Jason Evers, Virginia Leith, Leslie Daniels

A scientist is driving around with his gorgeous girlfriend and everything's hunky-dory until he wrecks the car and her head goes flying off. Not to be discouraged, he wraps the decapitated noggin in ...( read more  read more... )his jacket and scurries off to his lab, where he keeps the poor woman's head alive in a developing tray with some coils and tubes running in and out of it. With his girlfriend's still-conscious cabeza back at the lab, the good doctor drives around shopping for bodies, ogling women who might make likely candidates for reattaching the head. Finally he finds a model with a gorgeous bod (and leopard print bikini), but a scarred face. He convinces the young woman that he can fix her looks with plastic surgery and convinces her to go back to the lab. Meanwhile, his girlfriend-head (silenced by a strip of duct tape over her mouth) has developed telepathy and a nasty grudge. This movie used to regularly leave late-night TV audiences aghast and scare the bejabbers out of the young'uns. Decades later, it's an indispensable trash classic, complete with a catfight, a pinhead monster, a deformed assistant, and even a spatter of gore. Make no mistake; this incredible, sleazy gem is a must-see for any self-respecting fans of camp cinema. They just don't come any better, and they definitely don't make 'em like that anymore. --Jerry Renshaw

Flixster Users

36% liked it

3,893 ratings

Critics

36% liked it

11 critics

Unrated

Directed by: Joseph Green (II)

Release Date: August 10, 1962

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DVD Release Date: August 30, 2005

 

Stats: 260 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (260)


  • January 1, 2008
    Again Don't MESS w/ Genetics & doing the Frankenstein thing!
  • August 25, 2007
    The moving story of a doctor, a tragically maimed girl, a disembodied head kept alive in a cake pan, and a mutant in a closet. If that doesn't wet your whistle nothing will.
  • August 20, 2007
    If you've ever seen "Frankenhooker" or "The Man with Two Brains", this will seem like a much poorer, lower-budget, black and white version of the same thing.
    It was obviously the film that inspired them though and is a nice example of trashy early 60s B movies even if it is a bi...( read more)t slow and silly. There's a bit of gore at the end too.
  • August 17, 2007
    Unbelievably silly, with a far-stretched joke.
  • November 19, 2009
    A guy gets in a car accident with and his passenger (his girlfriend) is decapitated,. He saves her head and keeps it alive (a la Re-Animator) while he trolls strip clubs and other places looking for a suitable body replacement. He has the same taste in women that I do. Not that g...( read more)reat in terms of anything here except the obvious Herbert West rip-off.
  • July 15, 2009
    I fell in love with this one, when I saw it panned by MST3000. They are still a source for this list!
  • March 22, 2009
    So great! The severed head of a mad scientist's wife forms a kind of telekenetic bond with a monster living in the closet. I give that 5 stars...
  • March 17, 2009
    One of those fun, over the top comments on messing with nature, complete with excitable mad scientist and several mutants.
    A Doctor experimenting with transplanting body parts decides to keep's his finance's head alive after a car crash.
    Disappointing last scene, but some great l...( read more)ines. When the head's eyes opens he tells his nervous, astounded assistant "What you see is real. What's done is done and what I've done was right. It's the work of science".
  • March 17, 2009
    Very entertaining, even though I'm still asking myself, "why did he take her head and NOT call for help??"
  • March 16, 2009
    so bad its bad and thats not good

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The Brain That Wouldn't Die Trivia


  • Jason Evers and Virginia Leith starred in the horrid 1962 horror movie "The _______ That Wouldn't Die."  Answer »
  • Dr. Bill Cortner is a successful scientist with a beautiful fiancée named Jan Compton. After a horrible car accident decapitates Jan, Dr. Cortner collects her severed head and rushes it to his laboratory, where he revives it and manages to keep it alive in a liquid-filled tray.  Answer »
  • Is this a real movie title? The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962)   Answer »
  • The movie The Brain That Wouldn't Die contains a huge error at the end, when the title comes up again but Brain is not reused. What does the title now read?  Answer »

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