Can you believe, after 441 reviews, Brain of Blood is only the second time Al Adamson has been reviewed on B-Movie Enema?

Yeah. I couldn’t either! Al Adamson is one of the big names in low-budget schlock horror in the 60s and 70s. The only other movie of his I ever mentioned is Black Samurai which I covered, like eight years ago. And, to be honest, I didn’t really know who Al Adamson was at that time. I was still in my fledgling days of being a blogger covering schlock films and just getting into the stuff at the time. Plus, I was more keen to talk about the blaxploitation elements of that movie than the guy making the movie.

Adamson made dozens of movies. His beginnings are that of just assisting his father, Victor Adamson, himself a filmmaker. After helping his dad with the western Half Way to Hell, Al struck out on his own to make his own movies. He could crank out a lot of drive-in fair like a Roger Corman, but the difference was that, for the most part, Adamson seemingly worked way cheaper and with kind of half-baked scripts. For the most part, you’d think of him as a monster movie guy who didn’t so much care about the rest of the stuff as long as they could advertise a monster.

Al Adamson often worked with a lot of the same people, Kent Taylor is someone in this movie who appeared in other Adamson films, and made lots of friends during his filmmaking career. Interestingly, early on, he worked with two pretty big-time cinematographers – Vilmos Zsigmond, a four-time Oscar nominee and winner for Best Cinematography for Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and László Kovács who went on to make BIG movies with BIG directors including being the cinematographer on 1984’s Ghostbusters.

Another notable name who got a gig with Adamson was Neal Adams. Yeah, the guy who was one of the biggest artists of the 70s and 80s and possibly one of the most important creators to work on Batman. Adams was hired by Adamson to design a poster for the film Horror of the Blood Monsters. That was an unfinished Filipino film that was sold to Adamson. Adamson added some American actors, notably another frequent collaborator John Carradine, to finish the movie and get it sold to American audiences. That’s where Adams comes into this story. Neal Adams created the below lurid poster that helped get the movie sold to drive-ins.

What I find interesting about Adamson’s movies is that several of his movies have titles that can grab your attention with words that speak to you about horror or whatever, but when you really put two and two together, it ain’t addin’ up to four. For example, Psycho A-Go-Go… What does that even mean? The movie was just a straight thriller about a jewel thief and psycho. The “A-Go-Go” part was just added because go-gos were places people went to. Blood of Ghastly Horror… Horror of the Blood Monsters… Five Bloody Graves… Hell’s Bloody Devils… Brain of Blood… Notice the word “blood” in each of those titles? It’s like Al Adamson was the original marketing or YouTube algorithm to sell the next movie to whoever would buy a ticket for them. The titles don’t really tell you anything other than “This shit is a horror movie and you might see blood!” I feel like someone at early Google plugged Al Adamson’s brain up to a machine to copy his brain patterns in order to figure out how to appeal to people when they go online to look at stuff.

In 1995, Al Adamson’s life would be tragically cut short in the most interesting of ways. I know that sounds ghastly, but for a guy whose movies often used words like ghastly or blood or horror or whatever in his titles, to be the victim of a murder turns out to be kind of interesting. He was initially reported as missing. He hired a man named Fred Fulford to repair some stuff in his house. Adamson intended to get the house fixed up and sold. Fulford ultimately would become a problem. He and Adamson feuded quite a bit. The last time the two confronted each other Fulford killed Adamson and buried him under concrete. Adamson’s own housekeeper became suspicious of his disappearance and the sudden removal of the hot tub, something that would have been a selling point in a flipped house. That’s when the investigators looked into Fulford, arrested him for the murder of Adamson, and recovered the filmmaker’s body. I knew about this whole thing from one of the crime shows that featured the tale long before I really knew who he was and it was still an interesting tale to hear about.

So the movie starts with an establishing shot of the Taj Mahal but is actually taking place in the country of Kalid. Oh boy… We’re already off to a fun start here where Adamson wanted this movie to take place somewhere exotic but used a picture of one of the absolute most recognizable wonders of the world to set the story in a country that is fictional. Wowsers we may be in for it, everybody.

Anyway, the American doctor, Dr. Lloyd Trenton (played by Kent Taylor) is called to help the benevolent ruler of Kalid named Amir. Amir is VERY old and very much dying. He’s also VERY white. Amir’s Chief of… something… Staff? Okay, we’ll say Chief of Staff… Anyway, Amir’s Chief of Staff, Muhammad, says that all of Kalid is being told that Amir is vacationing so the next stage of the plan here can go into place without unrest in the kingdom. Trenton and another… westerner? We’ll say another westerner… Anyway Amir’s Kalid doctor, Negsarian, and Tracey Wilson (played by Adamson’s wife at the time, Regina Carrol) explain what the plan is… As soon as Amir dies, they will transport his body to America where they will find a suitable new body to transplant the brain to so Amir can go on living. Afterwards, Amir wants to marry Tracey and make her the Queen of Kalid or something. Whatever her official title will be, she will be ruling Kalid with Amir.

After the credits, we learn that Amir is dead. However, he was injected with a serum to prevent his brain from deteriorating so that he could be transported to Dr. Trenton and the operation to place his brain into a new body can commence. In the car, we have Amir’s body, Muhammad, and that doctor we saw at the beginning with Amir, and subject of Kalid… Bob Negserian. Yeah, this mother fucker’s name is just Bob and he’s a citizen of Kalid. Oh boy, Al Adamson, you have given me a gift this day. Bob is played by Grant Williams who was best known for playing the titular role of The Incredible Shrinking Man.

There may be some unrest. Muhammad says they should just take the chance now to think about themselves. Amir is dead. Maybe it’s time to move on. Bob disagrees. After all, he’s pureblooded Kalid that Bob.

Now, when they arrive at Dr. Trenton’s lab, you might be wondering, “Is this the type of movie in which the scientist who is into brain-body-swapping shenanigans has an assistant who is a little person?” You bet your motherfuckin’ bippy this is that type of movie, Enemaniacs.

Also, I shit you not… Amir’s body is wrapped in literal tinfoil. This is amazing. He’s just lying there like a fuckin’ baked potato.

Muhammad asks Dr. Trenton where Amir’s new body is. Dr. Trenton’s like, “Eh, don’t worry, it’ll be here soon.” Now, he says that right after saying they don’t have much time to get to work. While Trenton and Bob (and that little guy we saw leading the men into the lab) work on prepping Amir to have his brain removed, one of Trenton’s goons is seeking a body. That guy is reminded that he needs to find someone with a healthy, strong body for Amir. The guy is not having any goddamn luck finding anyone who fits that description.

Now, this assistant goon of Trenton’s is a hulking beast of a dullard. He’s maybe not the right guy to send out on such a task unassisted or unmonitored. He’s following a younger guy who probably could fit the bill. The target is something of a nogoodnik and is breaking into a young woman’s apartment to rob the place. She comes home to interrupt the whole thing, but when Trenton’s goon follows the target into her apartment, the young woman faints at the sight of the hulking beast. When the goon and the target struggle on the fire escape, the target falls to the ground and dies. So there is no suitable body to move Amir’s brain to.

Although… That young woman’s body was suitable in all sorts of ways. Why not just take her to the… you know what? Fuck it. We gotta figure out a way to put the brain of a benevolent leader into the body of a monster.

I will say, that while we see Trenton’s goon out looking for a suitable body, the operation going on in the lab itself is well done. We’ve got them cutting into flesh in close-up. They’re peeling that flesh away from the skull. There’s blood everywhere and the skin looks kind of real, or at least plausibly real.

Now, time is very short. Amir’s hamburger meat of a brain has been removed from his body and put into one of those drink coolers you see at a gas station that is usually full of either 20-oz Pepsi bottles or cans of Monster Energy Drink. They don’t have time for a very large, very stupid goon to not succeed in the task of finding a single person who has a decent body to put that hamburger meat of a brain of Amir’s into.

Muhammad is also concerned about this. The brain can’t really survive independent of blood. Dr. Trenton says there’s nothing to worry about and if the brain needs blood, well he’s got blood to give it. So he sends his little person assistant, Dorro (played by Angelo Rossitto who appeared in the classic Freaks) to go get Amir’s hamburger meat of a brain some blood. Dorro goes to the doctor’s dungeon where he has two young women chained to the wall to serve as blood donors.

Now… I get it that Amir is a pretty cool guy. Muhammad says to Trenton that Amir is the only person who can keep the country on the path he put it on in terms of being at peace and making everyone’s quality of life so much better than it used to be. However, is Amir that cool of a guy that you go to a guy who runs a lab that has an unapproved, and possibly illegal, machine that can cut into someone’s noggin for brain transplants and a literal dungeon where two young girls are kept in bondage?

I’m beginning to think that either the people of Kalid are very desperate or this Trenton guy is not a very good dude (it must just be both things).

By the way, Muhammad is played by Zandor Vorkov. Vorkov would go on to play Dracula in another Adamson film, Dracula vs. Frankenstein. That was released the same year as this movie. Vorkov sometimes travels around to conventions and drive-ins that play Al Adamson movies as a special guest during screenings of Dracula vs. Frankenstein.

Speaking of Muhammad, he’s got some doubts about Dr. Trenton. Bob tells him that Trenton is trustworthy. Sure, he might be after power and fame and he’s kind of greedy, but hey! He knows how to do the brain transplants they need to save their beloved leader. But Trenton, surprise surprise, is not trustworthy. He hires an assassin to get rid of Muhammad and Bob. The assassin follows the car full of Amir’s guys and attempts to run them off the road.

I love how all of this is shot. The two cars are speeding down the road with generic exciting music playing. There are inappropriate sound effects that get put into inappropriate moments. Like there’s a moment where squealing tires are heard but the cars are just driving straight down the road. There’s another brief mis-edit where the start of the sound of a wreck is heard but they aren’t wrecking. The 180 rule is broken over and over. The same patches of road are seen time and again. The quick edits of just people reacting in horror while the chase is still in the process of playing out…

Goddamn it’s funny, it’s bad, and it’s just what this blog needs after a long time of not covering anything in this realm of bad movies.

Alright, so the assassin has forced the Kalid car off the road. While it tumbled and caught on fire, Bob jumped out of the vehicle. He survived with a bloodied hand, but Muhammad and the other two from Kalid who were in the backseat are dead. Bob was also able to hide and avoid detection from the assassin.

Back at Trenton’s lab, he’s decided to use Gor, his dullard goon, as a temporary body for Amir’s brain until they can find a more suitable replacement. As Gor passes out from the sleeping gas to undergo the operation, we get a little bit of a flashback of Gor being picked on by a couple local hillbillies. When they broke his toy he pushed one of them and made him bleed. For that, they knocked him to the ground by bashing his head with a shovel and then POURED CAR BATTERY ACID ONTO HIS FUCKING FACE.

That’s like just below Stephen-King-Bully-Level of bully.

I joke, but I do actually feel really bad for Gor. That flashback also served as the last we will see of the actual Gor. After the brain replacement is complete, Dorro tries calling out to him by name to awaken him, but Trenton reminds him he’s no longer Gor. He’s Amir in Gor’s body. Dorro says he feels bad for the oaf. In actuality, Gor was Dorro’s only friend. That flashback to see how Gor got disfigured is actually quite sad in context.

Because this has to be over 80 minutes in length, we do return to the girls in the dungeon. Dorro teases them and is often cruel to them. He collects one of the girls to bring upstairs, but in the struggle to unshackle her and drag her along to go with him, like a fool, he dropped the key to the shackles. The other girl, whose name, I guess, is Katherine, retrieves the key and unlocks her shackles to escape.

Now you may be curious if we get to see the entirety of the girl reaching with her foot to get the keys and pull them over to her. Why, yes we do! You now may be curious if we see the entirety of the girl figuring out which key is for her shackles and how to put the key in and unlock the shackles. Why, yes we do! But, finally, are you wondering if, now that Katherine is free, do we get to see the entirety of reaching over to grab her ankle boots and slip them on and make sure they are comfortably placed on her feet? Well, boys and girls, do I have wonderful news for you. We do!

Again, I think this is mostly just to fill out the runtime for this silly monster movie, but goddamn… I want the monster movie! What are we doing here? We just basically have Katherine going through the basement like it’s now an Old Dark House-style movie. Was the brain transplant plot so scant in terms of the movie that we had to go to this whole chunk of movie just just add extra horror? You know, you could do what Frankenstein did and have the monster escape and start killing people all over town or what have you.

Don’t get me wrong, actress Vicki Volante is pretty and I like what she’s bringing, and l like her discovering Amir’s discarded body, but it doesn’t really go anywhere for the plot. Oh… she walks into a spider web? Oooh! Scary! She hears Dorro laughing somewhere she can’t see him? Ooooh spine-chilling…

Alright, so Tracey arrives to join Amir, Bob, and gang on this big body-swapping thing. Bob explains that everyone else is dead. He thinks someone is trying to stop their plans. The idea was that if Kalid knew Amir was dead, the whole place would… explode? Like… Just cease to exist? Eh… Anyway, they try to figure out who could be behind the plot to make Amir’s plans go wonky. There’s another doctor out there who might be a problem, but that’s never explored at all. Of course, there’s Dr. Trenton. However, Tracey knew Trenton best of all. She was the one who brought him in so he could help Amir stay alive. Faults and all, Trenton was still someone she trusts.

But… I have a question. The idea that they need Amir alive to keep Kalid from falling into abject chaos makes sense. Good leaders are hard to find, especially in places rife with struggles and problems before they rise to power. I get it. They are desperate for the people of Kalid to not realize that Amir was sick and is now dead. But you see where I’m going with this right, Enemaniacs?

How do they think this will go down when they show up back in Kalid with who they say is Amir and is clearly a younger guy who looks nothing like Amir? Do they think the people of Kalid are stupid? Do they have some code the guy will speak to prove he really is Amir? Like is there a password everyone in Kalid knows is THE password to prove they are talking to their beloved, god-like ruler? Is he going to get on TV and tell everyone to open up their pocket constitutions to page 235 and see what the secret password is to prove he’s the real deal? Sure, maybe they’ve hired a mad doctor who is fine with killing some schlub in order to put the brain of a more important person, but I have bigger issues with what the plan is once they have Amir in a new body. Was there no one like me there in this meeting planning all this out to raise his hand and say, “Um… I have some questions and issues with this plan, guys.”

By complete happenstance, as Bob and Tracey are driving from the airport into the city, they pass by the assassin who was in a phone booth reporting back to Dr. Trenton that the job was done and there will be no further issues. This leads to a big chase and fistfight between Bob and the assassin. Bob is consistently getting his ass handed to him by the assassin. When he slips Bob and gets to his car which is parked a far way away from where he was on the phone, a hidden Dorro watching from the trees celebrates when the assassin’s car explodes upon ignition. So I guess Trenton is getting rid of everyone.

At this point, Bob says the only person who would go so far as to assassinate Amir’s people is Dr. Trenton. Gee… I wonder how he came to that conclusion. The guy is a disgraced doctor who most people see as insane over his desire to swap brains and bodies and what have you. While he tries to keep an official-looking office and lab, he’s very much unaccredited.

Bob and Tracey confront Dr. Trenton about the attempt on the lives of Amir’s closest allies. Trenton tries to handwave these things away by saying it had just been “an accident and there’s no proof that I would want you dead… er I mean there’s no proof anyone would want you dead… Least of which ME!” They want to take Amir and head back home as soon as possible. America is a scary place after all. Even Bowie was afraid of Americans. Trenton says that’s not quite yet possible but agrees to take them to Amir. Bob is none too pleased about Amir’s brain being inside Gor’s body. But it does seem as though the transplant was something of a success as Amir speaks with his normal voice and seems to be in decent spirits until he finds out about Muhammad’s death.

This causes Amir to flip out and break out of his restraints. He notices that Tracey and Bob are looking at him weirdly and that’s when he catches a look at his reflection to see he’s in Gor’s disfigured body. He’s really pissed about how all this has gone down. Trenton tries to say he had no choice but to put him into Gor’s body to keep him alive. Amir says he’d rather be dead than be in a freak’s body. He strangles Trenton out of anger but doesn’t kill him.

As Amir tries to figure out why he got so angry, Tracey tells Amir that Muhammad was murdered. She says she thinks someone is trying to take over Kalid. Amir now wants to get back home and get rid of any bad guys and enemies of the state, Bob tries to stop him from going wild in the wild. That’s when Tracey says that Bob is clearly one of the people trying to take over Kalid. Amir knocks Bob out and takes off with Tracey.

Trenton follows Amir and Tracey while Dorro tosses Bob into the dungeon.

Okay, so things get a bit wild here in these final 25 minutes. Tracey and Amir can’t use the car Bob had to get away because Dorro disabled it. So what do they do? Tracey uses her looks to flag down a car. With the guys distracted, Amir kills the passenger but the driver drives away. So… They don’t get a car. Trenton has some sort of device that can hurt Amir’s brain if he’s in range. Katherine reappears in the dungeon to kill Dorro so she and Bob can escape as well. All of this seems perfectly fine for your silly monster movie, but all this stuff happens so quickly and shuffles the deck into place to basically play out this final act and it all seems so hasty in how it’s put together.

But the craziest element of all this stuff is Tracey. Regina Carrol was… a lot. She was like the most of everything that could be said about her. I know that’s weird to say, but if you were to say that Regina Carrol was a blonde, she was THE MOST blonde person. If you were to say she had fake eyelashes, she had THE MOST fake eyelashes. If you were to say she epitomized the idea of a dancer or model falling into movies because she was a dancer or a model, she was THE MOST dancer or model that ever fell into acting in movies.

I know she was Adamson’s wife and everything, but she sticks out in this movie so much. From the very beginning her presence is weird and makes little sense. She’s close to Amir in terms of the ruling elite in Kalid, but she just looks and talks like she runs a nail salon/psychic readings joint in Jersey City. I don’t necessarily like being this kind of guy, but she sticks out for two reasons. She’s a very bad actress and she looks… strange. She has that deep tan but she always has bleach blonde hair and is always seen wearing white in this. Her hair is massive and teased and it just doesn’t look right. Every time I see her on screen it’s like a jump scare. I hate being that way about her, but it’s the only way I can describe how she affects me watching this.

And Amir was so taken by her, she’s going to be Queen of Kalid.

While wandering through the plains looking for a ride to get expedite their return to Kalid, Amir sees a little kid playing with a toy gun and takes off after the kid saying “Mine! Mine! Mine!” leaving Tracey behind. I guess Trenton didn’t scrape all of Gor’s brain bits out of his skull before putting Amir’s brain in there. He chases after the kid who hides from this monster that’s chasing him.

Trenton catches up to Tracey. He says that what he is carrying is able to train in on a chip in Amir’s brain to track him. He thinks Tracey is planning to use Amir for her own ends. Tracey also says that if they stayed in the lab, Amir would have killed Trenton. Amir approaches Katherine who is left with the kid who was hiding from Amir while Bob was trying to find Amir. He explains that he doesn’t want to hurt them and he just wants to get back to his country.

This last third of the movie is devastatingly boring. It’s just walking around outside, treading over the same ground, and dramatic speeches about where Bob came from or Amir just wanting to get home and get back to his people, and how Bob wishes he and Katherine had more time to get to know each other and fall in love. Also, they just have this kid with them. TAKE HIM HOME GODDAMMIT! Why is this kid just out here in the middle of nowhere? He’s in a lot of danger!

This movie is too long and it’s less than 90 minutes! Where’s the monster? When will the monster start killing people? So… Yeah. Trenton was a bad guy all along. For saving Amir, he wants to be put in charge of Kalid.

So, here we go… The final minutes of the movie finds Bob saying that there’s already been enough killing today, so he plans on just bringing Trenton to justice. However, he does not believe Amir really is Amir. Instead, he’s just an abomination that thinks he’s Amir. Amir says Bob will have to kill him because Trenton can control him with the pain from that chip in his head. But he will also kill Bob if he has to. Either way, whoever survives between Bob and Trenton will be able to boss Amir around. It’s painfully convoluted and stupid. I can’t believe anyone read these lines and thought, “Yeah, these lines are perfect! They express so much gravitas!”

Anyway, Amir lunges for Bob and Bob shoots him in the gut or the thigh or the balls. I’m not sure and I don’t know if I care enough. He takes off running as does Tracey. Trenton tells Amir to go after them and kill them. He first catches up to Tracey who climbs up a cliff with Amir following her. She turns around to see him getting closer and she doesn’t think about where she is and basically steps backwards off the cliff.

Ah, Tracey… She died as she lived – tumbling down a cliff screaming.

What about Bob? Well, Bob is a little better at hiding from monsters. He actually attempts to sneak up on Amir but is caught by the monster instead. He knocks Bob out and brings him back to Trenton’s lab where the mad doctor puts Amir’s brain into Bob’s body. He even gives Amir some plastic surgery to look just like he did when he died. He makes the announcement that Trenton will now be the Kalid Secretary of Science and it is more or less stated that sacrifices will be made for science and he asks everyone in Kalid to volunteer to help this great future come to pass.

This is a pretty bad movie if I do say so myself. The first hour is pretty fun in its silliness and insanity. That’s the part that reminds you of how low-budget monster movies would be described in a movie. Like… You know, one of those movies about making movies? You have some fast-talkin’ con man coming into a producer’s offer with an idea for a movie that he plans to make with the expressed intention of failing so they can collect tax write-offs or something. The first hour of this movie would be that movie made to purposely fail.

The last half hour, though… Goddamn that’s bad. Really bad. Very very bad. It runs out of gas after an hour because nobody knew what to do with the premise and idea the first hour set up. It would have been acceptable just to go the Frankenstein route. Let the monster get free and start killing people. Then you have people who don’t trust each other having to go get the monster where the mad doctor will have the final betrayal and win the movie. That’s perfectly fine to do! The problem is, and I put this solely on Adamson as this was the movie he wanted to make, no one thought further than the brain swap plot and the monster that would be created from that concept.

“Oh, but Geoff… These guys were just trying to make a quick buck with a monster movie at drive-ins!” I hear you say. LOTS of movies were made to do the exact same thing. Shiiiit. Roger Corman built an entire career around that concept. He still thought through storylines and the plot to a generally acceptable conclusion over the course of 80-90 minutes. I feel like this movie just simply didn’t bother and didn’t want to bother.

It’s especially a bummer considering how fun the first hour is.

But… It’s time to fall off this cliff and move on to next week. I start by reminding you to tune into B-Movie Enema: The Series tomorrow for a new episode. This week, we are watching Warlords of the 21st Century (aka Battletruck). It’s a pretty good one if I do say so myself. You can come here to the site to watch it or check out the YouTube or Vimeo channels linked to the right of this article. Also, you can watch it at 6pm on OtherWorlds TV on Roku. Next Friday, I’m positive we have more than enough to talk about (some good, some not so much) when I finally get around to yet another that’s long been languishing on the pile of “someday I’ll get around to reviewing that” movies.

Join me next Friday for a review of Pamela Anderson Lee in 1996’s Barb Wire.