Brainblast (1987)

Director: Andy Nehl

Screenplay: Stephen Stockwell

Cast:  Julie Mitchell as Sally; Lisa-Jane Stockwell as Margaret; Cathy Jukes as Liz; Toby Zoatesas Kika; James Scanlon as Burgher Meister

I came into Brainblast not knowing it was Australian - in truth I had no context at all for what to expect, just a craving for a lo-fi and micro budgeted work. Probably the most fascinating back-story titbit to Brainblast is knowing its director Andy Nehl would eventually, in the grand scheme of Australian cinema, helm a documentary tie-in called Buried Country (2000), alongside a book and stage show, for an album about native-Aboriginal country music that all together became a huge cultural success in the country.

There is also an inherent fascination, stepping back to very early in his career, with Australian cinema in general. Australia is its own unique culture, a distinct one because of its history and natural landscape that makes any film, especially in genre cinema, of fascination. (Hence why a native son Mark Hartley, when he helmed the documentary Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation! (2008), was probably helped as much in retroactively create a genre called "Ozploitation" because the culture's richness itself). Hearing the accents, after a punk dies on camera in the street from a comically large needle of super heroine in the neck, was an abrupt surprise and a delight fitting the dark humour of the scene, as a news reporter just wanders up to the corpse and bemoans the state of the world despite his crew providing the money for the smack. It's a perfect opening for any film to let you be ready for a very peculiar piece of cinema.

Brainblast sadly doesn't quite live up to this, suffering from a low budget production that is improvised to a detriment and padded with little resources. It's a shame considering snippets offer what it could've been. In future Australia, drugs are rife including a more lethal and cheaper form of heroin, one woman working at a research lab investigating that brain and finding a way to create a videotape that can induce a powerful narcotic effect. The result drags itself to a plot - there is a gang who sell drugs that eventually became aware of that tape, whilst there is also a secret and shady government group which allows the film to criticise the Australian conservative Christian community. This wouldn't be an issue, happy to see an improvised lo-fi production with this mix of ideas and schlock, if it didn't feel undernourished.

Aspects of Brainblast are charming, bits of Liquid Sky (1982) in its low view of life and hallucinogenic effects thrown around, Troma in its few moments of luridness and cheese, even an unexpected head implosion, alongside arty pretensions which are arguably a detriment. The later is odd in the mix, such as cutting to a man so he can spout poetry for a time until punks, including one wearing a metal trash can as a vest, can kick him down. The aspects of absurdity do better, slight lameness and charm to be loved, be it that particular punk's existence and the general display of peculiar fashion among the villains, to the effect of the narcotic tape to induce dreams, including a female character making out with a man in a frog costume.

It does drag though, a film I can only describe further in terms of just repeating plot details to be honest, or character like the elder hippy that looks at this period he's now in with less enthusiasm, something that's sadly a sign of a film that's slight for me. Aesthetically I have grown to appreciate films shot with what is available, the streets of an Australian city inherently interesting whilst the video hue to everything is potent. The soundtrack is also pretty good; your taste in indie rock needs to be positive to it, but it stands out considerably in terms of most films of this budget going for synths. Beyond this...well, it's charming but this is definitely a film which could've been more than it had.

The premise of audio-visual stimulus which causes narcotic highs is a good idea, the film even namedropping LSD's biggest gospel preacher Timothy Leary. The film itself could've gone further, especially as it intersects with sex (another connection to Liquid Sky) where certain erotic words are programmed by a very polite computer A.I. to have an effect on a viewer's senses. Even if played as a Troma film, it would've been a fun romp, between a sloppy brawl that takes place partway through to the general nasty wall chewing of the villains. I think, from a personal opinion, Brainblast's flaw for me is that it likes padding itself out way too much without a lot there. As a result, it's hard to really recommend the film, an utter shame as it'd been nice to have a peculiar Australian micro-budgeted film to appreciate.

Abstract Spectrum: Eccentric/Psychedelic/Weird

Abstract Rating (High/Medium/Low/None): None