the brain eater start with the newly engage glenn cameron ( alan frost ) drive his lucky fiancé elaine ( jody fair ) to the small american town of riverdale in illinois to break the good news when they see a sudden bright flash . glenn and elaine stop to investigate and discover a large metal cone that 50 foot tall by 50 foot across at it wide . in washington senator walter k. power ( cornelius keefe a jack hill ) take full responsibility and fly out to riverdale where he be meet by glenn who just happen to be the mayor ( orville sherman ) son and glenn informs senator power that his father have mysteriously disappear and there have be 3 unsolved murder in the area recently . glenn take senator power to the cone where dr. paul kettering ( ed nelson ) and dr. wyler ( david hughes ) and their assistant alice summer ( joanna lee ) be busy run all kind of test on the unidentified object . kettering informs senator power that he be baffle by the cone and eventually they all end up in the mayor office who have suddenly reappear . after some macho rubbish between the mayor and the senator about who be in charge the mayor pull a gun out and make a run for it but be shoot by a cop . kettering and a somewhat unemotional glenn examine the body and discover two hole in the back of his neck . kettering performs an autopsy and discovers that the mayor be be control by an alien parasite previously unknown to man and kettering put two and two together and come up with the startle theory that these parasite have come from the cone . but since the parasite get to the mayor who else be be control . the mystery deepen even far when an expert in bio chemistry and professor helsingman ( saul bronson ) and who have be miss for the past five year turn up out of the blue . kettering and his team face a race against time to stop the parasite before they take over the entire human race . direct by bruno vesota the brain eater be nothing to get excite about . the script by gordon urquhart supposedly base on robert a. heinlein novel the puppet master fail to make the most of it obvious potential and the potential for paranoia be waste . the film make it perfectly clear who be control by a brain eater and who isn not . film like john carpenter the thing ( 1982 ) and invasion of the body snatcher ( 1978 ) brilliantly use the mistrust between character to heighten tension and make u and the viewer and question who we should believe and put our faith in . the brain eater have none of this which hurt the film badly a it very predictable and doesn not even attempt to try and pull any surprise . the dialogue be clunky and awkward and static and feel date a be often the case with 50 sci fi but there be a few laugh to be have if you listen closely enough . to give it some credit it move along like a rocket and there no boring exposition here even go as far a have a few scene narrate rather than try and condense the information into an ordinary conversation and at only an hour long it doesn not outstay it welcome . the brain eater themselves be rarely see and when they be they look like wig with antenna . there no blood and gore or violence and the special effect be generally poor a you would expect . the acting be very wooden and everyone look and sound like theyre read their line from cue card and and yes leonard nimoy do make an appearance even if it hard to make him out you will definitely recognise his voice . director vesota fail to bring any scare and atmosphere and style or originality to the film a a whole . overall i think the brain eater be an ok way to pass an hour but could have be more and at the end of the day fail to distinguish itself from any other 50 black and white sci fi film of which there be many good one available . one to watch only if your desperate .