The Brainiac
The Brainiac is a 1962 film from Mexico, directed by Chano Urueta, running 77 minutes. reelscum files it under euro-gothic and luchador.
- Year
- 1962 · 1960s films
- Country
- Mexico
- Runtime
- 77 min
- Director
- Chano Urueta
- Updated
- 10 Aug 2026
- Obscurity
- cult (54/100)
Defined in the glossary: Euro-gothic, Luchador
Not a Santo film. A forked-tongue demon eating brains with a spoon.
Not a Santo film, but a Mexican horror oddity too strange to leave out. A baron burned at the stake by the Inquisition returns three hundred years later as a forked-tongue demon who eats the brains of his persecutors' descendants with a spoon, transforming between suave nobleman and rubber-faced monster. The effects are hilariously crude and the atmosphere bizarre.
It is a beloved example of the peculiar flavour of Mexican gothic horror, dreamlike and cheap and unlike anything from Hollywood or Europe. The brain-eating monster is an all-time low-budget creation.
A midnight-movie treasure from Mexico's horror tradition.
The numbers
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Where to watch
Legal options in UK (nearest we have)
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Written about
- Cult films and the audiences that make them
Cult status arrives after release, through late-night television, midnight bookings and VHS trade, as The Brainiac, Walking Tall and Patrick each show.
The cycle in depth
- Fantaterror: the Spanish horror boom, 1968 to 1976
Two cuts of every film, one for the censor in Madrid and one for the drive-in. Democracy killed the trick in two years.
Filed alongside
Santo vs. the Martian Invasion
Martians in togas demand Earth's surrender. Santo declines.
The Curse of the Crying Woman
The Mexican gothic at its cobwebbed peak, Universal horror with the fog cranked up.
Santo vs. the Vampire Women
The best-shot Santo film. He wrestles twice for no reason at all.
Requiem for a Vampire
Rollin at his purest. Two women in clown costume, a castle, almost no dialogue.
Ganja & Hess
An art film that was sold as a vampire picture. Recut and buried for decades.
Spider Baby
Jack Hill's first, Lon Chaney Jr's last good role. Very odd and very fond.
The Blood Beast Terror
Cushing called it the worst film he ever made. He was being generous.
Horrors of Malformed Men
Suppressed by Toei for decades. Butoh dancing, an island, and total delirium.
Santo and Blue Demon vs. the Monsters
Every monster at once, all of them on a budget of nothing. Delightful.
Lips of Blood
Rollin's most coherent, which is not saying a great deal. Gorgeous.
Zinda Laash
Pakistan's first horror film: Hammer's Dracula, plus musical numbers, minus permission.
The Living Dead Girl
Rollin's best late film. Melancholy where the Italians were loud.