Stars: Robert Fuller, John Agar, Joyce Meadows, Thomas B. Henry, Anne Gwynne, Stuart Wade, Gloria Castillo, Charles Courtney

Director: Nathan Hertz

Summary: In 'The Brain From Arous' a floating brain takes over the body of a nuclear physicist. 'Teenage Monster' is the story of a teenager who is responsible for a series of murders but is protected by his mother who is later blackmailed by a local waitress. Also includes an episode of 'Space Cadet' called 'Solar Guards'.

Oh no, it's...a weird monster double feature! In THE BRAIN FROM PLANET AROUS, a nasty cerebral alien from outer space crash lands in the California desert, and proceeds to take over the body of a research scientist (John Agar). When not leering at the lovely leading lady (Joyce Meadows), the super-evil, super-intelligent, super-sized brain makes the telepathically possessed scientist do an abundance of naughty things, including blow up a city, explode airplanes, and even boil water.
Part Western, part science-fiction, and part horror, Jaques Marquette's TEENAGE MONSTER is a bizarre product of nuclear-age hysterics and drive-in movie cheapness. Its plots finds a teenage boy going on a killing spree after being exposed to a mysterious meteor and transformed into a werewolf-like creature who lusts for blood. An enjoyable and often hilarious B-movie romp, TEENAGE MONSTER boasts special effects by Jack Pierce, the man who helped create Boris Karloff's makeup for FRANKENSTEIN and THE MUMMY.

WIN DVDs by rating this DVD

Average User Rating:

WIN DVDS by being amongst the first to review this DVD. Reviewing DVDs earns you bonus entries and lets you WIN DVDs!Please login before reviewing this DVD. If you're a new user, register for free and enter to WIN FREE DVDs!

You have to credit the folks who put this double bill together. The Brain from Planet Arous, a low-budget alien invasion 1958 film, is one of those programmes that lingers in the memory as much for its title and impressively ludicrous giant-staring-transparent-brain monster as for its poverty row dramatics, in which the usually stiff John Agar grins evilly and flashes contact lenses when possessed by the creature and a good guy brain shows up to take over his dog to thwart the renegade cerebrum's plan for world domination.

For this release, Brainis teamed with its original co-feature, a movie so bad you wouldn't buy it on its own but whose presence here is a pleasing extra. Whereas Brain from Planet Arousdelivers exactly what its title promises, Teenage Monsteris a cheat: rather than feature a mutant 1950s delinquent in a leather jacket, it's a melodramatic Western in which prospector's widow Anne Gwynne keeps her hulking caveman-like son (who seems to be well into middle-age) hidden, only for a scheming waitress to use the goon in her murder schemes. Brainis snappily directed, even when staging disasters well beyond its budget, while Teenage Monsterdrags and chatters and moans until its flat finale.

On the DVD:The Brain from Planet Arous/Teenage Monsterdouble bill disc is a solid showing for such marginal items, featuring not only the trailers for these attractions but a clutch of other 1950s sci-fi pictures (Phantom from Space, Invaders from Mars, etc.) and a bonus episode ("The Runaway Asteroid") from a studio-bound, live-broadcast juvenile space opera of the early 50s (Tom Corbett, Space Cadet) in which hysterical types in a capsule break off from the space programme to deliver ringing endorsements of gruesome-looking breakfast foods. --Kim Newman

Aspect Ratio:	4:3 Full Frame
Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	1950s Trailer, Interactive Showmans Guide, Stills Gallery
Year:	1958
Release Date:	May 25, 2009
Runtime:	135 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	P I C D 003
Keywords:	Planet, Monster, Brain, General, Space, Teenage, Fiction, Science, From, Horror, Arous, Cadet, Sci, Fi
Genre:	Science Fiction