Brett Pearson Movies

This low-budget Canadian weirdness involves the diabolical schemes of pop psychologist Dr. Blake (David Gale, who played a far more convincing horror villain in Re-Animator), the host of an incredibly popular TV self-help show called "Independent Thinking." Blake takes a particular interest in the case of a juvenile delinquent (Tom Breznahan), whose brain is fitted with a special transmitter linking him to a giant, bug-eyed, fanged brain monster, which begins to remotely control his will. Sort of a blend of Videodrome and The Brain from Planet Arous by way of EC Comics, this would have come off as a fairly clever sci-fi/horror sleeper if not for the ridiculous special effects: the monster is essentially a big brain-shaped rubber balloon with a cartoonish face on it. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

An interesting diversion for the genre, this stylish but leaden supernatural period piece tells the tale of an 18th-century minister (Dennis Lipscomb) and his flock who are exiled to the wilderness after being accused of witchcraft by the citizens of Dalton's Ferry. The small community settles briefly in an eerie valley in Shawnee territory -- which is also the domain of a powerful demon and his earthen underlings. As horrific apparitions and bizarre events begin to haunt the party in increasing frequency, a young madwoman believed to be a witch brings her own formidable powers to bear against the demonic menace. Good performances and beautiful location cinematography help to create a mood of encroaching doomretentious dialogue, leaden pacing and an overabundance of clunky religious allegory causes the entire project to collapse under its own ponderous weight. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

Sydney Pollack's tawdry potboiler, adapted from a one-act play by Tennessee Williams, was rife with production problems, culminating in Williams' failed attempt to have his name removed from the credits. The story is set by a framing device as thirteen-year-old Willie Starr (Mary Badham) sits on an abandoned railroad track with her friend Tom (Jon Provost) and relates the tale of her deceased older sister Alva (Natalie Wood). Alva is a beautiful woman living in a small Mississippi town in the 1930s with her manipulative mother Hazel (Kate Reid), the owner of a boarding house. Hazel wants Alva to marry the well to do Mr. Johnson (John Harding), but Alva has fallen in love with a good-looking stranger from New Orleans, Owen Legate (Robert Redford), who is in Mississippi to lay off railroad workers. Hazel is opposed to their love affair and when Owen is beaten to a pulp by a gang of workers, he decides to leave town and take Alva with him. But Hazel fools Owen into thinking Alva is engaged to Mr. Johnson. In retaliation, Alva marries Hazel's loutish lover J.J. (Charles Bronson). The next day, she abandons J.J. to meet Owen in New Orleans. Her mother, incensed at Alva's betrayal, sets out to ruin her daughter's reputation by exposing her marriage to J.J. to the world. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide