original production:

EL BARON DEL TERROR

Cast: Abel Salazar (Baron Vitelius/The Brainiac), Ruben Rojo (Ronald Miranda/Marcos Miranda), Ariadna Welter (Bar Girl, 2nd victim), Maria Gallardo (Victoria Contreras), Luis Aragon (as "Louis Aragon") (Professor Milan, astronomer), Ofelia Guilmain (Senora Luis Meneses), Rene Cardona, Susana Cora, David Silva (Detective Inspector), German Robles (Indelacio Pantoja/Sebastian de Pantoja), Roxana Bellini, Mauricio Garces (Medical examiner), Magda Urvizu, Miguel Brillas, Federico Curiel, Magda Donato, Carmen Montejo, Carlos Nieto, Francisco Reiguera, Carlota Solares, Victor Velazquez

PLOT OUTLINE:
(from AFI): In 1661 Mexico, the Baron Vitelius of Astara is sentenced to be burned alive by the Holy Inquisition of Mexico for witchcraft, necromancy, and other crimes. As he dies, the Baron swears vengeance against the descendants of the Inquisitors. 300 years later, a comet that was passing overhead on the night of the Baron's execution returns to earth, bringing with it the Baron in the form of a horrible, brain-eating monster that terrorizes the Inquisitor's descendants.

SYNOPSIS:
The year is 1661. The Spanish Inquisition interrogates another suspected heathen, the Baron Vitelius of Artera. The hooded inquisitors read the charges against the baron, which includes necromancy, adultery and dogmatism, while the Baron laughs at them, chained to his chair.

The inquisitor reads the record of having tortured the Baron, who appeared to have had no adverse reaction to the torture.

A witness in defense of the accused, Marcos Miranda, testifies that the Baron is a wise and honest man, but the judges don't believe him, and punish him.

After the bogus trial, the inquisition charges the Baron with being in league with the devil, and sentences him to be burned at the stake. As he is read the sentence, he makes his chains vaporize. He is taken away.

The next evening, while the Baron burns at the stake, he and the villagers look up in horror to see a giant comet streaking across the sky. The Baron then sees through the hoods of his oppressors, and identifies each by name. As he burns, the Baron vows to revenge himself on the descendants of those who sealed his fate.

The year moves forward to 1961. A young couple dance at a party, but they soon excuse themselves in order to go to a nearby observatory, where the man, Ronnie, works as an astronomer, with Vicki his girlfriend and assistant.

At the observatory, the couple meet the eminent Professor Milan, who quizzes them both on their knowledge of comet cycles.

Milan then shows the two a book he has just discovered, which tells of a comet from 300 years ago, and predicts its return to earth, this very night!

Seeing the couple's skepticism, the professor shares his theory why believes this particular comet could indeed have an unusual orbit which brings it along the earth every 300 years.

Ronnie runs to the telescope, but soon tires of looking. Vicki takes over, and soon she spots the comet streaking by. Milan takes a peek, then Ronnie. They are all very excited by this scientific revelation.

Ronnie and Vicki run outside to get a better look, and soon see a projectile launch from the comet and streak toward earth. They hop in their car to follow the path of the weird UFO.

Meanwhile, in a nearby park, a huge boulder falls from the sky and lands in a field. The boulder evaporates, and leaves behind a horrible monster with claws, a lizard face and a monstrously long tongue.

The monster kills a passing man, and absorbs his clothing, so it now looks like a man: the Baron Vitelius!!!

Ronnie and Vicki arrive at the park, and bump into the Baron. They ask the man if they saw anything strange in the sky. The man replies that he hadn't, and was merely out taking a late-night stroll. Ronnie explains that he and Vicki are astronomers, and were trying to trace the landing area of a falling star.

The group exchange names, and depart.

The Baron goes to the Montejo Restaurant to pursue his first victim. He sees a young woman, drinking at the bar. He vanishes into thin air, and reappears next to her. The woman tries to strike up a conversation, but the Baron just stares at her. The bar owner comes over and refuses to serve the Baron, but the woman insists he be given a drink. The woman kisses the Baron, who then turns into the monster, and kills her, piercing her head with his monster tongue.

That night, in the city morgue, the coroner tells the police detective that the two corpses he was brought this evening were the strangest he'd ever seen. He observed two small holes bored directly into the skulls of each victim, and worse, their brains had been sucked out!

The detective tells of a bank robbery that had just occurred, and wonders if there is any connection between the crimes. His assistant, Benny, proposes an absurd theory, but the detective disputes him.

Back at the observatory, Milan looks through his mail, and is shocked to find that none of his colleagues has seen the comet which he saw. Ronnie opens a letter from "the Baron Vitelius of Astera", inviting them all to a cocktail party that very evening.

The police detective and his assistant also receive a letter, this one asking them to attend the Barons's party, as security guards, in order to safeguard the guests' valuables.

That evening, at the party, a Mr. & Mrs. Luis Meneses are introduced. The Baron glares at Meneses, knowing him to be he next revenge victim. Other guests/victims follow, including Miss Anna Luisa del Vivar and Professor Indelecio Pantoja.

Vicki, Ronnie and Milan arrive at the party, and are introduced as Victoria Contreras, Professor Ronald Miranda and Professor Samuel Thomas Milan. Through the Baron's X-ray vision, we can see that Vicki is also a descendent of one of the Baron's tormentors, while Ronnie is a survivor of the Baron's only witness and friend!

The Baron introduces himself to the trio, and compliments Ronnie and Vicki. He invites them in for a drink. The Baron declines liquor, saying he has a "strange disease" which prevents him from indulging. He excuses himself.

The Baron goes to a locked cabinet, opens it, and removes a silver urn, in which lay the brains of his victims! He spoons out a serving, and eats it.

The police chief and Benny arrive at the party, and snoop around.

To the gathered guests, the Baron explains his reason for visiting their country; he is a student of pre-Hispanic culture. The guests all offer social invitations, and then leave.

The next day, the Baron visits Dr. Pantoja, and they discuss the atrocities of the Spanish Inquisition, and read from a book of ancient history. The Baron is distracted by the entrance of Pantoja's beautiful daughter, Maria.

The Baron confesses to the two that he is the Baron Vitelius it speaks of in the book they are reading. He then hypnotizes Maria into kissing him.

The Baron turns into the Brainiac, and kills Maria, and then her terrified father. The Brainiac tears up all the written evidence of his existence, and throws the pages in the fireplace.

The next day, the detective and Benny arrive at the doctor's house, and ascertain that the killer was the same as with the past two murders.

At the observatory, Ronnie, Vicki and Professor Milan read the newspaper account of the tragedy, and mourn the loss of their friend and colleague.

The trio then peruse more reports which verify that no-one but they have seen the strange new comet in the sky. The scientists are puzzled, and look back at the old book for reassurance. Baffled, Milan considers a possible occult connection.

The next day, the Baron visits some more enemies, Mr. & Mrs. Luis Meneses, at their foundry. He discusses with Menases the possibility of forging a new and lucrative alloy.

The Baron hypnotizes the couple, and makes love to the woman. The Baron turns into the Brainiac, and kills the two, throwing them into a furnace.

The next day, Ronnie and Vicki read of the tragic deaths of the Meneses in the paper. Ronnie now believes that there is a connection to all this tragedy and the Baron, but Vicki thinks he's crazy.

The detective and Benny visit the Baron at his home, looking for answers. The detective finds some names in a book, and writes them down. The Baron enters. The detective asks the Baron if he knows anything about the killings. The Baron feigns ignorance, and the cops leave.

The Baron moves his goblet of brains to a safer location, a large chest.

The next day, the Baron offers a newlywed couple his best wishes. Ronnie and Vicki chat with the Baron. Ronnie forwards his theory that the strange comet has something to so with all these tragic murders.

Later that evening, the Baron materializes in the new bride's bedroom. The woman, Ana Luisa del Vivar, asks him to explain, but he just stares at her. The Baron turns into the Brainiac. The woman faints. The Brainiac attacks.

The next day, the detective and Benny take notes in a mausoleum. They note that the victims are all related to the dead Inquisitors. They learn that Vicki is to be the next victim!

At the mortuary, the coroner confirms that these latest murders are like all the others.

The detective and Benny go to visit Vicki. Professor Milan informs them that she and Ronnie just left to visit the Baron! The detective and Benny hightail it to the Baron's house.

Ronnie and Vicki chat with the Baron at his home. The Baron excuses him to "take his medicine". He goes into the other room, and extracts the goblet of brains. He spoons out a serving, and eats it.

Ronnie is curious. The Baron returns, and asks if he may offer Vicki a rare jewel for her wedding present. He takes Vicki into the other room.

Ronnie spies on the Baron's secret room.

The Baron shows Vicki his collection of rare jewels. He confesses his love, and hate, for Vicki, and why he must kill her. Vicki is hypnotized by the Baron's gaze.

Ronnie finds the goblet of brains.

The Baron turns into the Brainiac, and attacks Vicki. Ronnie runs to her rescue. The Brainiac tells them both to let fate take its course. Vicki tries to run away, but the Brainiac attacks her.

The detective and Benny run in, carrying flamethrowers. They aim them at the Brainiac, and burn him alive. Ronnie and Vicki look on, horrified, as the Brainiac vanishes into thin air.

THE END

GUEST REVIEW
by Tars
THE BRAINIAC is a damned weird movie made in Mexico in the 1960s. Jabootu and Dr. Freex both did reviews of this one, which I'm going to assume you've read.

The short version: this Baron in 1661 is burned by the Inquisition; he vows to return in 300 years to wreak revenge on the tribunal's descendants. He does return, right on time, but as a grotesque brain-sucking monster. He kills most of the descendants but is stopped by the police just before he can kill the last one, who happens to be the Love Interest. The end.

First, the cover. This is a DVD by golly! *Cough* Well. The main image is this guy who looks like a dentist, with a white jacket, glasses and a mustache. In front of him is this big golden crucifix. To his upper right is the Brainiac, and below him is a big glass jar with a brain in it. The big crucifix never appears in the film; while there are brains in the film (as in "props" not as in "intelligence") they're never in a glass jar. As for the dentist guy, you might think he'd be the Baron in his human guise, but you'd be wrong.

Anyway, we begin. It's 1661 and the Baron is being tried. The Prosecutor sounds and talks like Dudley Manlove. No, I don't think it is either but wouldn't it be cool? Of course, who knows who K. Gordon Murray hired to dub this? It's not as If Dudley Manlove could say, "Hey, I'm DUDLEY MANLOVE, damn it! PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE, baby! You want my voice, you're gonna pay for it!"

Anyway, the Baron is condemned, they burn him at the stake, this comet comes by, certain folks stare at it, and we go forward to 1961. Hero guy and Hero gal are at a club, they remember they're due to meet the Professor at the observatory.

While the Professor drones on and on about comets and such, suddenly there's music mixed quietly under his talk. The music is of the "Uh oh, something bad is happening in the background and no one knows about it" type. Shortly after that (the lecture goes on for quite a while) the music changes to "You are being hypnotized" type music.

The Professor's telescope is one of those giant, 20 foot things that has a dome and everything. Yet, when he tells the hero guy he's looking in the wrong place, hero guy uses one hand to move the scope all over the place, as if it was a mobile or a venetian blind or something.

The comet falls to earth from what appears to be a height of about ten feet. The effect is utterly hilarious. Remember the Klown car that falls to the pavement at the end of KILLER KLOWNS FROM OUTER SPACE? Or Ash's car falling to the earth at the beginning of ARMY OF DARKNESS? It's almost exactly like that (except Ash's car falls a longer way). It's just what Irwin Allen might do on LOST IN SPACE if he hadn't thought of "first, nothing-cut to exploding smoke-something's there. Matter transmission! Next!"

There's a guy out driving who sees the comet land. He stops his car and gets this wonderful expression. He looks like he's thinking, "WHOOO HAA, I'm RICH!!!" As he moves through the field, there's a big blob of soft ambient light behind him...like a studio wall, maybe? *Cough* Ah-HEM.

The "comet" fades away and there stands the Brainiac. The Brainiac, when He first appears, makes noises like a tiger growling. And I'm not sure, but I think his inflatable head is the sign of him activating his hypno-powers (which are never really confirmed by anyone, but they DO work). (By the way, the pulsing head only makes one other brief appearance-we're talking a fraction of a second--same with the tiger noises.)

When he sees the Brainiac appear, the driving guy gets all scared and starts pulling the twigs of the bush he's "hiding" behind. Which would seem to be counterproductive to hiding, but hey...

Anyway, Brainiac kills the guy and gets his clothes (magically) and becomes Human Brainiac (HB). At the same time, hero guy and hero gal decide to go look for the comet for some reason. They stop by the park where the meteor landed, but of course there's no meteor. There's just the HB.

When hero guy and gal first meet the Brainiac in human form, they stand there for the longest time (over 10 seconds of screen time-I timed it) with hero guy getting these "Damn, what was my line again?" looks. (The line turns out to be "Oh, sir!") He then asks HB if he's seen an "aero light"(?)

During the subsequent chat, the music again starts up (very quietly) with this crashing, brass-filled crescendos...the type that is usually played when the monster appears (the real monster, not the human guise, cf THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON advancing toward the camera).

Anyway, after this chit-chat, the hero guy and gal and HB are fast friends and agree to meet. HB moves on to the town, and enters a bar. There's a lone woman patron there and a bartender. The bartender leaves shortly after.

At the bar, the woman does all the talking ("I feel we've met before" etc) while HB stands there like a mannequin. Nonetheless, she informs him that he's "real sweet."

Earlier, when the Baron saw the comet, there was a cut to it, a cut to his face, and a cut to his friend's face in a sequence that went on forever. Here, the bar woman's death is also presented with every single frame. First a close up of his face, then her face, then his face-five times for each face from when she walks away from the bar to when she screams at his transformation into the Brainiac. (I counted.)

We cut to the morgue where the driver (killed earlier) and the bar woman's bodies have been brought. And...the guy on the cover, the dentist guy? He turns out to be the morgue doctor. He has about three scenes, where he basically says "These people were killed and their brains were sucked out!"

Anyway...

HB goes to the local museum. The clerk in charge says they're about to close. HB hypnotizes him, the goes to a large book, reads aloud for a few seconds ("processes of the Inquisition, done in the year of 1661"), then leaves. Sheesh, he coulda just told the guy "I know just what I want to look up, I'll just be a second." I mean, I've done that in bookstores and I'm not even a Brainiac.

You know, the HB looks a lot like a young Dennis Hopper. And no, I don't think so either....

HB goes into the crypt where his accusers are buried and reads their names. There's a long, long close up of his expressionless face. He doesn't look evil, or thoughtful, or...anything. He just "looks."

HB kills a hooker. When he transforms, she screams, turns away to face a wall, then turns and looks and screams again. It's hard to convey in words how ineffectual this type of defense looks on screen. It's of the "If I Hide Under The Covers and Don't Move The Monster Will Go Away" school. (It works much better when you're five or six years old.)

There've been two police guys following the case. One is an older bald guy with a mustache. He has an assistant named Benny. "I'm sure now that the killer is a schizophrenic," says the detective. Um, OK. The waitress brings Benny his order of calves brains, but he's too sick to eat them, what with all the talk of brains and all, and we get comedy xylophone music. The guy playing Benny reminds me of Jerry Hardin (Deep Throat from the X-FILES) if he were channeling Jerry Lewis.

Professor gets a bunch of telegrams (all over the world, no one else saw The comet, yada yada yada) and the "Something sneaking up on them" music is Heard again.

There are soooo many shots here that are held way too long, it's hard not To yell "Cut, cut!" every other minute or so. They used every frame they shot. You could've eaten off the cutting room floor.

Anyway, the HB throws a party and invites all the descendants of the folks who burned him. There's a historian, an industrialist and a fiancée.

I can't see it at first, but the HB keeps the brains of his victims in a big bowl and he snacks from them (this helps with his "stomach problems"). (I trust Jabootu and Dr. Freex on this.) At the party, when the HB makes an excuse and goes to his Brain Box, there's a great shot of the professor, hero guy and hero gal standing around doing nothing. It looks like someone yelled "Cut!" but the camera man didn't hear. In fact, that would explain a lot... maybe all the cast and crew were deaf. That way, of course, they couldn't hear anything like "Action!" "Cut!" "Act, damn you!" or "Do it better, please!"

Each of the guests invites the Baron to visit them in his (or her) own house. His plan succeeded! Bwa ha ha ha! I guess. Lucky his intended victims are such nice hospitable types and all.

So, the Baron goes to visit the historian. When the historian's daughter appears, she gets a tracking shot! And a following track as well. Pretty much everything else is just static camera work, with the odd zoom.

Just before the HB makes the revelation of his true nature to the historian and his daughter, a piece of fluff comes sailing down in front of him. Uh, just thought I'd mention it. And HB transforms and kills them both, then throws paper everywhere and sets the place on fire. But the police aren't fooled! They know to check for missing brains first thing.

Hero guy reads that the historian and his daughter were killed "by a completely maniacal killer!" to which the Professor responds contemptuously, "That's impossible!" Hero guy says something like "No, it's true!" and points to the newspaper, and Professor is convinced. Yes, men, it is that easy! Professor then goes back to his negative-comet telegrams. Geez, Professor, get a Nintendo or something!

HB goes to visit the industrialist and his wife. You know, aside from the grins at the beginning of this film, the HB never changes his expression. He could be played by a mannequin. Or an animatronic like Lincoln in Disneyland. Oh great, now that I say that, he kisses the industrialist's wife. Not exactly a sign of life, but kind of close. Oh, then he kills the industrialist and his wife if you're keeping score.

Say, the hero guy looks kind of like a young Warren Beatty. No, he looks like Bob Crane. And no, I'm pretty sure he's not. Either one of them.

The Baron's hall is great looking. All these nice arches and such, really splendid. Again, just an observation.

Finally get a look at the brains in the bowl. Say, they're kind of tiny looking. Um, that wasn't meant as any kind of comment....

HB goes to the fiancée, who is now a newlywed. Confronting the bride, the Baron actually shows emotion (it's anger). With a little practice maybe we'll see him act! The husband has been killed pretty gruesomely. HB transforms and moves in on the bride. She faints. The Brainiac's shadow over the bed is kind of effectively creepy. (You give the movie points when you can, you know.)

Back at the Baron's house, hero guy and gal have come calling. HB excuses himself to go eat brains, though he doesn't actually put it that way. One thing the actor playing the HB shows is his repugnance at eating the brains. He really looks like he's going to vomit. It looks like a kind of pudding-pasta, but using method acting he has convinced himself it is brains! Wow!

He brings the hero gal upstairs to give her a jewel. Then, he confesses...the Baron has fallen in love with hero gal? What th--?

Hero guy finds the bowl of brains. He sure looks disgusted, but he doesn't seem to look at all worried that hero gal is off in another part of the house with the Baron. "Ew, a bunch of brains! Good thing I didn't touch 'em or anything. Say, I should tell the Baron there's a bunch of brains in this chest. I bet he doesn't know about them."

Hero gal screams and runs to hero guy. Brainiac chases her while hero guy does...well, nothing much.

Brainiac's about to get hero gal, but before he can get his tongue out, the cops show up...with flame-throwers. Which, as Jabootu points out, was a damn good guess on their part. "Say, I bet that Baron guy is up to no good. Let's get him!" "Yeah, and let's bring the flame-throwers, too!" "Yeah--solid, Jackson!"

Just as the Brainiac advances on the cops, you can see that one of his pincers is broken! It just flops around. I mean, even more than normally.

Those flame-throwers are amazing. The cops spray fire all over the Brainiac, and nothing else in the house (like the table the Brainiac is right next to) have any fire or anything on them.

Well, the Brainiac burns up, turns back into the Baron, and then into a skeleton. The end. Told you, you shoulda read Jabootu or Dr. Freex, but would you listen? Naw, it's just a little harmless bunny rabbit....

For another fantastic and thorough review of THE BRAINIAC, visit Steve Ring's mind-boggling PROCESSION OF THE DAMNED!!!

REVIEW:
EL BARON DEL TERROR is one of Mexican cinema's most memorable and beloved monster movies, and THE BRAINIAC is one of Murray's most extraordinary and successful releases, with a title to die for, a monster to love and adore, and a plot straight out of a comic book.

The extended prologue, featuring Baron Vitelius' trail and punishment at the hand of Inquisitorial goons, offers some classic images: the Baron smirks at his captor's wild accusations; the Baron makes his chains vaporize; the Baron uses X-ray vision to see the faces of his assassins; the Baron burns at the stake, via a cool table-top model.

At first, we sympathize with the accused, for we know all about the hideous Inquisition, its psychotic genocidde of the innocent. But as we hear the bizarre charges (dogmatism, necromancy, seducing young girls), and see him smirking with contempt, we realize this cat is pure evil!

The inquisitor's dubbed speech is itself a wildy convoluted paragon of frenzied hyperbole.

After fast-forwarding to 1961, things really get hopping, with astronomers noting a blurry, badly animated comet approaching.

Shortly, the Baron arrives, falling to earth in a giant boulder that plops to the ground like an airlifted Care package!

The baron soon transmutes into the title creature, in order to kill his killer's descendants. And what a creature!

The "Brainiac" is a ludicrous, bizarre expressionist demon, a goofy, vaguely lizard-like monstrosity with a gruesome, hairy head, floppy crab claws, and a giant rubber tongue that basically just flops around in its attempt to suck the brains out of wailing victims. This is a marvelous creation, naive and unreal, again very much like something straight out of a golden-age horror comic.

And the Baron keeps a goblet of his victims' brains in a treasure chest, for occasional snacking and revitilaztion. This touch is pure gold!

A lovably primitive, and highly effective, optical effect shows protagonists' faces dissolving into their ancestors'.

The lurid, wacky melodrama is really brought to life via a rousing score by Gustav Cesar Carrion, which includes familiar cues used in other Mexican horror classics.

Also fun to see is everyone's favorite horror heroine, Ariadna Welter, as a brain-sucked bar-slut.

Yep, this is a short and sweet and sensational feature, remembered fondly by anyone who's seen it, and a landmark in cult film history.

HEAR THE ORIGINAL PROMO SPOT!
CLICK ON K. GORDON MURRAY!

COMMENTS:
* (updated 02-14-06) Thanks to a terrific new book we just received, "Ghouls, Gimmicks and Gold" by Kevin Heffernan, (2004, Duke University Press), we have been able to update the U.S. television release date for this Murray horror title to 1965. The appendices to this study of the horror film in America, circa 1955-1968, include complete listings of syndication feature film packages from many distributors, including American International Television, who subleased the K. Gordon Murray film catalog under the title THRILLERS FROM ANOTHER WORLD. It seems that 1965 was the watershed year for genre film sold to television, with a veritable flood of titles released by both domestic and foreign distribs.

* (effective 05-01-03) After a very brief window of availability, this long-sought K. Gordon Murray title is once again out of print, due to international copyright issues. Used video tapes of this title may be found on online video dealers and auction sites. Stay tuned for further developments!

* This great film had a theatrical release, several years after its syndication to television, with an equally exciting co-feature, THE CURSE OF THE CRYING WOMAN! According to AFI, THE BRAINIAC premiered in the US on April 9, 1969, in Trenton, New Jersey.

* The uncut, 77-minute version of THE BRAINIAC features: 1/ The newlywed husband, hanging upside down in the shower, dead. 2/ The murder of a hooker by the Baron. 3/ The police do some research on the Baron.

NOTABLE DIALOGUE: