in a bleeding type face. I like the 0:28:05.440 --> 0:28:08.159 what do you call it, the kind of glowing white, 0:28:08.280 --> 0:28:11.000 bleeding type script that appears in this because it's also 0:28:11.080 --> 0:28:14.840 kind of italic. So it's like swooping away from the camera. Yes, 0:28:16.280 --> 0:28:18.679 And we're in a hall under great stone arches and 0:28:18.720 --> 0:28:21.800 a hanging crucifix, and there's a chair in the middle 0:28:21.840 --> 0:28:24.959 of the room in which sits a man in shackles 0:28:25.000 --> 0:28:27.320 and leg irons, the kind of the ball and chain 0:28:27.359 --> 0:28:30.359 that drags behind you. This we will learn is Baron 0:28:30.440 --> 0:28:35.680 Vitellius Desterra. He is surrounded by frightening figures covered crowned 0:28:35.800 --> 0:28:40.000 ankle and black cloaks and hoods with their faces hidden 0:28:40.000 --> 0:28:44.200 behind masks. So these are the Inquisitors. And then begins 0:28:44.280 --> 0:28:50.320 this monologue from a booming, reverberating voice, which again reminds 0:28:50.320 --> 0:28:52.440 me of the narrator in Santa Claus. It's like, you 0:28:52.840 --> 0:28:56.520 take that, but you replace the Christmas chair with pontifical menace. 0:28:57.800 --> 0:29:01.040 And the voice says lou Pita, No, says we the 0:29:01.120 --> 0:29:05.200 grand Inquisitors, protector of the faith against heretic sins of 0:29:05.240 --> 0:29:09.040 apostasy in the city of Mexico, and all the states 0:29:09.040 --> 0:29:11.840 and dominions in the Province of New Spain and its 0:29:11.920 --> 0:29:15.840 vice royalties in governing bodies through royal audiences in all 0:29:15.960 --> 0:29:19.760 the cities and states, do proclaim that the other inquisitors 0:29:19.840 --> 0:29:23.200 and I have attended this hearing in the secret Chamber 0:29:23.240 --> 0:29:26.400 of the Holy Tribunal of the Inquisition in Mexico to 0:29:26.480 --> 0:29:29.840 do justice in the trial that has been initiated against 0:29:29.960 --> 0:29:35.200 the aforementioned Baron Vitellius of Astera of unknown origin, who 0:29:35.280 --> 0:29:39.240 has repeatedly refused to state same, aware of the edicts 0:29:39.240 --> 0:29:42.400 and merits of this trial and the evidence and suspicion 0:29:42.560 --> 0:29:48.000 resulting thereof. And my lord, this is like a real legal, 0:29:48.360 --> 0:29:52.680 legal kind of contract language reading of the fine print quality, 0:29:52.760 --> 0:29:53.120 isn't it. 0:29:53.400 --> 0:29:56.560 Yeah, It's like c Span for the Inquisition. 0:29:56.120 --> 0:29:58.920 Here, and it will go on and on. There is 0:29:59.160 --> 0:30:03.240 a Macaw absurdity to the sheer volume of text we 0:30:03.320 --> 0:30:07.240 get in these verdicts and proclamations. In the opening scene here, 0:30:07.680 --> 0:30:10.320 there are even moments where it feels like the voiceover 0:30:10.440 --> 0:30:13.760 artist is like reading fast to try to get through 0:30:13.800 --> 0:30:17.280 it all. And originally I was torn on whether to 0:30:17.360 --> 0:30:20.120 like actually read everything from the scene, because I did 0:30:20.120 --> 0:30:22.680 transcribe it or just summarize. I think I'm just going 0:30:22.760 --> 0:30:25.240 to summarize, starting at one point because it's too much 0:30:25.280 --> 0:30:27.440 to read. But by the way, I do just want 0:30:27.480 --> 0:30:30.200 to say before I go on, I love the posture 0:30:30.320 --> 0:30:33.480 of the inquisitors because it's almost a superhero pose. You 0:30:33.520 --> 0:30:36.600 get multiple of them standing there in the black cloaks 0:30:36.680 --> 0:30:40.440 with like their you know, facing forward, feet at shoulder width, 0:30:40.520 --> 0:30:43.280 and then the arms folded. What do you call that? 0:30:43.320 --> 0:30:45.320 You know, they're on their hips, the hands on the hips. 0:30:45.520 --> 0:30:47.000 Yes, yes, very judgmental. 0:30:47.520 --> 0:30:50.360 So this part I will read. The prosecutor comes in 0:30:50.720 --> 0:30:53.120 and he reads from a scroll and it says the 0:30:53.160 --> 0:30:57.320 following report on the sentence and the trial by torment, 0:30:57.560 --> 0:31:01.840 that this Tribunal of the Holy Inquisition instituted against said 0:31:01.920 --> 0:31:06.800 Baron Vitelius for heresy and the instigation of heresy for 0:31:06.840 --> 0:31:10.800 practicing dogmatism. And I was like, huh, and that what 0:31:10.920 --> 0:31:15.520 they're doing. But like, even with that line for practicing dogmatism, 0:31:15.920 --> 0:31:18.760 even the voice actor sounds a little confused, like he 0:31:18.880 --> 0:31:21.239 just stops for a second as if to check and 0:31:21.280 --> 0:31:23.200 make sure that's really what the script said. 0:31:23.440 --> 0:31:25.760 Yeah, does that mean magnetism with dogs? 0:31:25.920 --> 0:31:29.560 Yeah? No, no, so there's kind of a pause. He's like, 0:31:29.600 --> 0:31:34.160 for practicing dogmatism, and then he goes on for having 0:31:34.240 --> 0:31:40.080 used witchcraft, superstitions and conjurations for depraved and dishonest ends, 0:31:40.480 --> 0:31:44.400 for having employed the art of necromancy, invoking the dead 0:31:44.760 --> 0:31:47.959 and trying to foretell the future through the use of corpses, 0:31:48.040 --> 0:31:50.920 which I think that's the same thing as necromancy. And 0:31:50.960 --> 0:31:54.040 then there's a long pause and he says for having 0:31:54.120 --> 0:31:58.000 seduced married women and maidens. And here we cut to 0:31:58.040 --> 0:32:00.640 Vitellius and he gives a big old smile. Well, yeah, 0:32:01.640 --> 0:32:06.280 So to summarize what follows, Vitelius gets sentenced to torture 0:32:06.760 --> 0:32:09.440 and told that if he should be maimed or have 0:32:09.560 --> 0:32:12.360 blood drawn or die during the torture, that's going to 0:32:12.400 --> 0:32:16.760 be divine proof of his guilt. Then they read he 0:32:16.800 --> 0:32:20.600 doesn't say this. They read out that they previously sentenced 0:32:20.680 --> 0:32:23.920 him to torture, and he told them that he welcomed 0:32:23.920 --> 0:32:26.760 as much torture as they were, you know, as much 0:32:26.760 --> 0:32:28.840 as they could give him. He was like, bring it on. 0:32:29.720 --> 0:32:32.720 And then they describe all the tortures they did on him. 0:32:33.120 --> 0:32:36.160 It sounds like they did some form of strepato as 0:32:36.200 --> 0:32:39.360 well as stretching on the rack quote, and with his 0:32:39.560 --> 0:32:43.280 arms and legs almost torn from his body, he continued 0:32:43.320 --> 0:32:47.040 to make jest of our holy authority, which doesn't make 0:32:47.080 --> 0:32:49.920 you sound cool when you say that. It makes the 0:32:49.960 --> 0:32:53.600 inquisitors sound like the loser. But they decide he needs 0:32:53.640 --> 0:32:56.959 more punishment, has not had enough yet. But before they 0:32:57.000 --> 0:33:00.240 get to that punishment, there is a twist because, as 0:33:00.320 --> 0:33:06.520 the person presiding over this trial says, and now, as 0:33:06.520 --> 0:33:10.480 if our justice had not been sufficiently ridiculed, a witness 0:33:10.520 --> 0:33:14.360 has come before this tribunal to defend the accused. This 0:33:14.400 --> 0:33:18.320 is the epitome of all brazen defiance. Lord inquisitors, now 0:33:18.400 --> 0:33:21.400 tell me, are we going to stand for it? But 0:33:21.440 --> 0:33:24.720 then they just bring the witness in anyway, and it's 0:33:25.320 --> 0:33:28.320 Ruben Rojo, who's going to play another character later on, 0:33:28.920 --> 0:33:33.240 but he comes in as the character Marcos Miranda. He's 0:33:33.240 --> 0:33:35.680 a guy dressed in a black doublet and a puffy 0:33:35.720 --> 0:33:39.160 caller who is here to vouch for Baron Vitellius's character. 0:33:39.880 --> 0:33:42.360 Now here's where things I think get kind of interesting, 0:33:42.440 --> 0:33:45.760 because up until this point I hadn't really thought about 0:33:45.880 --> 0:33:50.239 whether the Inquisition's accusations were supposed to be true or not. 0:33:51.320 --> 0:33:53.720 But this guy comes in and says, no, no, no, 0:33:54.000 --> 0:33:56.920 the baron is a good guy. He says that, he 0:33:57.000 --> 0:34:00.320 says that the baron has helped the downtrodden people in 0:34:00.360 --> 0:34:03.760 this new land of Mexico, and that he has dedicated 0:34:03.840 --> 0:34:07.360 himself to the promotion of the fine arts and sciences. 0:34:07.880 --> 0:34:09.839 And I was just thinking, oh, yeah, I'm sure these 0:34:09.880 --> 0:34:13.000 hooded inquisitors are greatly put at ease by that love 0:34:13.040 --> 0:34:15.839 it when you help the downtrodden and promote the arts 0:34:15.840 --> 0:34:17.560 and sciences. That's what they're into. 0:34:18.040 --> 0:34:20.040 And to be clear, like, there's no reason this guy 0:34:20.200 --> 0:34:22.520 would We're given no reason to believe he would be 0:34:22.600 --> 0:34:24.719 lying here, Like he seems like a you know, a 0:34:24.719 --> 0:34:28.080 complete babyface. He's like, yeah, he's I knew him back 0:34:28.120 --> 0:34:30.279 in Europe, and he's yeah, he's he's a good guy. 0:34:30.320 --> 0:34:33.000 He seems like he's, uh, he's really tried to help people. 0:34:33.440 --> 0:34:37.239 Yeah. But then so immediately from the end of the testimony, 0:34:37.360 --> 0:34:41.560 without a moment's pause, the head inquisitor says, Marcos Miranda, 0:34:41.960 --> 0:34:44.439 the force that you have tried to perpetrate has earned 0:34:44.440 --> 0:34:49.719 you the punishment of two hundred lashes. What Yeah, which 0:34:49.760 --> 0:34:52.640 she'll be applied immediately in the torture chamber. 0:34:53.560 --> 0:34:55.640 Wow. Yeah. And so then he's just taken off to 0:34:56.400 --> 0:34:59.440 be whipped, and the trial two hundred lashes. 0:34:59.560 --> 0:35:03.400 I think, I think that is a death sentence. And 0:35:03.480 --> 0:35:07.360 before he's led away, Miranda and Vitellius make brief eye contact, 0:35:07.400 --> 0:35:09.640 but they never talk to each other, so we don't 0:35:09.680 --> 0:35:14.160 know anything about their relationship. So the inquisitors very briefly 0:35:14.200 --> 0:35:17.320 compare notes and then render a guilty verdict. But didn't 0:35:17.320 --> 0:35:19.279 they already I thought that was part of the proclamation. 0:35:19.360 --> 0:35:22.800 It was already like he's guilty. But they do it again, 0:35:22.960 --> 0:35:26.160 and they sentence him quote to be dressed in the 0:35:26.160 --> 0:35:30.560 clothing of shame, bearing symbols of fire. He will undergo 0:35:30.719 --> 0:35:34.400 personal debasement before the people, All his lands and his 0:35:34.440 --> 0:35:37.720 possessions will be confiscated, and finally he will be burned 0:35:37.719 --> 0:35:40.840 to death in an open field. So, okay, things are 0:35:40.920 --> 0:35:43.719 not looking good for the baron. But then ooh, there's 0:35:43.760 --> 0:35:47.640 an interesting twist. Vittelius, who has not really said anything yet, 0:35:48.080 --> 0:35:52.360 hits them with some sublime truculence. He says, if my 0:35:52.480 --> 0:35:57.560 body is to be burned, it will be without chains. Yeah, 0:35:57.600 --> 0:36:00.600 and then he uses sorcery to make the chas on 0:36:00.680 --> 0:36:04.880 his legs disappear and reappear around the legs of his captors. 0:36:05.280 --> 0:36:07.359 So he like stands up to walk out of the room, 0:36:07.560 --> 0:36:11.480 and the captors awkwardly hobble after him, dragging the iron balls. 0:36:12.200 --> 0:36:14.359 It's pretty cool. I mean, we're overthinking it. We might 0:36:14.440 --> 0:36:17.040 wonder why he hasn't used these powers to escape already, 0:36:17.040 --> 0:36:20.360 but yeah, you know he's using it to dramatic effect 0:36:20.400 --> 0:36:21.040 here at any rate. 0:36:21.320 --> 0:36:24.040 Well, yeah, it does kind of suggest that if he 0:36:24.160 --> 0:36:27.360 were so inclined, he would be able to magically escape 0:36:27.360 --> 0:36:32.960 his punishment altogether, but he chooses not to. It's implying 0:36:33.080 --> 0:36:37.759 that the baron is willingly facing this unjust sentence. He's 0:36:37.800 --> 0:36:41.160 willingly going out to be burned at the stake. And 0:36:41.520 --> 0:36:44.680 when I realized that, I started noticing a number of 0:36:44.760 --> 0:36:49.319 parallels here. This might sound crazy, but are the filmmakers 0:36:49.360 --> 0:36:52.560 trying to tap into some kind of parallel between Baron 0:36:52.640 --> 0:36:57.000 Vitelius and Jesus at his trial before Pilot. We can 0:36:57.560 --> 0:37:00.279 think about all this, okay, think about the similar these 0:37:00.320 --> 0:37:04.640 in the stories he helps the downtrodden, he is accused 0:37:04.680 --> 0:37:08.160 of sorcery and immorality by the religious leaders of his time. 0:37:08.840 --> 0:37:13.279 He faces an unfair trial, faces torture, and then cruel execution, 0:37:13.880 --> 0:37:17.040 during which he is dressed in garments of mockery. So 0:37:17.040 --> 0:37:19.480 I think a crown of thorns versus the clothing of 0:37:19.520 --> 0:37:22.960 shame that they just talked about. And then to get 0:37:23.000 --> 0:37:25.879 to what we know is coming in the movie, these 0:37:25.960 --> 0:37:31.520 characters will die and then later rise again to render judgment. 0:37:32.560 --> 0:37:35.920 So it's kind of a shocking number of similarities here. 0:37:35.960 --> 0:37:38.320 But then I don't know exactly how it would connect 0:37:38.640 --> 0:37:41.480 the passion of Christ to the fact that this guy 0:37:41.520 --> 0:37:44.040 has tube fingers and eats people's brains. 0:37:44.680 --> 0:37:48.200 Yeah, that may be separate from this, but yeah, I 0:37:48.200 --> 0:37:49.960 think these are strong points. I mean, this wouldn't be 0:37:50.040 --> 0:37:54.000 the only example we can look to where a Spanish 0:37:54.120 --> 0:37:59.239 filmmaker has incorporated some elements of Catholicism, be they thematic 0:37:59.480 --> 0:38:03.400 or visual, into some sort of a horror picture. 0:38:03.880 --> 0:38:06.399 So at this point in the story, what are you thinking, Rob, 0:38:06.440 --> 0:38:10.640 Are you thinking that the baron is actually he's what 0:38:10.760 --> 0:38:13.719 his friend said here, that he's actually somebody who is 0:38:13.760 --> 0:38:16.759 a nice guy who's trying to help the downtrodden and 0:38:17.160 --> 0:38:19.880 is mostly just doing things to help people and is 0:38:19.880 --> 0:38:23.640 being unjustly accused by the Inquisition or is he actually 0:38:24.000 --> 0:38:27.799 a wicked warlock and sorcerer who is manipulating people and 0:38:27.840 --> 0:38:32.080 so forth. I mean, the strange parallels to Jesus would 0:38:32.560 --> 0:38:35.799 imply that the filmmakers had the former in mind, but 0:38:35.880 --> 0:38:38.799 that also doesn't really square very well with the rest 0:38:38.800 --> 0:38:39.960 of what happens in the movie. 0:38:40.160 --> 0:38:42.600 Yeah, they don't give us anything to build upon this 0:38:42.760 --> 0:38:45.360 idea that he may have any decency to him, you know, 0:38:46.440 --> 0:38:49.480 which is kind of a missed opportunity. Or I don't know, 0:38:49.480 --> 0:38:52.879 maybe they weren't permitted to go there, But that would 0:38:52.920 --> 0:38:55.359 have been rather interesting if we hit later on, when 0:38:55.360 --> 0:38:58.400 we see his return in the nineteen sixties, if we 0:38:58.440 --> 0:39:01.480 see him at least in small all moments reaching out 0:39:01.560 --> 0:39:06.400 to the poor and helping the downtroten instead of just 0:39:06.400 --> 0:39:10.480 just making social calls and getting seeking revenge and eating brains. 0:39:10.880 --> 0:39:14.359 Yeah. Anyway, the staging of the execution is pretty cool. 0:39:14.440 --> 0:39:18.240 So it's an indoor for outdoor shot sets with creepy 0:39:18.239 --> 0:39:21.640 crooked trees, this big crowd of onlookers in the night. 0:39:21.680 --> 0:39:25.800 They're all huddled together behind hooded inquisitors carrying luminous torches, 0:39:26.440 --> 0:39:29.799 each one putting off this huge tower of flame, and 0:39:29.840 --> 0:39:34.319 they have Vitelius dressed up in mockery as some kind 0:39:34.320 --> 0:39:36.600 of anti pope in a pointed hat. 0:39:37.160 --> 0:39:40.120 Yeah. Yeah, all the all the hallmarks of of a 0:39:40.160 --> 0:39:46.080 classic cinematic witch burning here, you know, vengeful Christianity in 0:39:46.120 --> 0:39:51.200 its most base and dark form, the withered trees kind of, 0:39:51.480 --> 0:39:53.520 you know, matching up with this idea that here is 0:39:53.600 --> 0:39:59.120 just a fruitless, decadent, degregated faith before us. 0:39:59.600 --> 0:40:01.399 There are bunch of movies I can think of from 0:40:01.440 --> 0:40:04.520 the sixties and seventies that have this as their prologue, 0:40:04.520 --> 0:40:08.480 like somebody gets executed by the Inquisition and it looks 0:40:08.520 --> 0:40:13.160 soften like this. I'm thinking of Mario Bava's Black Sunday. Yeah, yeah, 0:40:13.200 --> 0:40:16.399 and of course horror rises from the two. Well it's 0:40:16.440 --> 0:40:19.680 time to burn in then, that's right. Well, so he's 0:40:19.719 --> 0:40:22.640 at the stake and Vitellius makes eye contact with Marcos 0:40:22.680 --> 0:40:25.600 Miranda in the crowd. I guess Miranda already got the 0:40:25.640 --> 0:40:28.080 two hundred lashes and now he's just out there watching. 0:40:28.360 --> 0:40:29.440 I guess he has to watch. 0:40:30.200 --> 0:40:33.920 Yeah, And we hear chatter from some people in the crowd, 0:40:34.400 --> 0:40:36.480 so like, there's one guy who's standing there with some 0:40:36.680 --> 0:40:39.239 ladies next to him, and he says to one of 0:40:39.280 --> 0:40:41.560 the ladies that fiend will pay dearly for all his 0:40:41.640 --> 0:40:44.520 sins now for what he did to you. But the 0:40:44.600 --> 0:40:46.480 lady doesn't say anything, so I don't know what she 0:40:46.560 --> 0:40:49.640 thinks about it. We also see a couple of older 0:40:49.760 --> 0:40:53.200 ladies apparently filled with glee. They're just excited to see 0:40:53.200 --> 0:40:56.960 this witch burning, and they're gossiping about how quote the 0:40:57.040 --> 0:41:00.480 Viceroy's baby is in tears because they're burning her boy friend. 0:41:00.880 --> 0:41:03.239 But then the other one says, be quiet or they'll 0:41:03.280 --> 0:41:06.720 burn you too, so climb it of fear, I guess. 0:41:07.560 --> 0:41:09.400 But then they go on to burn the baron and 0:41:09.440 --> 0:41:12.440 we get some great dramatic music here. It's it feels 0:41:12.800 --> 0:41:18.360 very similar to Night on Bald Mountain, like with the fluttering, 0:41:18.440 --> 0:41:23.360 bat wing kind of violins, and Vitelius is a pretty 0:41:23.640 --> 0:41:26.759 darn calm while getting burned at the stake. For the 0:41:26.800 --> 0:41:29.240 first half of the cook he mostly keeps a straight 0:41:29.280 --> 0:41:33.920 face but occasionally looks amused. Then suddenly on the score 0:41:34.640 --> 0:41:39.319 there is a familiar musico dramatic cliche that I'm not 0:41:39.360 --> 0:41:41.919 sure I've ever given much thought to before I would 0:41:41.960 --> 0:41:45.440 call it something like the sound of magic. You probably 0:41:45.480 --> 0:41:48.759 recognize what I'm talking about, rob It's often done on 0:41:48.840 --> 0:41:52.520 the harp with a kind of rolling glissando up and 0:41:52.560 --> 0:41:55.440 down the scale on the harp that lets you know 0:41:55.560 --> 0:41:58.759 that we're often that we're entering a dream world, or 0:41:58.800 --> 0:42:02.360 that a magical train information is taking place here. It 0:42:02.400 --> 0:42:04.839 doesn't sound like a harp. I think it's some kind 0:42:04.880 --> 0:42:07.319 of mallet instrument, like a marimba. It's kind of a 0:42:07.320 --> 0:42:12.600 soft mallet sound. But now I'm curious, people listening with 0:42:12.719 --> 0:42:16.400 musical knowledge, is there a name for this convention like 0:42:16.440 --> 0:42:20.480 the dreamy rolling glissando that lets us know that something 0:42:20.520 --> 0:42:21.840 magical is taking place? 0:42:22.560 --> 0:42:25.680 Yeah, magical or surreal, dream like and so forth. Yeah, 0:42:25.719 --> 0:42:30.000 it's certainly a common musical cue anyway. 0:42:30.000 --> 0:42:33.200 What it corresponds to here is that the baron suddenly 0:42:33.360 --> 0:42:36.400 looks up in the night sky and happens to see 0:42:36.520 --> 0:42:40.600 a comet from our point of view, a very blurry comet. 0:42:40.920 --> 0:42:43.640 This is not the best special effects in this part, 0:42:43.680 --> 0:42:45.480 because it looks more like a dead bug on a 0:42:45.520 --> 0:42:49.799 car windshield that got smeared by the wiper blades. Yeah, 0:42:50.000 --> 0:42:53.800 we've seen some better space effects in movies from this period. 0:42:54.560 --> 0:42:59.640 But Marcus Miranda, the Baron's character witness, sees the comet too. 0:43:00.200 --> 0:43:03.279 Does this mean something like? What's his role here? And 0:43:03.360 --> 0:43:05.840 again doesn't seem at all in pain or bothered by 0:43:05.880 --> 0:43:09.080 the two hundred lashes? And so they both see the 0:43:09.120 --> 0:43:11.640 comet and there's kind of an exchange like what does 0:43:11.680 --> 0:43:15.120 it mean? Something's happening? And then comes the I Curse 0:43:15.239 --> 0:43:19.280 You sequence, in which the Baron changes his He shifts 0:43:19.320 --> 0:43:22.879 his attention from the comet to one by one, each 0:43:23.080 --> 0:43:27.560 of the four primary inquisitors, So, looking between them, he 0:43:27.680 --> 0:43:31.560 uses his powers of sorcery to see through their masks 0:43:31.640 --> 0:43:34.960 and to learn their true identities. And then he promises 0:43:35.040 --> 0:43:38.480 that he will return in three hundred years, riding upon 0:43:38.520 --> 0:43:42.680 the comet above to punish their descendants. And the enemies 0:43:42.680 --> 0:43:47.200 are in order. Baltasar of Menaces, who is wearing a 0:43:47.320 --> 0:43:51.280 hilarious puffy barrister wig. I think this is Renee Cardona. 0:43:51.600 --> 0:43:55.440 There's Alvaro Contreras who looks like a cool dude. Actually 0:43:55.480 --> 0:43:58.040 he looks like he could. He kind of has a 0:43:58.040 --> 0:44:02.960 biker look, okay. Sebastian of Pinoa, who's kind of weasily 0:44:03.000 --> 0:44:05.600 looking guy with a goatee and another big white wig. 0:44:06.080 --> 0:44:08.360 This guy gives a nasty little smile. This is the 0:44:08.360 --> 0:44:11.640 guy who's a descendant will be the professor. And then 0:44:11.680 --> 0:44:15.560 Helendo of Vivar who no wig, no smile, don't don't 0:44:15.560 --> 0:44:18.840 remember a lot about this guy. And you know, the 0:44:18.840 --> 0:44:22.640 Baron promises. He says, I shall exponge your foul lineage 0:44:22.680 --> 0:44:26.840 from this earth. So here we get. Suddenly some years 0:44:26.920 --> 0:44:29.920 flash up on the screen and so it says sixteen 0:44:30.000 --> 0:44:32.759 sixty one, that's where we are. Then it says seventeen 0:44:32.920 --> 0:44:36.480 sixty one, and I was like, oh, is it going 0:44:36.520 --> 0:44:39.880 to show us this same place at each of those years, 0:44:39.880 --> 0:44:43.280 Like we'll see it across the different centuries time machine style. 0:44:43.880 --> 0:44:46.560 But no, for some reason, it just counts each century 0:44:46.600 --> 0:44:48.880 on the screen with the number and doesn't change anything. 0:44:48.920 --> 0:44:52.280 It shows us seventeen sixty one, eighteen sixty one, nineteen 0:44:52.360 --> 0:44:56.160 sixty one aka modern day. That's right. So we arrive 0:44:56.239 --> 0:44:59.839 in modern Mexico nineteen sixty one at a hip Nike 0:45:00.080 --> 0:45:03.640 club with couples out dancing to soft jazz music. And 0:45:03.680 --> 0:45:05.600 here we're going to meet our main characters in the 0:45:05.600 --> 0:45:08.560 modern day. Who wouldn't you know, it are both descendants 0:45:08.600 --> 0:45:14.040 of characters from the violent prologue. We get Victoria Contreras Vicky, 0:45:14.160 --> 0:45:18.200 who is descended from one of the inquisitors, and Ronnie Miranda, 0:45:18.800 --> 0:45:22.120 descended from the baron's friend or character witness, who we 0:45:22.200 --> 0:45:25.160 never really learned anything about, so as we will find 0:45:25.200 --> 0:45:28.640 out the two. These two are both young astronomers, but 0:45:28.719 --> 0:45:31.920 they're also an item. So they're dancing to the music 0:45:32.040 --> 0:45:35.040 in a close embrace, and they're so entranced by each 0:45:35.080 --> 0:45:37.600 other's company that they almost forget they have a date 0:45:37.640 --> 0:45:40.799 at the observatory, so they notice the time, and then 0:45:40.800 --> 0:45:42.520 they kind of rush out of the place. They explain 0:45:42.560 --> 0:45:44.719 to some friends that they've got to go leave the 0:45:44.760 --> 0:45:48.680 club to meet their mentor, Professor Milan, who is helping 0:45:48.719 --> 0:45:53.000 them search for what Ronnie calls a real star tonight 0:45:53.120 --> 0:45:56.279 because the weather is very clear, So they go to 0:45:56.360 --> 0:45:59.720 the observatory, where the professor begins quizzing them on comets 0:45:59.760 --> 0:46:03.720 with the patronizing tone. I'm gonna say, on one hand, 0:46:03.920 --> 0:46:08.240 I appreciate the presence of the astronomy and the observatory 0:46:08.280 --> 0:46:12.239 plot line in the movie because I like the themes 0:46:12.400 --> 0:46:15.960 of sort of crossing the streams of fantasy and science 0:46:15.960 --> 0:46:19.560 fiction in horror that it brings in, So I like 0:46:19.640 --> 0:46:21.839 what it does for the atmosphere of the film. On 0:46:21.920 --> 0:46:25.000 the other hand, I have to say that the observatory 0:46:25.040 --> 0:46:27.600 scenes are by far the most boring thing in the movie. 0:46:27.640 --> 0:46:29.879 Every time we go back to Professor Milan, I am 0:46:29.920 --> 0:46:33.239 not excited. Usually he's going to spend most of the 0:46:33.280 --> 0:46:36.600 movie just opening letters from people who do not confirm 0:46:36.680 --> 0:46:39.640 that they saw the same comment as him, and just 0:46:39.719 --> 0:46:41.480 acting forlorn about that. 0:46:41.880 --> 0:46:43.720 It kind of comes back to something we said in 0:46:43.840 --> 0:46:46.120 a recent episode of Weird House Cinema, a film like this, 0:46:46.239 --> 0:46:50.800 you need various middle aged experts that you go to 0:46:50.800 --> 0:46:53.239 to get just additional tidbits on what you may or 0:46:53.239 --> 0:46:54.720 may not be facing in your monster. 0:46:55.480 --> 0:46:57.880 Yeah. So this setting and the character they kind of 0:46:58.120 --> 0:47:02.319 indirectly infuse the plot with some nice scientific energy, but 0:47:02.360 --> 0:47:04.920 at the same time that it doesn't make for great 0:47:05.000 --> 0:47:09.560 moments on screen generally, Like when the two younger characters 0:47:09.560 --> 0:47:13.120 first arrived there with Professor Malan, he just starts quizzing 0:47:13.160 --> 0:47:17.200 them about comments. He's like, how many miles you know? 0:47:17.520 --> 0:47:20.840 How many miles close does the Halle? Does Halle's comment 0:47:20.920 --> 0:47:23.840 come to the earth? And you know, the guy says, 0:47:23.880 --> 0:47:26.160 and he's like, oh, good job, you know, you know, 0:47:26.200 --> 0:47:29.640 your comment trivia. But also he's treating them like kids, 0:47:29.640 --> 0:47:33.320 but they're adults and they're also supposed to be astronomers themselves. 0:47:33.719 --> 0:47:36.000 Yeah. Yeah, he's talking to them like their high school 0:47:36.000 --> 0:47:36.720 students or something. 0:47:44.560 --> 0:47:47.480 Anyway, Professor's on the hunt tonight. He's got a big 0:47:48.120 --> 0:47:51.640 stack of decaying cottices on his desk that he shows them. 0:47:51.640 --> 0:47:54.600 He explains he's been looking through them, and they all 0:47:54.640 --> 0:47:57.439 tell of a comet that appeared three hundred years ago 0:47:57.520 --> 0:48:01.840 in sixteen sixty one, and based on Professor Milan's calculations, 0:48:02.160 --> 0:48:06.040 the comet should appear again tonight at two thirty six 0:48:06.080 --> 0:48:09.759 am local time, which means right now. So they go 0:48:09.800 --> 0:48:14.600 to look through the telescope. It seems not correctly aligned. 0:48:14.640 --> 0:48:18.319 The first thing they see is the Andromeda galaxy, and 0:48:18.360 --> 0:48:21.480 then eventually they're looking around and finally Victoria locates the 0:48:21.480 --> 0:48:24.399 comet while the other two are complaining about not being 0:48:24.400 --> 0:48:27.520 able to find it. We get some dramatic horn stings 0:48:27.560 --> 0:48:31.920 in the soundtrack and the comet. First it looks like 0:48:31.960 --> 0:48:34.440 a comet, then it suddenly turns into a firework. It's 0:48:34.440 --> 0:48:38.600 shooting sparks everywhere, and it crashes down in a field nearby. 0:48:39.080 --> 0:48:41.400 And so we see a local man driving a car. 0:48:41.719 --> 0:48:44.600 He comes to a stop to watch an astonishment as 0:48:44.760 --> 0:48:47.120 the as the comet comes down, and the way it 0:48:47.200 --> 0:48:50.800 falls is pretty funny. It's a big paper mache boulder 0:48:51.200 --> 0:48:54.040 with jagged edges, and it just falls straight down and 0:48:54.120 --> 0:48:58.320 hits the ground like a sack of flower. But then 0:48:58.640 --> 0:49:04.799 something you might not expect happens. Slowly, the comet itself dematerializes, 0:49:05.480 --> 0:49:11.120 leaving in its place a being a beast of unspeakable horror. Uh, 0:49:11.400 --> 0:49:12.799 this is the part where we're going to have to 0:49:12.960 --> 0:49:18.160 describe what the titular brainiac looks like. So rob, let 0:49:18.200 --> 0:49:20.200 me know if I leave out any important details, but 0:49:20.200 --> 0:49:22.640 I'm going to try to I'm gonna try to run down. 0:49:22.440 --> 0:49:23.920 A list, all right, Here we go. 0:49:24.080 --> 0:49:27.319 So the brainiac is bipedal size of a tall man 0:49:28.080 --> 0:49:32.800 with a loose fitting rubber mask of a goblinoid character. 0:49:33.160 --> 0:49:35.760 And I have to emphasize loose fitting on the mask. 0:49:35.920 --> 0:49:39.799 This is not a this is not a tightly organized 0:49:40.040 --> 0:49:44.080 monster makeup face. Like the mask is dangling and jiggling 0:49:44.120 --> 0:49:45.120 off of the head. 0:49:45.200 --> 0:49:48.680 But also pulsating which I really like. Yes, and I 0:49:48.719 --> 0:49:52.520 would say in addition to goblin esque, it also has 0:49:52.600 --> 0:49:56.160 certain satanic elements to it. Like it feels, you know, 0:49:56.239 --> 0:49:59.600 kind of like a you know, a classic illustration of 0:49:59.640 --> 0:50:00.000 a death. 0:50:00.560 --> 0:50:04.359 Yeah. Yeah, it's kind of a goblin baphomet so like 0:50:04.600 --> 0:50:09.240 long pointy ears drooping at the tips, a long, sharp 0:50:09.560 --> 0:50:13.560 beak like nose, shaggy black hair and beard, and it's 0:50:13.640 --> 0:50:16.200 kind of patchy, doesn't look healthy, but it is. Also 0:50:16.640 --> 0:50:20.440 there's a lot of it, a lot of hair, deep hollow, 0:50:20.640 --> 0:50:24.720 empty eyes that are just sagging, like it's not tight 0:50:24.920 --> 0:50:28.840 around the eyes of the actor underneath. Instead you just 0:50:28.880 --> 0:50:33.120 see that there are spaces behind the eye holes. And 0:50:33.160 --> 0:50:36.279 then at the mouth there are two narrow fangs like 0:50:36.320 --> 0:50:39.000 those of a venomous snake, protruding from the upper jaw. 0:50:39.400 --> 0:50:42.640 The mouth is often hanging open, and then out of 0:50:42.680 --> 0:50:47.920 the mouth extends a foot long, floppy, forked rubber tongue, 0:50:48.600 --> 0:50:52.000 again like that of a snake, except usually not flicking 0:50:52.080 --> 0:50:54.120 in and out of the mouth to taste the air 0:50:54.239 --> 0:50:57.440 like a snake's tongue. It's just hanging there, just jiggling 0:50:57.480 --> 0:50:58.440 when the guy moves. 0:50:58.880 --> 0:51:01.200 Yeah, ye, there are elements of this creature that also 0:51:01.239 --> 0:51:03.840 remind me a bit of crampus, you know, yes, yeah, 0:51:03.840 --> 0:51:06.480 for sure, the lolling tongue, though in this case again 0:51:06.520 --> 0:51:07.959 it is forked and that'll be key. 0:51:08.840 --> 0:51:11.040 So then we got to go down to the hands. 0:51:12.040 --> 0:51:16.560 Each hand is a sort of flesh clamp with exactly 0:51:16.600 --> 0:51:20.279 two fingers per hand that can close together in a 0:51:20.400 --> 0:51:25.680 pincer motion. These fingers are, as we see, not solid 0:51:25.960 --> 0:51:30.800 but hollow. They are some kind of flaccid tube fingers, 0:51:31.000 --> 0:51:34.880 so think soft, squishy tube claws. 0:51:35.760 --> 0:51:39.799 Yeah, and they are. They're the most bizarre detail of 0:51:39.880 --> 0:51:44.520 this creature design. And they're completely mysterious because we have 0:51:44.560 --> 0:51:47.000 no idea what if anything they're doing, Like does he 0:51:47.160 --> 0:51:50.440 breathe through those holes the ends of the fingers, are 0:51:50.480 --> 0:51:52.400 they indeed finger I mean, he does use them to 0:51:52.480 --> 0:51:56.680 grasp and to grab, but are those indeed apertures for 0:51:57.200 --> 0:52:00.360 you know, anything he doesn't see. He doesn't feed with them. 0:52:00.760 --> 0:52:03.040 Maybe they're for drinking water. Maybe he hears through them. 0:52:03.040 --> 0:52:04.920 I don't know. But he also has ears on his head. 0:52:05.160 --> 0:52:07.160 So many questions all unanswered. 0:52:07.719 --> 0:52:11.440 Do liquids come in or go out through the tips 0:52:11.440 --> 0:52:12.440 of those fingers? 0:52:12.640 --> 0:52:15.160 Yeah? Or what goes in? And now I don't know 0:52:16.120 --> 0:52:23.520 it's but it's you know, it's bizarre and strange, and 0:52:23.600 --> 0:52:25.960 I love it. It's because again, it's just a monster 0:52:26.040 --> 0:52:28.520 design that is really going for it. They just really 0:52:28.560 --> 0:52:31.720 set out to create something here that is unlike anything 0:52:31.719 --> 0:52:33.879 we've seen before. And I don't know that we've seen 0:52:33.960 --> 0:52:37.160 much like this since it's as bizarre as anything that 0:52:37.239 --> 0:52:42.320 has been in a monster movie in the subsequent decades 0:52:42.360 --> 0:52:42.719 for sure. 0:52:43.080 --> 0:52:45.960 So when the Brainy act first appears, he's wearing the 0:52:45.960 --> 0:52:49.200 Barren's clothes from sixteen sixty one, but they're very tattered, 0:52:49.200 --> 0:52:51.719 so I guess it's been a rough ride on the comet, 0:52:52.000 --> 0:52:54.279 assuming that's where he was. I'll have questions about that. 0:52:55.120 --> 0:53:00.760 But he quickly fixes his clothing situation via the terminator method. 0:53:00.760 --> 0:53:03.120 He steals clothes from a chronolocal. 0:53:03.520 --> 0:53:06.719 Yeah, he kind of like teleports the clothes off of 0:53:06.760 --> 0:53:10.640 the guy onto himself, but not the underwear because Brainiac 0:53:10.719 --> 0:53:11.280 goes commando. 0:53:11.600 --> 0:53:14.799 That's exactly right. So the Beast advances on the man 0:53:14.840 --> 0:53:17.759 who pulled over to see the comet crash down. He 0:53:17.800 --> 0:53:21.680 then begins to hypnotize him, and we will see that 0:53:21.719 --> 0:53:25.400 the Brainiac has some of the same powers as Dracula, 0:53:25.520 --> 0:53:30.560 including a hypnotizing glare, which interestingly is signaled on screen 0:53:30.640 --> 0:53:34.080 with the same effect we highlighted in Todd Browning's Dracula 0:53:34.160 --> 0:53:37.760 last week, where the face is mostly kept in shadow, 0:53:37.800 --> 0:53:41.240 but a focused beam of light falls over the eyes 0:53:41.360 --> 0:53:43.560 that lets you know that the hypnotizing is going on. 0:53:44.040 --> 0:53:47.200 Yeah, I'd say it's not quite as like it's perfectly 0:53:47.239 --> 0:53:52.920 executed in Dracula. Here it feels less perfected, but it's 0:53:52.960 --> 0:53:54.000 still it's still great. 0:53:54.239 --> 0:53:57.200 But there's also a difference because in Dracula it's a 0:53:57.280 --> 0:54:00.799 static light. This effect is like just a that goes 0:54:00.840 --> 0:54:05.280 over Dracula's own face when he's working his evil magic. 0:54:05.880 --> 0:54:10.279 In Brainiac, the light flashes on and off, so it's 0:54:10.320 --> 0:54:13.080 a pulsing light. But also we see the focused light 0:54:13.160 --> 0:54:18.880 effect on both the monster and sometimes on his victim. Also, 0:54:19.440 --> 0:54:22.400 you alluded to this earlier rob In time with the 0:54:22.440 --> 0:54:26.319 flashing hypnotic light, there is another pulsing effect, which is 0:54:26.400 --> 0:54:31.480 a rhythmic inflation and deflation of the monster's rubber mask. 0:54:32.120 --> 0:54:35.359 So the same way that a sleeping person's chest may 0:54:35.480 --> 0:54:39.440 rise and fall as they breathe, the Brainiac's face slightly 0:54:39.480 --> 0:54:42.240 balloons and then collapses on a pulse. 0:54:42.719 --> 0:54:44.759 Yeah, pretty ambitious for the time. I mean, this kind 0:54:44.760 --> 0:54:47.279 of thing would become more of a hallmark later on. 0:54:47.520 --> 0:54:51.400 You and I both recently rewatched Joe Dante's The Howling, 0:54:51.760 --> 0:54:54.160 which makes great use of this kind of like pulsating 0:54:54.400 --> 0:54:58.719 you know, bladders inside of you monster mask. You know, 0:54:58.760 --> 0:55:01.400 this is a lot cruder, but it is kind of 0:55:01.400 --> 0:55:02.479 a sign of things to come. 0:55:02.840 --> 0:55:06.120 Mm hmm. One last thing we should know. Brainiac does 0:55:06.160 --> 0:55:09.400 make noises. They are essentially the growls of a lion 0:55:09.560 --> 0:55:10.239 or a big cat. 0:55:10.520 --> 0:55:12.920 Yeah, they're very effective, though I thought they were quite creepy. 0:55:13.160 --> 0:55:15.920 So, in an attack pattern that we will see repeated 0:55:15.960 --> 0:55:20.040 many times, the brainiac approaches his terrified victim, who is 0:55:20.200 --> 0:55:24.640 somewhat hypnotized or frozen in place, grabs him about the 0:55:24.680 --> 0:55:28.040 neck and shoulders with his tube fingers, and then goes 0:55:28.080 --> 0:55:31.600 around behind the victim and then pokes him in the 0:55:31.600 --> 0:55:34.680 back of the head with his floppy forked reptile tongue. 0:55:35.440 --> 0:55:37.520 And then, as we'll find out, this is how he 0:55:37.680 --> 0:55:40.879 sucks out the brains of his victims, which course, yeah, 0:55:40.880 --> 0:55:43.920 which is fabulous. Again, they really went for it, they 0:55:43.960 --> 0:55:48.040 went They took sort of the basic vampire myth, and 0:55:48.040 --> 0:55:49.680 they're like, they said, well, what can we do to 0:55:49.719 --> 0:55:51.600 make this stranger? What can we do to make this 0:55:51.719 --> 0:55:55.600 more grotesque? And yeah they pulled it off. Now, one 0:55:55.640 --> 0:55:59.400 of the big questions that I end up asking myself 0:55:59.400 --> 0:56:02.799 throughout the rest the picture, is this what we see 0:56:02.840 --> 0:56:07.920 here the brainiac? Is this the Baron's true form, his 0:56:08.040 --> 0:56:11.960 true alien form? Or is this something? Or is this 0:56:12.040 --> 0:56:14.920 his transformed body from having been taken up to the 0:56:14.960 --> 0:56:19.719 comet and been in space aboard a commet for decades 0:56:19.760 --> 0:56:21.000 and then return to Earth. 0:56:21.520 --> 0:56:24.240 This is such a good question. I had the exact 0:56:24.320 --> 0:56:27.440 same thoughts. I actually made a list of questions here 0:56:27.800 --> 0:56:32.440 or ideas. So my question was what is the brainiac 0:56:32.520 --> 0:56:34.680 or the baron? What is his nature? And what is 0:56:34.760 --> 0:56:38.200 the source of his power? So to review what we 0:56:38.320 --> 0:56:43.120 know before execution in sixteen sixty one, the Baron had 0:56:43.160 --> 0:56:46.920 at least some powers of sorcery. Some of these powers 0:56:46.960 --> 0:56:50.160 we see directly, such as the power to dematerialize and 0:56:50.280 --> 0:56:53.360 materialize objects like the chains on his legs, remember that, 0:56:54.280 --> 0:56:57.520 and then also the power to see behind masks. He 0:56:57.880 --> 0:57:01.759 is alleged to have other powers by the inquisitors. We 0:57:01.840 --> 0:57:04.600 never see whether that's true or not, but powers like 0:57:05.000 --> 0:57:09.839 necromancy and using some kind of seductive entransment, though that 0:57:09.880 --> 0:57:12.880 could be a parallel of the hypnotism we see later. 0:57:13.400 --> 0:57:16.120 Then he gets burned at the stake with a comet 0:57:16.160 --> 0:57:20.080 flying overhead. Then when the comet returns, it lands on 0:57:20.160 --> 0:57:24.920 Earth and transforms into him or releases him. Now he 0:57:25.000 --> 0:57:29.240 has something we've never seen before, a secondary brain goblin form, 0:57:29.600 --> 0:57:33.000 and can transform back and forth between the humanoid barren 0:57:33.080 --> 0:57:36.439 form and the brainiac form at will. Now he can 0:57:36.520 --> 0:57:40.800 also turn invisible, He can hypnotize people, and he can 0:57:40.840 --> 0:57:43.600 do the tongue thing and suck out people's brains. So 0:57:43.920 --> 0:57:48.000 the question is, did something about him change on the 0:57:48.040 --> 0:57:51.960 comet journey or was he always the brainiac? Did he 0:57:52.040 --> 0:57:55.240 physically ride the comet all that time? In which case, 0:57:55.440 --> 0:57:59.400 did he encounter something in space or did the return 0:57:59.440 --> 0:58:02.440 of the comet simply resurrect him here? Is it like 0:58:02.520 --> 0:58:05.600 he's been here the comet coming back brought him back. 0:58:06.600 --> 0:58:09.600 So and also I guess secondary from all this is 0:58:09.600 --> 0:58:12.480 his power based on fantasy or science fiction. 0:58:13.240 --> 0:58:16.840 Yeah, and we have no idea. These questions are never answered, 0:58:17.440 --> 0:58:19.520 but I think that's part of the appeal of the film. 0:58:19.520 --> 0:58:23.600 I think is is just such a bizarre character, such 0:58:23.600 --> 0:58:26.320 a bizarre monster, and we're just left to wonder at 0:58:26.320 --> 0:58:30.120 how it all pieces together. And maybe that's quite accidental. 0:58:30.280 --> 0:58:33.120 I don't know, you know, I'm timpto to say that 0:58:33.200 --> 0:58:36.800 he was merely a master of some minor tricks and 0:58:37.040 --> 0:58:40.040 you know, master of the arts and sciences back in 0:58:40.040 --> 0:58:43.760 the seventeenth century. Then he somehow got himself aboard a 0:58:43.800 --> 0:58:47.040 comet rode it around space a long time and encountered 0:58:47.640 --> 0:58:51.080 strange alien beings who gave him these additional powers. He 0:58:51.120 --> 0:58:53.560 brought them back, Maybe he fused with them and brought 0:58:53.600 --> 0:58:54.880 all that back to Earth with him. 0:58:55.160 --> 0:58:58.680 I like that, that is. I lean towards that explanation. 0:58:58.760 --> 0:59:00.800 But we also have the whole thing about him being 0:59:00.800 --> 0:59:01.680 of unknown origin. 0:59:02.160 --> 0:59:03.200 That's true, yeah. 0:59:03.040 --> 0:59:05.280 And that could just mean that he was a foreigner, 0:59:05.440 --> 0:59:07.560 but he could also mean he could be from space. 0:59:07.600 --> 0:59:08.000 I don't know. 0:59:08.640 --> 0:59:11.439 There's one part later where he claims that he never 0:59:11.600 --> 0:59:14.520 had any ancestors, and I didn't know if that's just 0:59:14.560 --> 0:59:17.479 a weird translation of a line or if he means 0:59:17.520 --> 0:59:18.120 that literally. 0:59:18.400 --> 0:59:20.280 Yeah, that he's not of this. 0:59:20.320 --> 0:59:24.600 Earth anyway, So brainiac. In this scene he steals the 0:59:24.640 --> 0:59:29.200 guy's clothes via like clothes teleportation, victims clothes under his body, 0:59:29.840 --> 0:59:34.320 and also of course transforms himself out of brainiac mode, 0:59:34.360 --> 0:59:37.320 so he's no longer a giant Harry Reptilian brain goblin. 0:59:37.720 --> 0:59:41.720 Now he has the suave face of the original Baron Vitilius. 0:59:42.000 --> 0:59:44.200 Yeah, he's good to go. Now he has the tools, 0:59:44.280 --> 0:59:48.280 he has a mission. He's in the wilderness, but you 0:59:48.280 --> 0:59:50.200 know he can remedy that pretty quickly. I think. 0:59:50.560 --> 0:59:53.480 Also right here, Victoria and Ronnie arrive on the scene 0:59:53.480 --> 0:59:56.200 because they're looking for where the comet landed, and they 0:59:56.280 --> 0:59:59.920 run into Baron Vitellius, and they just stand there saying nothing, 1:00:00.120 --> 1:00:02.080 looking at each other for a long time. 1:00:02.840 --> 1:00:06.360 Yes, but then we get we get some excellent dialogue here. 1:00:06.640 --> 1:00:09.880 Yeah. The Baron is like, allow me to explain myself. 1:00:10.000 --> 1:00:12.240 I always just walks at this hour of the night. 1:00:15.240 --> 1:00:18.320 And then Ronnie explains that he and Vicky are astronomers 1:00:18.320 --> 1:00:22.280 and they're hunting a meteor, and I think Vicky is like, oh, 1:00:22.360 --> 1:00:24.680 don't bore him. There's no way he'll understand what you 1:00:24.760 --> 1:00:28.960 mean talking about a meteor. But then Baron Vitellius is like, no, no, 1:00:29.080 --> 1:00:31.760 I too have great interest in astronomy, so I know 1:00:31.800 --> 1:00:32.720 what meteors are. 1:00:33.120 --> 1:00:37.760 Yeah, he's like, astronomy is actually my weakness, which is 1:00:37.760 --> 1:00:39.760 is At first I had to at for a second. 1:00:39.840 --> 1:00:41.600 I'm like, wait, does that mean it's like garlic? And 1:00:41.640 --> 1:00:43.800 I'm like no, No, that just means he's like, that's 1:00:43.800 --> 1:00:46.840 how into astronomy he is. Yeah, that's his weakness. So 1:00:47.200 --> 1:00:49.480 that's something to keep in mind for, you know, any 1:00:49.560 --> 1:00:51.360 job interviews folks have coming up. If you get to 1:00:51.360 --> 1:00:54.360 asked that question, well, what's your biggest short following or 1:00:54.360 --> 1:00:57.320 your weakness or whatever, you can say astronomy. I'm just 1:00:57.320 --> 1:00:58.400 too into the stars. 1:01:00.280 --> 1:01:01.120 I'm a brainiac. 1:01:01.400 --> 1:01:01.600 Yeah. 1:01:02.280 --> 1:01:05.600 At first they exchange information one they give each other 1:01:05.720 --> 1:01:09.080 their cards. But the baron goes out after this to 1:01:09.120 --> 1:01:12.160 prowl the city. He's on a brain hunt. So he 1:01:12.240 --> 1:01:15.160 goes to a restaurant which appears to still be open 1:01:15.240 --> 1:01:18.880 at three am or whenever. This is the bar crowd 1:01:19.000 --> 1:01:21.560 is winding down. This place does look very cool. There's 1:01:21.560 --> 1:01:24.960 a backsplash behind the bar that's like this big, round, 1:01:25.720 --> 1:01:28.760 kind of translucent window with these weird symbols on it 1:01:28.840 --> 1:01:32.280 and an upside down brandy bottle. It's cool. 1:01:32.680 --> 1:01:37.240 Yeah, absolutely, like what we see of presumably Mexico city 1:01:37.320 --> 1:01:39.880 nightlife is very very swap and charming here. 1:01:40.080 --> 1:01:42.640 So in this place, there is a single woman drinking 1:01:42.680 --> 1:01:45.480 by herself at the bar. All the other patrons have left, 1:01:45.560 --> 1:01:48.320 and there are a manager and a bartender closing up 1:01:48.360 --> 1:01:51.360 for the night, like drying glasses and counting money, and 1:01:51.520 --> 1:01:54.080 the baron walks into the place. He approaches the woman 1:01:54.280 --> 1:01:57.919 for some reason, he turns invisible as he's walking up, 1:01:58.320 --> 1:02:01.520 and then he appears again, like becomes solid again when 1:02:01.560 --> 1:02:04.560 he reaches his destination, which is standing right next to her. 1:02:05.120 --> 1:02:06.880 I wasn't sure what the point of this was, but 1:02:06.920 --> 1:02:08.800 I think it's just to show off another one of 1:02:08.800 --> 1:02:11.840 the baron's powers he can turn invisible. 1:02:11.560 --> 1:02:14.520 And of course to highlight again that the effects guys 1:02:14.520 --> 1:02:16.640 can do dissolve shots. 1:02:16.800 --> 1:02:18.640 Yea, they use this. 1:02:18.600 --> 1:02:20.920 All the time, whether it's stripping the clothes from a 1:02:21.000 --> 1:02:23.840 victim in a field or just making him go invisible 1:02:23.880 --> 1:02:26.280 for no real reason. We also saw it earlier when 1:02:26.280 --> 1:02:29.120 he was seeing the faces of the hooded judges. 1:02:29.480 --> 1:02:32.680 Yeah. Yeah, So the woman talks to the bartender into 1:02:32.760 --> 1:02:35.200 giving this new guy a drink even though they're trying 1:02:35.240 --> 1:02:37.880 to close, and he didn't ask for one. In fact, 1:02:37.920 --> 1:02:39.680 not only did he not ask for a drink. The 1:02:39.720 --> 1:02:43.400 baron says nothing in the scene. He doesn't talk, but 1:02:43.440 --> 1:02:46.960 the lady at the bar starts talking to him and 1:02:47.000 --> 1:02:50.800 then seemingly forms a very intimate connection without him saying 1:02:50.840 --> 1:02:54.040 anything back. He just stares and drinks kangnac out of 1:02:54.080 --> 1:02:58.240 this very cute tiny glass, and she's like, you don't 1:02:58.240 --> 1:03:00.960 say anything, You're just looking at me, and then she says, 1:03:01.000 --> 1:03:03.240 I don't want you to stop looking at me, and 1:03:03.280 --> 1:03:06.240 he's obviously not looking at her. He's like staring over 1:03:06.280 --> 1:03:09.640 her shoulder at the wall, and then she goes in 1:03:09.720 --> 1:03:13.720 for a kiss dramatic music sting. He doesn't react at all. 1:03:14.200 --> 1:03:17.160 Finally she gets mad and tries to walk away, so 1:03:18.120 --> 1:03:21.200 it's brainiact time, nothing else to do. The light flashes 1:03:21.200 --> 1:03:24.840 on the baron's eyes and he transforms. The woman at 1:03:24.880 --> 1:03:27.800 the bar screams in terror and he grabs her and 1:03:27.840 --> 1:03:29.760 he does the tongue to the back of the head 1:03:29.800 --> 1:03:32.320 thing and then drops her body to the floor with 1:03:32.360 --> 1:03:32.880 a thud. 1:03:33.400 --> 1:03:35.840 So more brains for the brainiact. 1:03:35.520 --> 1:03:37.920 Right, And then we got straight to the morgue, so 1:03:38.280 --> 1:03:41.600 we're seeing bodies on slabs, and here we meet several 1:03:41.640 --> 1:03:44.720 more recurring characters. There's the Morgue attendant, who I think 1:03:44.760 --> 1:03:48.600 shows up a couple of times. Surprisingly handsome and cool 1:03:48.680 --> 1:03:52.600 looking fellow with horn rimmed glasses, a thin mustache, and 1:03:52.760 --> 1:03:54.080 very neatly parted hair. 1:03:54.760 --> 1:03:56.320 Yeah. I don't know why this guy is in our star, 1:03:56.440 --> 1:03:58.400 because he has all the hallmarks of one. 1:03:58.680 --> 1:04:02.840 Yeah. And then the two cops we mentioned, the inspector detective, 1:04:03.040 --> 1:04:06.920 the gruff, stoic bald man. He's very strongly built, with 1:04:06.960 --> 1:04:10.280 a fedora low over his eyes. He's serious. And then 1:04:10.280 --> 1:04:14.360 there is Benny, his partner or subordinate, who's the goofy 1:04:14.400 --> 1:04:18.560 comic relief cop. And the first action we get of 1:04:18.600 --> 1:04:22.440 this guy is him offering impossible theories to explain the crimes, 1:04:22.840 --> 1:04:25.040 and then when his partner's like, no, that doesn't make 1:04:25.080 --> 1:04:29.080 any sense, he desires to quit the investigation. But while 1:04:29.080 --> 1:04:31.760 they're looking at the bodies here, the morgatendant tells them 1:04:32.080 --> 1:04:34.080 that he's never seen murders like this in all of 1:04:34.080 --> 1:04:37.120 his career. He says, quote, the skulls of these two 1:04:37.240 --> 1:04:42.880 victims show two perforations. Possibly the murderer used an electric drill. 1:04:42.960 --> 1:04:45.120 I say this because the person who did it was 1:04:45.200 --> 1:04:49.640 quite skilled. Just look at these two orifices, and they 1:04:49.680 --> 1:04:53.200 look he really there is a tone of admiration here, 1:04:53.400 --> 1:04:56.880 like he's appreciating the work. And then he tells them 1:04:56.880 --> 1:04:59.080 the most amazing thing has happened to both of these 1:04:59.080 --> 1:05:03.280 bodies of brains were sucked out through the two holes. 1:05:04.000 --> 1:05:06.840 And the doctor tells them that this means the person 1:05:06.880 --> 1:05:11.000 who did it must be an expert in anatomy. And 1:05:11.040 --> 1:05:13.120 I'm thinking, yeah, because how else would they know that 1:05:13.160 --> 1:05:14.720 the brains are inside the skull? 1:05:16.240 --> 1:05:18.080 I mean, it is interesting to think there are other 1:05:18.120 --> 1:05:21.880 ways to get to the brain, but the brainiac chooses 1:05:21.920 --> 1:05:23.880 to just make his own holes, not to use any 1:05:23.920 --> 1:05:26.160 of the various other holes that are there, and in 1:05:26.200 --> 1:05:29.320 a roundabout way, do lead to the brain. The police 1:05:29.360 --> 1:05:30.280 with a little help, with a. 1:05:30.240 --> 1:05:34.480 Little Yeah, well, one of the police inspector responds to 1:05:34.480 --> 1:05:37.320 this by saying, I wish they'd find some way to 1:05:37.400 --> 1:05:41.040 control the subjects of man's studies. A maniac with a 1:05:41.080 --> 1:05:42.840 lot of knowledge is a threat. 1:05:43.360 --> 1:05:44.720 Yeah, clearly that's the problem. 1:05:45.040 --> 1:05:48.280 Yeah, that's an interesting perspective, Like the most important part 1:05:48.320 --> 1:05:51.720 of law and order is preventing maniacs from doing research. 1:05:53.240 --> 1:05:56.080 We also learned from the two cops that last night 1:05:56.160 --> 1:05:58.880 there was a major bank robbery, and I think we 1:05:58.880 --> 1:06:01.280 can assume it was the Bear and acquiring funds for 1:06:01.320 --> 1:06:02.560 his mission of revenge. 1:06:02.920 --> 1:06:04.680 Yeah, I kind of feel cheated. We didn't get to 1:06:04.720 --> 1:06:05.800 see that sequence though. 1:06:05.960 --> 1:06:09.240 Yeah. It's kind of like in the face behind the mask, right, 1:06:09.280 --> 1:06:10.600 we never actually see the heist. 1:06:10.800 --> 1:06:12.800 Yeah, I want to see the heist, don't skip the heist. 1:06:12.840 --> 1:06:14.480 But they're like, they know what a heist is. 1:06:16.080 --> 1:06:18.080 Okay. So from here, the rest of the movie I 1:06:18.160 --> 1:06:20.600 think can be split up into like two or three 1:06:20.720 --> 1:06:24.200 main plots. You're going to have the baron locating and 1:06:24.240 --> 1:06:27.480 then getting revenge on the descendants of all of his enemies, 1:06:27.520 --> 1:06:30.400 generally by sucking their brains out, sometimes by other means. 1:06:31.200 --> 1:06:33.640 Then you're going to have the police investigators trying to 1:06:33.640 --> 1:06:36.680 solve the case. And then you also have Ronnie and 1:06:36.760 --> 1:06:40.600 Vicki being brought into the Baron's high society social circle 1:06:41.080 --> 1:06:43.840 and then being in danger. Of course, because Vicky is 1:06:43.960 --> 1:06:46.160 a descendant of one of the judges. 1:06:46.680 --> 1:06:49.000 Two of these plots are more interesting than the other. 1:06:49.080 --> 1:06:52.600 I would have to say that the police investigation, aside 1:06:52.600 --> 1:06:56.680 from one kind of hammy bit of comedic relief. I 1:06:56.720 --> 1:06:59.280 don't know. I always felt a little slow for me. 1:06:59.680 --> 1:07:03.080 Yeah, I agree. The police scenes are usually over pretty quick. 1:07:03.120 --> 1:07:04.800 At least they're sprightly. 1:07:05.280 --> 1:07:05.760 That's true. 1:07:06.280 --> 1:07:09.200 There is a scene where Baron Vitellius visits the local 1:07:09.400 --> 1:07:13.440 historical site of the inquisition executions. He goes to the 1:07:13.440 --> 1:07:15.760 place I guess where he was burned, and then he 1:07:15.800 --> 1:07:19.440 also goes to the city archives and learns the names 1:07:19.480 --> 1:07:21.760 of the judges in his trial. But I was like, 1:07:21.800 --> 1:07:23.400 what is the point of the scene. I thought he 1:07:23.440 --> 1:07:26.240 already knew them. He said these names three hundred years ago. 1:07:26.960 --> 1:07:29.840 Now he was three hundred years ago. Maybe he for kayle, Yeah, 1:07:29.920 --> 1:07:33.240 you know. I mean i'd seen this movie before and 1:07:33.280 --> 1:07:35.040 it was less than three hundred years ago, and I 1:07:35.080 --> 1:07:37.640 forgot everybody's name, but they weren't. 1:07:37.680 --> 1:07:39.400 It wasn't your inquisition trial. 1:07:39.840 --> 1:07:40.120 True. 1:07:41.320 --> 1:07:43.880 After this, he goes out on the street and then 1:07:43.920 --> 1:07:47.320 he meets a sex worker on the sidewalk, lights a 1:07:47.360 --> 1:07:50.040 cigarette for her. They make out a little bit, but 1:07:50.120 --> 1:07:52.400 then he turns into brainiac and eats her brains. 1:07:52.640 --> 1:07:54.760 I feel like he's missing out on so many moments 1:07:54.800 --> 1:07:58.400 for like authentic connection with people. Yeah, and or to 1:07:58.400 --> 1:08:01.200 help the downtrodden, you know, Yeah, these would have been 1:08:01.240 --> 1:08:01.920 good seeds for that. 1:08:02.600 --> 1:08:05.240 He goes brainiac mode too early, Like if he got 1:08:05.240 --> 1:08:07.040 to know people, maybe he wouldn't want to suck their 1:08:07.040 --> 1:08:10.640 brains out. He could then again, maybe this is his 1:08:10.680 --> 1:08:12.320 way of getting to know people, if we go with 1:08:12.360 --> 1:08:16.760 the alien theory. Actually, this raises a question. When Brainiac 1:08:16.800 --> 1:08:19.040 eats people's brains, does he gain their knowledge? 1:08:19.400 --> 1:08:24.680 Hmmm, maybe maybe he does? Or yeah, I don't know. 1:08:24.760 --> 1:08:28.520 Maybe I would like to think that maybe it's just sustenance. 1:08:28.560 --> 1:08:31.879 Though there's so much I feel like like a Gimmel 1:08:31.920 --> 1:08:34.400 del Toro or someone like that could could really have 1:08:34.520 --> 1:08:38.679 come in and done like a really thoughtful, heartfelt remake 1:08:38.800 --> 1:08:42.320 of Brainiac and explored some of these questions. 1:08:42.600 --> 1:08:46.640 Hmm, yeah, like the Chronos take on Brainiac. 1:08:46.960 --> 1:08:47.400 Yeah. 1:08:47.840 --> 1:08:50.439 Anyway, After this, there's a scene with the two cops 1:08:50.479 --> 1:08:52.840 having lunch in a cafe while they talk about the case. 1:08:53.240 --> 1:08:55.760 There's one I took a screenshot here of one of 1:08:55.800 --> 1:08:58.920 the cops says, as usual, Benny, his brains have been 1:08:58.920 --> 1:09:03.679 sucked out, and then Benny Wheelern has ordered calf brains 1:09:03.720 --> 1:09:06.080 to eat at the cafe. That's just on the menu here, 1:09:06.160 --> 1:09:08.200 but then when the waitress brings his plate, it seems 1:09:08.240 --> 1:09:10.280 he has lost his appetite. Yuck, yuck. 1:09:10.760 --> 1:09:12.640 They don't play this scene up as much as I 1:09:12.680 --> 1:09:17.400 feel like other movies would have, but I still appreciate it. 1:09:18.160 --> 1:09:21.800 The inspector also concludes, based on the fact that the 1:09:21.800 --> 1:09:25.120 brains have been sucked out that quote, the killer must 1:09:25.200 --> 1:09:27.080 be a schizophrenic. 1:09:27.160 --> 1:09:30.600 Okay to doing throwing anything at the wall here to 1:09:30.600 --> 1:09:32.120 see what sticks. 1:09:32.280 --> 1:09:36.760 I guess, okay, and then oh. We also get the 1:09:37.120 --> 1:09:39.799 first of these mini scenes, the recurring subplot where Professor 1:09:39.840 --> 1:09:43.200 Miland can't get any other observatory in the world to 1:09:43.320 --> 1:09:46.320 confirm his his sighting of the comet. So he's like 1:09:46.479 --> 1:09:50.280 opening letters from Moscow, from Paris, from everywhere, and they're 1:09:50.320 --> 1:09:53.640 all saying Nope, didn't see a comet. But anyway. In 1:09:53.720 --> 1:09:56.320 this first scene, while the three astronomer characters are opening 1:09:56.400 --> 1:09:59.400 all the letters from around the world, they also get 1:09:59.439 --> 1:10:02.360 an invitation to attend a fancy party at the home 1:10:02.439 --> 1:10:05.720 of Baron Vitellius. So let's go to the party. It 1:10:05.800 --> 1:10:09.040 is a fancy black tie affair with champagne and caviar. 1:10:09.920 --> 1:10:13.640 The butler keeps announcing the arrival of new guests, including 1:10:14.000 --> 1:10:18.000 all of the descendants of the inquisitors who condemned the baron. Yep, 1:10:18.960 --> 1:10:21.040 so one is a young lady about to get married, 1:10:21.160 --> 1:10:23.519 one is an older dude who's a professor of history, 1:10:23.640 --> 1:10:27.760 one is an industrial magnate. And then of course our 1:10:27.800 --> 1:10:31.439 heroes arrive. I got to laugh here at first at 1:10:31.840 --> 1:10:35.120 the picture of our astronomers arriving, because first of all, 1:10:35.520 --> 1:10:38.840 Vicky's outfit it looks like she works at the toy 1:10:38.880 --> 1:10:42.240 factory at the North Pole. And then she also has 1:10:42.280 --> 1:10:45.400 two dates. She has both of the astronomer guys, one 1:10:45.439 --> 1:10:46.040 on each. 1:10:45.920 --> 1:10:48.200 Arm, representing the sciences. 1:10:48.600 --> 1:10:51.760 Yeah. Also, at some point during this fancy party, the 1:10:51.760 --> 1:10:55.360 baron has to sneak away to the coat closet basically 1:10:55.360 --> 1:10:58.559 to an adjoining room room to eat brains out of 1:10:58.600 --> 1:11:01.360 a big golden chalice. The spoon. He's just got a 1:11:01.560 --> 1:11:03.880 it's like locked inside a chest. He just has a 1:11:03.880 --> 1:11:06.000 big old grail of brains. 1:11:06.520 --> 1:11:08.919 I love this, but it also just raises more questions. 1:11:08.920 --> 1:11:11.600 Whose brains are these? When has he been harvesting or 1:11:11.600 --> 1:11:14.599 did he harvest these? Like he did he maybe buy 1:11:14.600 --> 1:11:18.080 these off the black market or you know, got them 1:11:18.120 --> 1:11:20.200 from a morgue or something. We don't know, but he 1:11:20.280 --> 1:11:26.000 has a sizeable little cauldron, little bowl of brains here. 1:11:26.120 --> 1:11:28.559 And they're basically intact, which would not be the case 1:11:28.600 --> 1:11:30.920 if you sucked out the brains through those tiny holes 1:11:30.960 --> 1:11:31.800 in the back of the head. 1:11:32.200 --> 1:11:34.920 Yeah, and he's constantly going in for little nibbles and bites. 1:11:34.960 --> 1:11:37.040 It's like, you know, it's like it's like I do 1:11:37.120 --> 1:11:38.880 when I'm working here at the house. You know, I'm 1:11:38.880 --> 1:11:42.360 just constantly snacking on snacknecks or something, and he's the 1:11:42.360 --> 1:11:43.320 same with his brains. 1:11:43.560 --> 1:11:45.160 So there's a scene at the end of the party 1:11:45.200 --> 1:11:47.920 where everybody tells the baron what a wonderful time they've had, 1:11:48.200 --> 1:11:51.320 and they all make plans to see him again. It's like, oh, Baron, 1:11:51.600 --> 1:11:54.040 once't you please be at our wedding And he's like, oh, yes, 1:11:54.160 --> 1:11:58.120 I will be there. So I think we can run 1:11:58.200 --> 1:12:02.679 kind of quickly through the various revenge scenarios. The first 1:12:02.720 --> 1:12:07.280 one is maybe my favorite one. The Professor of History Depentoha. 1:12:07.720 --> 1:12:10.440 This one's really good. This one's legitimately creepy. 1:12:10.280 --> 1:12:12.960 Yeah, because the guy just happens to be a scholar 1:12:13.040 --> 1:12:16.400 of the Inquisition, and also, wouldn't you know it his 1:12:16.640 --> 1:12:20.760 beautiful daughter Maria, also a brilliant historian of the Inquisition. 1:12:21.600 --> 1:12:23.439 So like, they bring the baron to their house and 1:12:23.439 --> 1:12:25.559 they're like, look at these papers we have about the 1:12:25.600 --> 1:12:28.479 trial of the whoa baron Vitilius. He had the same 1:12:28.560 --> 1:12:32.559 name as you. That's that's pretty weird, isn't it. Yeah, 1:12:32.640 --> 1:12:35.439 there's one line where the professor says religion was not 1:12:35.640 --> 1:12:37.960 extremely enlightened at that time. Baron. 1:12:38.400 --> 1:12:41.080 Yeah. Baron's like, yeah, I know, quite. 1:12:40.840 --> 1:12:45.160 Aware anyway, So they're like, hey, you know he had 1:12:45.160 --> 1:12:46.880 the same name as you. This guy must have been 1:12:46.880 --> 1:12:49.880 one of your ancestors. And then, in a kind of 1:12:49.920 --> 1:12:54.000 shocking twist, the baron just straight up announces himself. He's 1:12:54.120 --> 1:12:56.200 like he said, this is the scene where he says, 1:12:56.280 --> 1:13:01.440 I never had any ancestors. I am the Baron Itilius Destera, 1:13:01.720 --> 1:13:06.320 and you are the descendants of one of the inquisitorial judges, 1:13:06.360 --> 1:13:08.080 and now I will destroy you. 1:13:09.320 --> 1:13:12.200 And this is a great revenge sequence. Again legitimately creepy 1:13:12.280 --> 1:13:17.680 because he hypnotizes petrifies the father, and then I mean 1:13:17.720 --> 1:13:21.360 he hypnotizes them both. But he's just frozen there, wide eyed. 1:13:21.760 --> 1:13:24.680 This is your Maine roadless that referenced earlier, but he's 1:13:24.720 --> 1:13:28.400 just frozen in place, petrified with these wide eyes as 1:13:28.400 --> 1:13:32.639 he watches the baron feast on the brain of his daughter. 1:13:32.920 --> 1:13:33.080 You know. 1:13:33.120 --> 1:13:36.280 Well, first he kisses the daughter and she's like, oh, 1:13:36.320 --> 1:13:38.559 I'm in love with the baron now makes a face 1:13:38.560 --> 1:13:41.920 indicating that I guess she's probably hypnotized. And then he 1:13:42.000 --> 1:13:45.160 turns into the brainiac and then sucks her brains out, 1:13:45.560 --> 1:13:48.400 and the guy and the professor is just standing there 1:13:48.439 --> 1:13:51.400 with like his eyes are like they're like a mile tall. 1:13:51.880 --> 1:13:54.679 Yeah. So this this scene hits pretty hard, like even today, 1:13:54.720 --> 1:13:57.559 so I feel this must have terrified folks back in 1:13:57.600 --> 1:13:58.200 the sixties. 1:13:58.640 --> 1:14:00.280 And then Brainiac burns down the house. 1:14:00.640 --> 1:14:04.960 That's right, Yeah, he the trashes the office. Let's you know, 1:14:05.000 --> 1:14:07.519 we don't see a lot of like really overt rage 1:14:07.520 --> 1:14:10.080 from him over all of this, but here we do. 1:14:10.800 --> 1:14:13.360 Later, the cops are on the scene and the inspector says, 1:14:14.080 --> 1:14:17.160 the line is quote these people were burned. Only that 1:14:17.200 --> 1:14:20.240 doesn't fool me. It's clear that the madmen extracted their 1:14:20.280 --> 1:14:21.160 brains as well. 1:14:21.680 --> 1:14:22.120 All right. 1:14:24.040 --> 1:14:26.160 Also at this scene, this is where we get some 1:14:26.560 --> 1:14:29.519 more comic relief with Benny. He he's like yelling at 1:14:29.560 --> 1:14:32.680 the people who are doing the forensics, and he's like, 1:14:32.720 --> 1:14:34.880 I've got to examine these bodies to find out who 1:14:34.960 --> 1:14:37.640 drilled those holes in their skulls. It was probably some 1:14:37.760 --> 1:14:39.639 maniac who thought he was cracking a safe. 1:14:41.080 --> 1:14:43.519 Maybe that joke lands a little better in the original Spanish, 1:14:43.600 --> 1:14:44.000 I don't know. 1:14:44.080 --> 1:14:50.040 Maybe The next murder is that of the industrialist Manaises, 1:14:50.200 --> 1:14:55.360 the one descended from Baltazar Demoneses. So they're in his 1:14:55.479 --> 1:14:59.240 lab with he and with him and his wife, and 1:14:59.280 --> 1:15:02.479 they're talking about collaborating on a new alloy. And then 1:15:02.479 --> 1:15:05.680 the BRAINI act does a similar thing here. He's like, hypnotize, 1:15:06.360 --> 1:15:09.559 kiss the lady, turn into beast mode, eat the wife's brain, 1:15:10.000 --> 1:15:13.400 except in this case, instead of eating Maneesa's his brain, 1:15:13.600 --> 1:15:18.000 he hypnotizes him to jump into his own industrial furnace 1:15:18.400 --> 1:15:21.599 ugh ooh yeah. And then skipping more lightly along toward 1:15:21.640 --> 1:15:25.040 the end, we get a third revenge scene, which occurs 1:15:25.120 --> 1:15:28.599 after the wedding of the targeted individual. It's a young 1:15:28.680 --> 1:15:32.040 lady getting married. It's going to be eating some brains 1:15:32.040 --> 1:15:34.360 as well. But this is all building up to the 1:15:34.400 --> 1:15:36.680 final confrontation, because we know in the back of our 1:15:36.720 --> 1:15:40.400 minds all the time that one of the descendants today 1:15:40.560 --> 1:15:43.840 is Victoria Contreras, and so he's going to be coming 1:15:43.840 --> 1:15:47.240 for Vicky soon. So in the final showdown, the baron 1:15:47.280 --> 1:15:51.400 invites Vicky and Ronnie to his house. And now how 1:15:51.439 --> 1:15:53.840 does he get them separated? Like he sends Ronnie to 1:15:53.920 --> 1:15:56.599 the other room to look for something or. 1:15:56.600 --> 1:15:59.600 Oh, he says, I would like to give Vicky some 1:15:59.720 --> 1:16:02.920 jewel and it should just be her that comes with 1:16:03.000 --> 1:16:05.040 me into my study where I keep all the jewelry. 1:16:05.160 --> 1:16:07.280 It would be wrong for you to try to influence 1:16:07.400 --> 1:16:10.920 her on which piece of jewelry she chooses. Yeah, and 1:16:11.200 --> 1:16:13.080 you know, Ronnie's like, well it makes sense to me. 1:16:13.520 --> 1:16:17.240 Carry on, then that's normal. Yeah. So of course he 1:16:17.280 --> 1:16:21.920 gets there into the into his study or his office there, 1:16:22.200 --> 1:16:24.559 and I don't even remember if there were any jewels, 1:16:24.600 --> 1:16:28.599 because he almost immediately launches into villain dialogue and an 1:16:28.640 --> 1:16:32.920 attempt to seduce, slash, hypnotize, slash ultimately eat her brains, 1:16:32.920 --> 1:16:33.720 we assume. 1:16:33.760 --> 1:16:37.799 But she is saved, so this turns into a scuffle. 1:16:38.120 --> 1:16:42.639 Of course, Ronnie hears her screams and comes running. But then, 1:16:43.080 --> 1:16:47.880 in a really surprisingly brutal twist on the side of 1:16:47.920 --> 1:16:51.639 the good guys. The cops show up. Our inspectors, both 1:16:51.720 --> 1:16:54.880 Benny and the more serious cop arrive on the scene, 1:16:55.320 --> 1:16:58.960 both wearing backpack flame throwers. 1:16:59.320 --> 1:17:05.599 Yeah, like full blown space movie flamethrowers on their back 1:17:06.040 --> 1:17:08.360 and yeah they and then just light him up. And 1:17:09.400 --> 1:17:12.599 I mean, I was about to say, unfortunately, sadly, from 1:17:12.640 --> 1:17:16.000 some perspectives, the baron dies a second death by fire. 1:17:16.479 --> 1:17:19.160 I couldn't believe it when I saw the flamethrowers. They're 1:17:19.200 --> 1:17:24.719 running in like it's like Drake and Vasquez, like. 1:17:24.000 --> 1:17:28.360 Rock wearing a huge honking flamethrower apparatus. 1:17:28.479 --> 1:17:28.519 Is. 1:17:28.600 --> 1:17:32.400 Yeah, there's no setup for there's no like, there's no like, 1:17:32.560 --> 1:17:34.280 you know, there's no bit where they're like, you know, 1:17:34.479 --> 1:17:37.759 we just got those new flame throwers in over the precinct. 1:17:39.400 --> 1:17:41.120 I don't know why we did all that training on them, 1:17:41.160 --> 1:17:43.000 and we're probably never going to use them. There's nothing 1:17:43.040 --> 1:17:46.320 like that's just suddenly they're here, a turbo team with 1:17:46.479 --> 1:17:47.640 flamethrowers ready to go. 1:17:49.439 --> 1:17:51.360 And the baron is not part of the turbo team. 1:17:51.600 --> 1:17:55.280 No, he's not. He gets toasted, burned to a crisp 1:17:55.320 --> 1:17:58.000 and brainiac form. Then we get a like a dissolve 1:17:58.040 --> 1:18:01.439 effect into do we go right to skeleton or you 1:18:01.479 --> 1:18:03.200 go to I like, charred humanoid form? 1:18:03.240 --> 1:18:08.160 First, I think it's charred skeleton with like no feet, right, no. 1:18:08.200 --> 1:18:10.320 Feed or hands. That really threw me, and it made 1:18:10.360 --> 1:18:12.519 me think about the brainiac fingers all over again. I 1:18:12.560 --> 1:18:14.439 was like, were those maybe those are just he had 1:18:14.479 --> 1:18:17.120 no hands in their tubes? Yeah, like there were no 1:18:17.200 --> 1:18:20.479 bones in there. And then again a million questions about 1:18:20.520 --> 1:18:22.160 exactly how all of this works. 1:18:22.520 --> 1:18:26.479 So question, did we miss something? I wanted to compare 1:18:26.560 --> 1:18:30.000 notes with you? Was there something I missed in the 1:18:30.040 --> 1:18:33.120 movie that explains more about what the brainiac is and 1:18:33.160 --> 1:18:35.519 where he comes from? Did that scene just go buy me? 1:18:36.560 --> 1:18:39.439 I don't think so. Now I am to understand there's 1:18:39.479 --> 1:18:43.880 a director's cut of this, but I also have not 1:18:44.000 --> 1:18:47.400 read anything to imply that it really answers any of 1:18:47.439 --> 1:18:49.880 the questions we actually have. I think it was maybe 1:18:49.920 --> 1:18:53.920 just some more character stuff, But I could be wrong, 1:18:55.400 --> 1:18:58.400 But it's my understanding that none of these outstanding questions 1:18:58.400 --> 1:19:01.120 about the nature of the beast are really answered. 1:19:01.479 --> 1:19:04.919 Listeners, If there are answers to our questions about the brainiac, 1:19:05.000 --> 1:19:07.760 things we don't know, but you do right in let 1:19:07.800 --> 1:19:11.280 us know. Contact at stuff to blow your mind dot com. 1:19:12.320 --> 1:19:14.600 Tell us what are we missing about The Brainiac? 1:19:15.200 --> 1:19:17.439 Yeah? I also wish I'd been able to see it 1:19:17.680 --> 1:19:20.880 in the original span, in the original Spanish with subtitles. 1:19:20.920 --> 1:19:23.120 Not that something like that couldn't be lost in the 1:19:23.160 --> 1:19:26.640 subtitles as well, but you know there's always the possibility. 1:19:26.960 --> 1:19:29.320 Oh you know, sometimes I like the original language, but 1:19:29.360 --> 1:19:33.280 a movie like this, I love a dub. Dub really 1:19:33.320 --> 1:19:34.600 works well for Brainiac. 1:19:35.000 --> 1:19:38.479 Yeah, you know, you are right, And also the dub 1:19:38.479 --> 1:19:40.280 is a part of this film's history. This is the 1:19:40.320 --> 1:19:45.040 way so many English speaking moviegoers actually saw the picture 1:19:45.200 --> 1:19:48.240 over the years on television late at night, trying, you know, 1:19:48.479 --> 1:19:54.360 themselves flabbergasted by this strange monster that shows up and 1:19:54.360 --> 1:20:00.960 starts sucking brains out of people's necks with a fork tongue. 1:20:06.080 --> 1:20:09.040 As is sometimes the case, after we watch a film 1:20:09.160 --> 1:20:11.879 discuss it on Weird House, we have even more thoughts 1:20:12.040 --> 1:20:15.920 about the film and maybe we dig into some additional resources. 1:20:16.520 --> 1:20:19.360 That was the case here with The Brainiac. 1:20:19.760 --> 1:20:20.959 Okay, what's the subject. 1:20:21.280 --> 1:20:24.599 Well, first of all, there's the matter of the inquisition. Now, 1:20:24.600 --> 1:20:26.880 some of you might be wondering, well, okay, the inquisition 1:20:26.960 --> 1:20:31.080 that was obviously active in Europe and certainly in Spain. 1:20:32.600 --> 1:20:36.160 We're talking about Mexico here, we're talking about New Spain. Yes, 1:20:36.320 --> 1:20:39.120 the Tribunal of the Holy Office, the Inquisition in New 1:20:39.120 --> 1:20:42.639 Spain was established in fifteen seventy one and wasn't entirely 1:20:42.680 --> 1:20:45.800 disbanded till eighteen twenty. So the basic time frame we 1:20:45.840 --> 1:20:48.960 see in the early part of the picture here is reasonable. 1:20:49.439 --> 1:20:53.639 Yeah, and now this doesn't answer the questions that we 1:20:53.720 --> 1:20:57.080 have about whether, within the narrative logic of the film, 1:20:57.360 --> 1:20:59.720 the baron is actually supposed to be guilty of the 1:20:59.760 --> 1:21:03.479 crime he's accused of. But on the question of real history, 1:21:03.520 --> 1:21:06.880 I did want to quickly note that the people who 1:21:06.960 --> 1:21:11.320 were in reality persecuted by the Mexican Inquisition the Inquisition 1:21:11.360 --> 1:21:15.559 in New Spain were generally not accused, not certainly not 1:21:15.640 --> 1:21:18.479 guilty of, and generally not even accused of the kind 1:21:18.520 --> 1:21:23.519 of unspeakable occult crimes we see in inquisitionsploitation movies, you know, 1:21:24.240 --> 1:21:28.600 demonic lechery and violence, you used warlock powers to do 1:21:28.760 --> 1:21:32.559 murder and that kind of thing. Instead, it's a much 1:21:32.920 --> 1:21:35.679 sadder and more tragic thing that these were just generally 1:21:35.760 --> 1:21:40.880 religiously non conforming people, primarily people who were accused of 1:21:41.040 --> 1:21:45.320 secretly adhering to a religion other than Catholicism, such as 1:21:45.360 --> 1:21:49.600 pre Hispanic Aztec religion or Judaism. A big target of 1:21:49.680 --> 1:21:54.160 the Mexican Inquisition were people who were called conversos, Jewish 1:21:54.240 --> 1:21:58.320 people who had been first forcibly converted to Catholicism, but 1:21:58.400 --> 1:22:03.799 then subsequently were suspected of continuing to practice Judaism in private. 1:22:04.520 --> 1:22:07.280 So for an example of the latter, you can look 1:22:07.360 --> 1:22:09.840 up the story of a guy I was just reading about, 1:22:09.840 --> 1:22:14.240 a guy named Luis Carva Hall, the younger, notable for 1:22:14.360 --> 1:22:18.040 keeping memoirs of his experiences which were just recently recovered 1:22:18.080 --> 1:22:20.840 I believe in twenty sixteen. He was a member of 1:22:20.880 --> 1:22:25.040 a prominent family in New Spain, the Carva Hall family, 1:22:25.280 --> 1:22:28.879 which were governors of part of the colony at one point, 1:22:28.920 --> 1:22:32.880 and he in fifteen ninety six was tortured and executed 1:22:32.920 --> 1:22:35.559 at the age of thirty for keeping the Jewish faith 1:22:35.600 --> 1:22:38.880 in secret, along with many members of his family. But 1:22:38.960 --> 1:22:41.840 you can also look up the story of Carlos Omotokschin, 1:22:42.439 --> 1:22:44.680 a man who was burned at the stake by the 1:22:44.720 --> 1:22:49.559 Inquisition in fifteen thirty nine for practicing the traditional Aztec religion. 1:22:50.439 --> 1:22:55.160 So they're basically religiously non conforming people of various sorts 1:22:55.160 --> 1:22:59.280 and just general heresy. What the inquisitors decided was heresy 1:22:59.400 --> 1:23:02.320 not having the right religious beliefs and practices. 1:23:03.720 --> 1:23:07.200 Now for a little additional context about the use of 1:23:07.360 --> 1:23:11.800 history in this picture and this picture's place in the 1:23:11.840 --> 1:23:16.799 history of Mexican cinema, I turned to Doyle Green's Exploitation Cinema, 1:23:16.840 --> 1:23:20.680 A Critical History of Mexican Vampire, Wrestler, ape Man and 1:23:20.760 --> 1:23:24.080 similar Films nineteen fifty seven through nineteen seventy seven. 1:23:24.560 --> 1:23:27.000 That's an enticing title to me, But I was trying 1:23:27.000 --> 1:23:29.200 to think, have we watched a movie that covers all 1:23:29.320 --> 1:23:32.040 three of those? I think Doctor of Doom might that 1:23:32.080 --> 1:23:36.360 would definitely include Wrestler and ape Man, maybe also Mexican 1:23:36.439 --> 1:23:41.120 Vampire sort of Yeah, I don't know, brain ish. 1:23:40.800 --> 1:23:43.360 That we need to be on the lookout. We need 1:23:43.400 --> 1:23:46.120 to be on the lookout for that special picture, the 1:23:46.120 --> 1:23:49.960 Goldilocks picture. Anyway, I was reading through this book, and 1:23:50.400 --> 1:23:53.519 Green has a couple of books dealing with weird Mexican cinema, 1:23:53.600 --> 1:23:55.200 and so I've added them both to my card. I'm 1:23:55.240 --> 1:23:56.840 gonna have to pick them up to really dive in 1:23:56.840 --> 1:24:00.320 in greater depth. But his general thesis here is that 1:24:00.680 --> 1:24:04.519 while many may be quick to dismiss Mexican genre films 1:24:04.520 --> 1:24:07.760 of this era as mirror cheap entertainment and as responses 1:24:07.800 --> 1:24:10.880 to American and British cinema trends, there's a lot more 1:24:10.920 --> 1:24:13.519 going on here. So again, the golden age of Mexican 1:24:13.560 --> 1:24:16.519 cinema blossoms during the end of the Second World War 1:24:16.880 --> 1:24:19.800 and into the post war era, followed roughly by the 1:24:19.840 --> 1:24:23.400 period of cinema explored in his book, and during this time, 1:24:23.479 --> 1:24:27.160 he argues, Mexico is wrestling with its identity, seeking to 1:24:27.200 --> 1:24:30.519 forge a modern future free from the shackles of its past, 1:24:30.840 --> 1:24:34.639 many of which are tied to European colonialism. As such, 1:24:34.880 --> 1:24:38.400 the threats in these movies are often creatures of the past, 1:24:38.520 --> 1:24:44.000 interwoven with historic horrors, be they vengeful inquisition, burned warlocks, 1:24:45.160 --> 1:24:48.840 as tech mummies, or something else. And on the flip side, 1:24:48.880 --> 1:24:51.000 we see the emergence of a new sort of hero 1:24:51.160 --> 1:24:55.000 in icon El Santo, as well as his Luchador and 1:24:55.080 --> 1:25:00.120 Lucidora kin like blue demon mil Mascaris, Glory of Venus 1:25:00.160 --> 1:25:04.920 the Batwoman neutron and maybe, if we're being generous cops 1:25:04.920 --> 1:25:07.120 with flamethrowers and also astronomers. 1:25:08.360 --> 1:25:10.639 But let's be real, brainiac is not about the good 1:25:10.720 --> 1:25:12.160 guys right. 1:25:13.439 --> 1:25:18.160 Now. Specifically, on the topic of the Brainiac, Green has 1:25:18.200 --> 1:25:21.280 this to say. He writes, quote, the past is a 1:25:21.320 --> 1:25:26.519 period of unchanging violence rooted in irrational superstition, reflected in 1:25:26.600 --> 1:25:30.920 both Baron Vitilius's use of black magic and the oppressive 1:25:30.960 --> 1:25:34.840 religious dogma of the Inquisition in New Spain. Again, the 1:25:34.880 --> 1:25:38.559 Baron's resurrection does not simply represent the dangerous return of 1:25:38.560 --> 1:25:42.439 superstition and irrationality, but carries with it the reminders of 1:25:42.479 --> 1:25:47.760 an unfortunate chapter of Mexican history, the Inquisition and Spanish colonialism, 1:25:48.160 --> 1:25:51.160 and their dangerous legacy for the present. And of course 1:25:51.200 --> 1:25:54.080 this makes the use of Goya's art prints from Los 1:25:54.080 --> 1:25:58.519 Copricos the Whims series. I think it's like a whole 1:25:58.560 --> 1:26:01.960 bunch of different illustrations which I think has come up 1:26:02.000 --> 1:26:06.559 on the show before that harshly satirized religion, superstition, and 1:26:06.600 --> 1:26:10.439 a seeming decline of rationality in Gloya's modern world. 1:26:11.840 --> 1:26:14.080 I do think it's interesting what Green points out in 1:26:14.080 --> 1:26:16.960 this passage. You read about the vision sort of the 1:26:17.000 --> 1:26:20.040 worldview of Brainiac being one of a kind of total 1:26:20.160 --> 1:26:24.040 rejection of the past, that in the prologue there are 1:26:24.080 --> 1:26:29.160 no good guys. Really, assuming that we take the side 1:26:29.200 --> 1:26:31.640 that the Baron was not actually like the nice of 1:26:31.680 --> 1:26:35.400 Jesus figure who was just railroaded, that if it is 1:26:35.520 --> 1:26:38.640 more what it looks like, where the Baron is a 1:26:38.640 --> 1:26:42.000 bad evil warlock and the inquisitors are also bad. It's 1:26:42.080 --> 1:26:46.439 just a place of oppressive superstition and dogma beating you 1:26:46.520 --> 1:26:50.000 down from both sides. And really the only hope is 1:26:50.040 --> 1:26:52.439 a kind of modern future. And so it is a 1:26:52.560 --> 1:26:55.400 very modernist kind of worldview that comes through in the 1:26:55.439 --> 1:26:59.599 film that does actually seem to have positive views about 1:26:59.680 --> 1:27:02.519 like about science and humanism and so forth. 1:27:02.920 --> 1:27:05.000 Yeah. Yeah, And we have to remember that the barons 1:27:05.120 --> 1:27:08.240 the mission of vengeance here is against the descendants of 1:27:08.280 --> 1:27:10.639 the people who wronged him, you know, so, like everything 1:27:10.680 --> 1:27:14.439 he does in the present is completely vested in the 1:27:14.479 --> 1:27:15.599 past and its horrors. 1:27:16.479 --> 1:27:18.680 I guess one question that raises is how are we 1:27:18.760 --> 1:27:22.600 supposed to feel about those descendants. We like Victoria Contreras, 1:27:22.640 --> 1:27:26.960 we like Vicky, but the other targets of his vengeance plot. 1:27:27.160 --> 1:27:29.679 What kind of feelings are we supposed to have about them? 1:27:30.439 --> 1:27:32.960 I feel like the movie doesn't really nudge us very 1:27:33.000 --> 1:27:36.000 far one way or the other. They're presented kind of neutrally. 1:27:36.720 --> 1:27:40.479 Yeah. Yeah, in retrospect, it would have been perhaps more 1:27:40.560 --> 1:27:44.640 interesting if we'd explored ideas in either direction. You know, 1:27:44.720 --> 1:27:48.080 like maybe some of them are horrible and entitled and 1:27:48.120 --> 1:27:50.880 are like you know they and you know, we see 1:27:50.920 --> 1:27:56.280 like the accumulation of vast wealth over generations, while you know, 1:27:56.360 --> 1:27:59.720 others are our heroes and so forth. And in many ways, 1:27:59.720 --> 1:28:03.360 that would also fit the pattern we've seen a lot 1:28:03.360 --> 1:28:06.280 of revenge films. Right, start with vengeance against those who 1:28:06.320 --> 1:28:08.640 seem most deserving of it. Then you work up to 1:28:08.680 --> 1:28:10.840 the ones that seem least deserving of it, and that's 1:28:10.840 --> 1:28:15.559 where our revenger meets their downfall. Yeah, not to take 1:28:15.600 --> 1:28:18.479 away from the Brainiac. Still still a marvelous picture. 1:28:19.040 --> 1:28:20.920 Okay, that's all I've got on Brainiac. 1:28:21.880 --> 1:28:23.639 All right, Well, it's a fun one. Like I say, 1:28:23.800 --> 1:28:26.720 one of the one of the most unique monsters in 1:28:26.960 --> 1:28:30.559 all of horror cinema. I think it's quite a quite 1:28:30.600 --> 1:28:34.040 an accomplishment there, because you know, there there have been 1:28:34.080 --> 1:28:36.880 so many strange monsters over the years. Obviously, there's also 1:28:36.920 --> 1:28:41.759 a lot of sameness, and while the Brainiac creature certainly 1:28:41.880 --> 1:28:45.439 riffs on various existing monster tropes, it really goes off 1:28:45.439 --> 1:28:47.800 in its own ludicrousal direction and it is to be 1:28:47.840 --> 1:28:51.240 celebrated for that. All Right, we're gonna goe and close 1:28:51.280 --> 1:28:53.799 this episode out, but we'd love to hear from everyone 1:28:53.840 --> 1:28:57.760 out there, Yes, share your thoughts on the Brainiac and 1:28:57.880 --> 1:29:01.559 also just you know, Mexicans honor a cinema in general. 1:29:02.560 --> 1:29:06.160 We've been on something of a kick with these recently, 1:29:06.479 --> 1:29:08.640 so there are any favorites you have that you'd like 1:29:08.720 --> 1:29:10.840 us to consider for the future, just write in and 1:29:10.880 --> 1:29:13.720 recommend those titles. Just a reminder that Stuff to Blow 1:29:13.720 --> 1:29:15.840 Your Mind is primarily a science and culture podcast, with 1:29:15.880 --> 1:29:19.640 core episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, short episodes on Wednesdays 1:29:19.640 --> 1:29:22.080 and on Fridays. We set aside most serious concerns to 1:29:22.160 --> 1:29:25.360 just talk about a weird film here on Weird House Cinema. 1:29:25.560 --> 1:29:27.760 You can go to letterbox dot com if you want 1:29:27.760 --> 1:29:30.719 to follow us there that our username is weird House 1:29:30.760 --> 1:29:32.200 and we have a list of all the movies we've 1:29:32.200 --> 1:29:34.320 watched thus far, and sometimes a peek ahead at what 1:29:34.360 --> 1:29:35.040 comes up next. 1:29:35.560 --> 1:29:39.320 Huge thanks as always to our excellent audio producer JJ Posway. 1:29:39.720 --> 1:29:41.360 If you would like to get in touch with us 1:29:41.360 --> 1:29:43.879 with feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest 1:29:43.880 --> 1:29:45.960 a topic for the future, or just to say hello, 1:29:46.120 --> 1:29:48.840 you can email us at contact Stuff to Blow your 1:29:48.840 --> 1:29:56.240 Mind dot com. 1:29:56.360 --> 1:29:58.920 Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. 1:29:59.240 --> 1:30:01.280 For more podcasts, it's from my heart Radio. 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