The Brain Machine (1972)

★ 2.9 1h 25m IMDb

Drama Horror Thriller Sci-Fi

Several people volunteer for a scientific experiment about mind-reading and memory, but the experiment goes horribly wrong.

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Cast

James Best as Rev. Emory Neill Died 2015 · Powderly, Kentucky, USA From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia James Best (born Jewel Franklin Guy; July 26, 1926 – April 6, 2015) was an American television, film, character, voice, and stage actor, as well as a writer, dir...

Gil Peterson as Dr. Elton Morris Age 90 Gil Peterson was born on February 28, 1936 in Winona, Mississippi, USA as Gilbert Peterson Born and raised in Winona, Mississippi, Gil was an outstanding high school athlete who lettered in four diff...

Gerald McRaney as Willie West Age 78 · Collins, Mississippi, USA Gerald Lee McRaney (born August 19, 1947) is an American television and film actor. McRaney is best known as one of the stars of the television shows Simon & Simon, Major Dad, Promised Land and House...

Doug Collins as Dr. Roland Roth Age 74 · Christopher, Illinois, USA Paul Douglas Collins (born July 28, 1951) is an American basketball executive, former player, coach and television analyst in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played in the NBA from 1973...

Stocker Fontelieu as Saxon Died 2009 · New Orleans, Louisiana, USA Charles Stocker Fontelieu was an American actor..

Director Joy N. Houck Jr.

Cast James Best, Barbara Burgess, Gil Peterson, Gerald McRaney, Marcus J. Grapes, Doug Collins, Ann Latham, Thomas Hal Phillips, Christian Garrison, Stocker Fontelieu

talisencrw 5/10 Apr 22, 2016

This is a low-budget 70's film which stems from the cinematic crazes of both the 'evilly-implemented mind control' ('The Manchurian Candidate' and 'The Ipcress File') and 'paranoia about government conspiracy' subgenres that were fervently expressed in the Vietnam/Watergate era of American cinema. For me, growing up watching James Best as Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane in 'The Dukes of Hazzard', it was intriguing to watch him here, as a priest selected as one of 4 paid volunteers for an experiment supposedly run by the ECC, an environmental organization. It ends up that it's just a cover to test an experimental mind-control 'Brain Machine' that the U.S. government wants, in order to keep it's citizens in line, in the name of 'keeping social order'. Admittedly, when one of the directors says that the future is surveillance, I couldn't help but shudder at the parallels to society today, in this post-9/11 era. Unfortunately, the more time that passes, the closer these Orwellian cinematic views of civilization and its discontents come to mirroring the way life has become.

No spoilers, but the machine forces the person to tell the truth. Growing up, I have learned that honesty is not always the best policy. In fact, life has to endure the 'little white lie' in order to have things run peacefully. While no cinematic masterwork, this film more than suffices as Exhibit A for evidence. Definitely worth a watch, especially if you can handle 1970's, TV-movie-style filmmaking.

tmdb76622195 1/10 Jun 09, 2023

Oh, my gosh, I thought CBS prime-time television shows were the worst things Gerald McRaney appeared in. Four people are experimented on by a crazed mind control computer. That's it, don't rent it. I saw this under one of its many titles- "Grey Matter," and it is perhaps one of the worst films of recent memory. The other reviews are right, it is awful. Never have so many establishing shots appeared onscreen, NEVER. The cast is awful, the direction is awful, and the script is awful. I cannot stress how awful this is. Avoid it like you would smallpox.

(PG13)- physical violence, some gun violence, mild gore, some profanity, and some adult situations.