Friday, March 2, 2007

Brainscan (1994)

A babyfaced, lonely rich kid named Mike (Edward Furlong) spends his days playing video games, being president of the schools Horror Club, spying on the girl of his dreams next door, and hanging out with his only friend Kyle. After Kyle sees an ad for a new interactive game called Brainscan, Mike calls the number in the ad and skeptically asks questions about why the game is so great.

Even though he doesn't order it, the first disk arrives in the mail a few days later. Mike plays the game, which is a first person through the eyes of a killer adventure. It is so intense that Mike feels as if he were actually the one who stabbed the victim and removed his foot.

The next day, after raving to Kyle about the game, he finds out that a man in their town was brutally murdered and is missing a foot. As Mike realizes that the murder in the game was real, the Brainscan game vomits up a kind of creepy, kind of retarded looking guy named Trickster. He goads Mike into continuing the game, and each time Mike plays, he gets in deeper and deeper.

This movie wasn't bad, although it was really more of a thriller than a horror movie. The beginning of the movie seemed a bit slow, but the plot and continued harrassment by Trickster, who was really annoying, were effective. Frank Langella was sufficiently cold and business like as the police detective.

The interactive videogame plot has been worked to death, but this one is worth watching.

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