THE ATOMIC BRAIN (1964)
aka Monstrosity
Article 2262 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 5-28-2007
Posting Date: 10-22-2007
Directed by Joseph V. Mascelli
Featuring Marjorie Eaton, Frank Gerstle, Frank Fowler

A rich elderly woman finances a scientist using atomic energy in the hopes that he will develop a way to transplant her brain into the head of a young woman.

A wretched script, dead-in-the-water direction, a goofy musical score, atrocious acting and static presentation all conspire to make this low-budget foray into science fiction horror one of the worst ever made. If it works at all, it’s because some of the exploitation elements have a little bite to them. The near-nudity of the bodies in the atomic reactor is certainly attention catching, and there is something really creepy about the eighty-year old woman ogling the bodies of young women; granted, we know she’s shopping for one for herself, but you wonder what’s going through the minds of the women she’s ogling. The accents are horrible; the English girl’s accent comes and goes with the wind, the Austrian girl has no accent at all, and the Mexican girl’s accent is spectacularly bad. And you do have to wonder about the scientist’s emergency plan in case they get caught by the police, as it involves destroying everyone involved in an atomic inferno. This is Joseph V. Mascelli’s sole directorial outing, though he would act as cinematographer for a handful of movies, including two from Ray Dennis Steckler.