Random Brainscan Is the Best '90s Horror Moviee, And It Still Rocks In Its Own Way (14 items)

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  (#14) The Director Was Inspired By Val Lewton's 'Cat People'

  Dread Central describes Brainscan as a "dark, moody movie." Eagle-eyed horror fans will find plenty of classic horror movie posters on Michael's bedroom walls, and his school's horror club actually watches part of a 1973 Spanish film called The Dracula Saga. The film's gloomy atmosphere may be inspired by Val Lewton's classic 1942 film Cat People.

  Smith recalled that Flynn "was always trying to find ways to achieve Brainscan's effects atmospherically, via mood and implication." The director talked about Lewton's Cat People and "how deftly he had been able to create a sense of dread with just shadows and sound and editing." There are even a couple "Lewton bus" scenes in Brainscan, such as when a patroling police car startles Michael near a construction site.
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  (#5) The Soundtrack Features '90s Rock Bands Like White Zombie, Butthole Surfers, And Mudhoney

  Composer George S. Clinton wrote Brainscan's Spaghetti Western-esque main theme. He also composed the score to another '90s classic: Mortal Kombat. However, the rest of the soundtrack is more intriguing, and features songs by White Zombie, the Butthole Surfers, Mudhoney, Pitchshifter, and more.

  Plenty of other bands pop up on t-shirts and posters throughout the film. The album cover and poster art for Aerosmith's Get a Grip feature prominently in several shots. Furlong had even starred in the video for "Livin' on the Edge," one of the album's hits.

  Metallica, AC/DC, and Alice Cooper are among the other artists who appear in background shots. In fact, a nearly life-size cutout of Alice Cooper can be found on the side of Michael's fridge.
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  (#7) The Trickster Dances To A Primus Track

  When the Trickster first appears in Michael's room, he flips through his CDs, throwing them aside one by one before asking, "Don't you have anything good?" He then produces a disc from inside his coat, climbs atop the furniture while growling, "From the top of the charts to a space in your heart," and proceeds to dance to Primus's "Welcome to This World."

  According to T. Ryder Smith, he tried out three different variations of the dance before he and director John Flynn found the one that worked.
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  (#3) The Trickster Is A Weird, Punk Rock Fop

  Because Brainscan was a horror movie in the early '90s, it needed a gimmicky villain in the Freddy Krueger/Pinhead mold. In this case, the role was filled by a character called "the Trickster." The mullet-sporting computer game mascot materializes out of Michael's haunted CD-ROM in order to taunt, tempt, and goad the teen. The Trickster is intended to be both "comic and scary," and is dressed up like a bizarre punk rock fop, complete with a nose ring, crushed red velvet coat, and leather pants.

  According to T. Ryder Smith, who portrays the Trickster in the film, the designers initially envisioned a "military/bondage theme" for the character before director John Flynn told them to "think rock and roll, not S/M."

  In trying to convey the Trickster's outlandish appearance, critics described him as "Adam Ant in a Halloween mask" and "a cadaverous character who looks something like Alice Cooper on the third day of the wake." 
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  (#12) One Of The Director's Prior Films Inspired Quentin Tarantino

  Before making Brainscan, director John Flynn had worked on more than a dozen other movies. He worked with many of the biggest actors in the business, directing Steven Seagal in Out for Justice and Sylvester Stallone in Lock Up. One of his best-known films, however, was the 1977 revenge thriller Rolling Thunder, starring William Devane and Tommy Lee Jones.

  Director Quentin Tarantino liked Rolling Thunder so much that he borrowed the name for his short-lived specialty label at Miramax, Rolling Thunder Pictures. The distribution company was intended "to give the theatrical experience to films that might never be seen in this country."
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  (#13) The Characters Read Plenty Of 'Fangoria'

  "Watching a couple of teenagers into horror, gum-flapping away on the phone, thumbing through a print issue of Fangoria, and getting excited about a CD-ROM game is a microcosm of '90s flashbacks," says a Dread Central review of the Brainscan Blu-ray. Luckily for Fangoria fans, there are plenty of shots of the magazine in the film.

  Michael and Kyle initially find the Brainscan game through an ad in Fangoria #95, which features a cover story on Total Recall. Other issues that appear in the film include #111, the first to feature the annual Chainsaw Awards.

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