BRAINSCAN
US, 1994, 96 minutes. Colour.
Edward Furlong, Frank Langella, T. Ryder Smith, Amy Hargreaves, Jamie Marsh.
Directed by John Flynn.
Brainscan is a variation on horror themes and video games. It came out in the mid-90s – before the proliferation of similar horror stories. This film is a warning against becoming too involved in video games and the repercussion on the psyche of the player. However, there seems to be an ambiguous ending, even a flip ending which perhaps undermines the basic thrust of the film.
Edward Furlong, who had made an impact in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, is a teenager who lives at home after being injured in a car accident in which his mother died. His father is away on business. He is the president of the horror film club at school (banned by the headmaster). He indulges in all kinds of video games, each more violent than the laat along with his friend Kyle (Jamie Marsh). Kyle introduces him to a game called Brainscan, advertised as defying all boundaries. When Michael (Furlong) plays the game, it has a hypnotic effect and it seems that it persuades the player to go out and commit murder. Michael is shocked when the reality of the murder dawns upon him. Mysteriously The Trickster (T. Ryder Smith), a strange creature in stranger makeup with stranger mannerisms, materialises in the room, perhaps an aspect of Michael’s psyche, persuading him to play the next section of the game, to kill the witness to the murder. In the meantime, a detective (Frank Langella) is investigating the crime and is suspicious of Michael. Meantime Michael is spying on Kimberly (Amy Hargreaves), his neighbour. Ultimately, The Trickster is trying to persuade Michael to kill Kimberly. Then, of course, he wakes up and the whole experience is a hypnotic dream.
The film is quite graphic in the initial killing – indicating how involved the player can be in the world of the game. The detective is also confrontative of Michael and his experiences and game-playing. The film was directed by John Flynn whose first film was The Sergeant in 1968, controversial in its portrait of a homosexuality sergeant and his infatuation, rather daring at the time. Flynn directed other films like The Jerusalem File as well as bestseller and the Steven Seagal film, Out For Justice.
1. The impact of this film in the 90s? The status of video games at the time? In later years? The hold of video games and the controversies about their violence, their classifications?
2. The setting in the college town? The high school? The students and classes? The horror film club and their watching the videos? The intervention of the headmaster? His confronting Michael? The warning about the impact of video games?
3. Michael, his age, the prologue and the accident, the death of his mother, his struggling along the road, the injury to his leg, the blood, Michael as a teenager and the cuts on his leg, his limp? His surrounding himself with horror posters, horror films, videos, video games? The setup on his phone – and the visuals, Igor and his saying ‘Yes, master’? Michael at school, his spying on Kimberly with the photos and the camera, his phone calls with Kyle?
4. Kyle, his talking about Brainscan? Reading the advertisements? Michael and his downplaying this? The arrival of the discs? Whether he should play them or not? The party going on next door? His playing, the hypnotic effect, his thinking he was sitting in the chair, the passing of the two hours? The Trickster and his appearance, explanations? The staling of the victim, the murder, the cutting of the foot, the attempt to bury the foot, Michael having to evade detection, the people in the woods? The detective? His waking up, the news that the murder had happened? The reappearances of The Trickster, Michael’s arguments with The Trickster? The challenge of the second disc? His filming himself, thinking that it was all in the mind, the threats to Kyle? His waking up, the film showing that he had left the room? The news of Kyle’s death? The intervention of the detective? The Trickster reappearing, the next disc? The threat to Kimberly, Michael going to her house, hearing the news about the deaths, going back? The meeting with Kimberly, the threats, Michael’s resisting killing Kimberly? His waking up? The Trickster and his control?
5. Michael back to real life? The party going on? Everything happening in the game, in his mind? His being reassured at seeing Kimberly, seeing Kyle again? Going back to school?
6. The Trickster, the creation of a mad controller? Appearance, manner, appearing and disappearing? Evil and manipulative? Perhaps coming from Michael’s psyche?
7. The ending, everything seeming normal – but Michael leaving Brainscan with the headmaster so that he could censor it? A rather flip and flippant ending for this kind of film?
