BRAINSCAN. A sci-fi thriller from the co-writer of “Se7en”

There have already been Electronic Grandmothers, Electronic Apparitions, and Electronic Murderers, so why not electronic roulette in Brainscan?

Michael Brower is a typical teenager from a wealthy American suburb. After his mother’s death, he lives with his perpetually absent father in a comfortable home, spies on his attractive neighbor through the window, and is passionate about horror movies, rock music, and video games. His room is equipped with a gaming console, a high-speed computer, and even something resembling artificial intelligence, which calls him “Master” and carries out simple commands like making phone calls. One day, Kyle, Michael’s only friend, tells him about a new hyper-realistic game called Brainscan.

Michael orders the disc and receives it a few days later. The game turns out to be a first-person virtual reality simulator in which the player takes on the role of a serial killer, murdering a random victim, cutting off their foot, and erasing all traces. But after finishing his session, Michael discovers that a real murder—identical to the one in the game—has taken place in his neighborhood. To make matters worse, Trickster, the demonic host of Brainscan, materializes in his room and torments the teenager, urging him to keep playing.

Andrew Kevin Walker gained fame and recognition for writing the screenplay for David Fincher’s Se7en (1995), but that was not his first produced script. Before that, an episode of Tales from the Crypt titled Well-Cooked Hams (1993) and Brainscan (1994) had already been made.

Walker wrote the script for Brainscan in the late 1980s, and in the early ’90s, it landed in the hands of producer Michael Roy, who made some modifications. Most notably, he replaced the VHS tape from the original script with an interactive CD-ROM video game, anticipating that, following the success of Brett Leonard’s The Lawnmower Man (1992), such a concept would better resonate with audiences. [As a result, Brainscan, which could have been a precursor to Hideo Nakata’s The Ring (1998), became an ancestor of David Cronenberg’s eXistenZ (1999).] The producer also introduced the character of Trickster. The film was directed by John Flynn (Rolling Thunder [1977], Lock Up [1989], and Out for Justice [1991]), and the cast included Edward Furlong (Michael), Frank Langella (Detective Hayden), and T. Ryder Smith (Trickster).

Brainscan was a box office failure and received negative reviews—deservedly so. It seems that when screenwriters don’t meddle too much with Walker’s scripts, the results are excellent, as seen in Se7en. However, when significant changes are made to his writing, the outcomes are disappointing—the best example being Joel Schumacher’s 8mm (1999), from which Walker distanced himself. Perhaps the original version of Brainscan had potential, but it was squandered by Roy and Flynn. The film’s premise is absurd, the plot utterly dull, and the twist ending only highlights the creators’ laziness and lack of ideas. To top it off, as a thriller, it lacks tension, and as science fiction, it has zero science and only fiction. Trickster is neither terrifying nor funny (though he was probably meant to be)—perhaps because he looks like Freddy Krueger if Krueger were a member of Sigue Sigue Sputnik. Worse yet, Edward Furlong is unable to carry the film on his shoulders. The only redeeming qualities of Brainscan are its dark atmosphere and music (Primus!), but that’s far from enough to make it a successful film.