Brain Eaters, The

Rating: **/*****, or 3/10

Terrible low budget science fiction/horror flick about alien parasites invading a small American town and taking over people's minds. A small band of brave uninfected individuals tries to stop their hostile take-over. Lousy story, boring execution and mostly non-existent visuals, courtesy of schlock production studio American International Pictures (AIP), specializing in only the cheapest of horror and science fiction flicks to provide drive-in theaters with content to show to teenagers who aren't watching anyway because they're engaged in other activities. Noted science fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein sued the producers (including Roger Corman, an expert in producing this type of quick, cheesy, cheap cinema of the late fifties) for stealing the plot of his book 'The Puppet Masters'. Otherwise this movie is only noteworthy for featuring Leonard Nimoy (of Star Trek fame, obviously) in one of his earliest roles, playing the host to the Brain Eater Overlord: unfortunately his last name was misspelled as 'Nemoy'.

Starring: Ed Nelson, Cornelius Keefe, Leonard Nimoy

Directed by Bruno VeSota

USA: AIP, 1958

Blood of Dracula

Rating: **/*****, or 4/10

Beware! Misleading title here! This movie has nothing to do with the Dracula character in whatever incarnation, despite some semi-vampiric presence in the plot. A better title would have been 'I was a Teenage Dracula', considering this was produced by the same company behind I was a Teenage Werewolf, also released in 1957, to which it bears more than just a coincidental resemblance story wise as it tells of a troubled teenage girl (Sandra Harrison) dumped at a boarding school by her father, who finds herself subjected to hypnotic experiments by the evil headmistress (Louise Lewis), that turn her into a vampire at her behest. This results in a few suspenseless murders here and there and a dull subplot about police investigators trying to find out what's going on. This movie was released as a double bill for drive-ins with I was a Teenage Frankenstein. Production company American International Pictures (AIP) was responsible for many a lousy B-movie in the latter half of the fifties (many of them with overly grandiose, incorrect and thus irresponsible titles): though this flick is far from good, it's by no means the worst of this extensive bunch.

Starring: Sandra Harrison, Louise Lewis, Gail Ganley

Directed by Herbert L. Strock

USA: AIP, 1957