The Brain Leeches | |
---|---|
Directed by | Fred Olen Ray |
Written by | Jim Kennedy Brad Linaweaver Fred Olen Ray |
Produced by | Fred Olen Ray |
Starring | Paul Jones Marcia Scott Ray Starr |
Cinematography | Marvin Levine John Raber Fred Olen Ray (as Fred Ray) |
Music by | Paul Jones Sugar Lee Modest Mussorgsky |
Release date |
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Running time | 55 minutes |
Language | English |
Budget | $298.00 |
The Brain Leeches is a 1978 American low-budget science fiction exploitation film directed by Fred Olen Ray and starring Paul Jones, Marcia Scott, and Ray Starr. It has a running time of 55 minutes, and was completed on a budget of $298.00. The film was shown publicly only once, although it has since become available through distributors. The project proved to be a turning point in the careers of two of the principals.
A former nuclear scientist turned pro-wrestler does battle with invading aliens who are taking over the brains of people in a small town. [1]
Principal photography took place in 1978. [3] The film was shot using an old Auricon 16mm camera, and (expired) nine-year-old black and white film stock obtained from an Orlando, Florida, television station where Ray worked. [1] [4] The alien invaders were represented by large rubber ants purchased at a dime store for 19 cents apiece. [1] [2] Earthlings under mind control by the aliens were portrayed as having all-white eyes. The special effect was achieved by applying white tape to the actors' eyelids. [1] The destruction of the alien headquarters (the TV station where Ray worked) was depicted using stock footage of a nuclear explosion from an old 16mm documentary found in the television station's film archive. [1]
The film score is a public domain recording of Moussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, taken directly from a "cheap record album". According to Ray: "No effort was made to synchronize any of the music to the picture. We just put on a classical record and let it play." [1] Portions of the film were shot at a bar, The Foxhead Tavern, in Orlando. [3]
Production of The Brain Leeches was completed, on budget, for $298.00. [1] [4]
In 1991, Ray stated that The Brain Leeches had been shown publicly only one time, and that it would never be released for distribution. [1] However, more than 30 years after its first showing, copies of the film have become available through distributors such as Sinister Cinema.com. [5] [6]
The project proved to be a watershed moment for two of the principals. Political essayist Brad Linaweaver received his first original story credit (for film) for The Brain Leeches. The experience changed the trajectory of Linaweaver's career path, emphasizing film and science fiction writing for the rest of his life. [5] [7] [8] The film also jump-started the career of prodigious Hollywood director/producer (and sometimes professional wrestler [9] ) Fred Olen Ray, who is also known for having loaned Quentin Tarantino his first 16mm camera to make My Best Friend's Birthday . [10] The association and collaboration between Linaweaver and Ray continued until Linaweaver's death in 2019. [5]
Bradford Swain Linaweaver was an American science fiction writer, film producer, actor, and magazine publisher. Over a 40-year career, he completed a body of work including novels, short stories, and screenplays.
My Best Friend's Birthday is an unfinished 1987 amateur comedy film directed, edited, co-written, co-produced by and starring Quentin Tarantino. The film was shot in black-and-white and was originally meant to have a runtime of seventy minutes, but only 36 minutes of the film are edited altogether, leaving the project unfinished.
Dark Star is a 1974 American independent science fiction comedy film produced, scored and directed by John Carpenter and co-written with Dan O'Bannon. It follows the crew of the deteriorating starship Dark Star, twenty years into their mission to destroy unstable planets that might threaten future colonization of other planets.
Shock Waves is a 1977 American horror film written and directed by Ken Wiederhorn. The film is about a group of tourists who encounter aquatic Nazi zombies when they become shipwrecked. It stars Peter Cushing as a former SS commander, Brooke Adams as a tourist, and John Carradine as the captain of the tourists' boat.
Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers is a 1988 American black comedy horror film directed by Fred Olen Ray, and starring Gunnar Hansen, Linnea Quigley, Jay Richardson and Michelle Bauer. It is known as a B-movie.
Fred Olen Ray is an American film producer, director, and screenwriter of more than 200 low-to-medium-quality feature films in many genres, including horror, science fiction, action/adventure, erotic thrillers, crime dramas, and holiday films.
Alien Dead is an American horror film directed by Fred Olen Ray. Ray co-wrote the script with Martin Nicholas. The film involves a meteor hitting a houseboat, which causes the people on board to become zombies who eat alligators and eventually people.
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Creature from the Haunted Sea is a 1961 horror comedy movie directed by Roger Corman. Written by Charles B. Griffith, the movie is a parody of spy, gangster, and monster movies, concerning a secret agent, XK150, who uses the name "Sparks Moran" in order to infiltrate a criminal gang commanded by Renzo Capetto, who is trying to transport an exiled Cuban general with an entourage and a large portion of the Cuban treasury out of Cuba. Filmgroup released the movie as a double feature with Devil's Partner.
Z movies are low-budget films with production qualities lower than B movies.
The Tomb is a 1986 American supernatural horror film directed by Fred Olen Ray and starring Michelle Bauer, Richard Alan Hench, David Pearson and Susan Stokey. Despite being respectively given first and second billing, Cameron Mitchell only has a supporting role, and John Carradine features in single scene. Sybil Danning also only appears in the prologue, despite being prominently shown on the poster. The plot concerns an ancient Egyptian vampire who kills those in possession of artifacts stolen from her and taken to the United States by grave robbers.
Demented Death Farm Massacre is a 1971 horror film directed by Fred Olen Ray and Donn Davison and features John Carradine as 'the Judge of Hell', who narrates the story.
Jerry Warren was an American film director, producer, editor, screenwriter, cinematographer, and actor. Warren grew up wanting to get into the film business in Los Angeles, California. He appeared in small parts in a few 1940s films such as Ghost Catchers, Anchors Aweigh, and Unconquered.
Deep Space is a 1988 sci-fi horror film directed by Fred Olen Ray, starring Charles Napier, Ann Turkel and Bo Svenson. Napier stars a cop trying to stop the murderous rampage of an escaped creature engineered by the government.
Invisible Mom is a 1996 American comedy film directed by Fred Olen Ray. The plot revolves around a mother who becomes invisible, after having drunk a potion.
The Fiend with the Electronic Brain was a 1969 low-budget science fiction film directed by Al Adamson and starring John Carradine. In 1971, this film was re-edited, with newly filmed footage added, into a very different version that was re-released to theaters as Blood of Ghastly Horror.
Prison Ship, also known as Star Slammer, Adventures of Taura, Part 1 , Starslammer: The Escape and Prison Ship Star Slammer, is a 1986 American science fiction film directed by Fred Olen Ray.
Steve Latshaw is an American screenwriter, producer and director. He has written a number of films for Jim Wynorski and Fred Olen Ray.
The Mega Shark film series is made up of four monster and disaster films from The Asylum, an American independent film company and distributor that focuses on producing low-budget films. The movies in the series are:
Kane W. Lynn (1919–1975) was an American film producer who made a number of movies in the Philippines with producer Irwin Pizor and Filipino director Eddie Romero as Hemisphere Pictures, or the House of Horror as they often referred to themselves. Later Pizor quit the company after an argument, and when Romero left to form a production company with actor John Ashley, Lynn tired of making movies and his Hemisphere Pictures became just a movie distributor, mainly handling adult films and low budget B-movies. It was his guidance that kept Hemisphere Pictures solvent and constantly moving forward, releasing a diverse product line of low-budget independent movies from the early 1960s through the mid-1970s.