Frank Brana Movies

With shoddy production values and a plot that seems to be more of an excuse for violence than anything else, this underpar drama focuses on vigilante justice. While trying to cross the border into France, a Spanish truck driver's vehicle is burned by two angry French farmers, killing the driver's wife. Unable to win his case against the men in court, the angry driver vows to avenge the death of his wife by killing the farmers and their sleazy lawyer. It may have helped to know that European farmers were irate at this time about the dumping of their produce. But then, education was not an objective here. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

With a tagline that reads, "You don't have to go to Texas for a chainsaw massacre," this Spanish-Italian entry into slasher film territory went on to achieve a dubious distinction as one of the most tasteless films ever produced. The bloodshed opens in 1942 with a scene of a little boy axing his mother after her discovery of him piecing together a puzzle of a nude girl. Cut to 42 years later and the little ax-man has moved on to chainsaws as he begins buzzing coeds on the campus of a New England college. Police Lieutenant Bracken (Christopher George) and his partner arrive to investigate. They find a trail of dismembered bodies that happen to be missing some parts and a group of suspects including a shady dean of students (Edmund Purdom), an anatomy professor (Jack Taylor), and a monstrous caretaker (Paul Smith). Led by beautiful undercover cop Mary Riggs (Lynda Day-George) and student-stud Kendall (Ian Sera), the investigation leads everyone to the killer, who has just finished adding the final pieces to his human jigsaw puzzle. ~ Patrick Legare, All Movie Guide

After cannibalizing Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth in his 1977 film Where Time Began, Spanish director Juan Piquer Simon returned to the author with this substandard retelling of Mysterious Island. The story concerns a shipwrecked group who discover natural wonders and a gold treasure on a dangerous island populated by dinosaurs and living seaweed. Terence Stamp is the bad guy. Supposedly the most expensive film made in Spain to that point, it has an admittedly strong genre cast including Peter Cushing, Paul Naschy, and Ian Sera, but is really a cheesy monster movie likely to appeal only to children too young to be critical of special effects. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

Juan Piquer Simon, best known for such horror films as Pieces and Slugs, tackled the Jules Verne story with poor results. Kenneth More leads the expedition to the earth's core, where he and his party are menaced by gorillas, dinosaurs, and other assorted creatures. The special-effects are less than inspired, although More does his best in the lead and Spanish-horror fans will enjoy seeing veterans Jack Taylor and Frank Brana among the cast. Simon would return to Verne for inspiration with his 1981 film Monster Island. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

A perennial late-night cable TV item, this quirky Spanish horror oddity involves a mad scientist whose latest misguided experiment transforms him into a hirsute, grave-robbing ghoul who feeds on fresh corpses. The scientist's brother, upon learning of his monstrous condition, supplements this specialized diet by pumping fresh blood through a series of tubes into the creature's subterranean lair. One of only two horror pictures from the short directorial career of Miguel Madrid (aka Michael Skaife), this marginally entertaining monster mess resembles some of the later work of his countryman Paul Naschy. Originally titled El Descuartizador de Binbrook, the film was distributed throughout Europe as Necrophagus. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide