Dr. Phillip Rothman (Terry Londeree) is a biophysicist who teaches at an unnamed college. With funding from a software-development company, Dr. Rothman conducts auditory-stimulation experiments on student volunteers. Problem is, once they're back in the outside world and encounter a light pattern similar to the experiments, it turns them into violent serial killers. Not a bad idea for a sci-fi chiller, but BRAIN TWISTERS landed far short of its potential.
The stereotyped characters include the heartless CEO (Robert T. Hughes), the mad scientist (Dr. Rothman), the good girl (Farrah Forke), the shameless floozy (Donna Bostany), the no-nonsense police detective (Joe Lombardo), the creepy custodian (Charles Lopresto), and the big bad government agent (Warren Cox?).
Londeree rarely changes facial expressions, and delivers his lines in a monochromatic drone. When Rothman tells his work-study student, "I'm a little on edge today," he does so because we never would have guessed otherwise. While Londeree stands out as even more wooden than Kevin Costner, the other cast members do no better. But how can they, with a script that doesn't give them characters so much as stick people they have to flesh out themselves?
The custodian is superfluous. He spends all his time alone and does not contribute to the plot in any way. The character must have been tacked on to stretch the film's length to an acceptable 90 minutes for release to theaters.
The camera work is nothing special, though I liked the close-up shots of the bubbles in a female student's bathtub scene moments before she suddenly becomes a double murderer. This petite young woman takes out a pair of football players with her scissors. Sounds plausible, huh?
Finally, the synthesized score is repetitive and irritating. And let's not even talk about the film's original pop songs! Thankfully, BRAIN TWISTERS never produced a soundtrack CD.
I gave the film two stars because at least it wasn't boring.
The stereotyped characters include the heartless CEO (Robert T. Hughes), the mad scientist (Dr. Rothman), the good girl (Farrah Forke), the shameless floozy (Donna Bostany), the no-nonsense police detective (Joe Lombardo), the creepy custodian (Charles Lopresto), and the big bad government agent (Warren Cox?).
Londeree rarely changes facial expressions, and delivers his lines in a monochromatic drone. When Rothman tells his work-study student, "I'm a little on edge today," he does so because we never would have guessed otherwise. While Londeree stands out as even more wooden than Kevin Costner, the other cast members do no better. But how can they, with a script that doesn't give them characters so much as stick people they have to flesh out themselves?
The custodian is superfluous. He spends all his time alone and does not contribute to the plot in any way. The character must have been tacked on to stretch the film's length to an acceptable 90 minutes for release to theaters.
The camera work is nothing special, though I liked the close-up shots of the bubbles in a female student's bathtub scene moments before she suddenly becomes a double murderer. This petite young woman takes out a pair of football players with her scissors. Sounds plausible, huh?
Finally, the synthesized score is repetitive and irritating. And let's not even talk about the film's original pop songs! Thankfully, BRAIN TWISTERS never produced a soundtrack CD.
I gave the film two stars because at least it wasn't boring.