Vague Childhood Movie Memory

RE*AC*TOR

There's an image stuck in my head of this movie which freaked me out as a kid - think it was on tv. Anyway all i can remeber is the main character was in some kind of accident and his head is held together by a type of clamp - towards the end of the movie I think the clamp breaks and his head falls apart.
Now, there is a remote possiblity that I dreamt the whole thing - but putting that aside for the moment - anyone any idea what this might be?

The Recliner

I could be wrong but it sounds like Brain Dead (not the Peter jackson one) with Bill Pullman. Check it out on IMDB and see if it is what you remember.

Jim

Oh, I've got one.

This guy gets stabbed in the top of the head with a knife, but is still alive and concious, and then hes walking around trying to get to a hospital, but he forgets how to talk etc... very small part of the film.

RE*AC*TOR

Originally posted by The Recliner
I could be wrong but it sounds like Brain Dead (not the Peter jackson one) with Bill Pullman. Check it out on IMDB and see if it is what you remember.

not sure - i kind of think it was a british film, 70s look - cheap british. But i could be wrong. The cover vaguely reminds me of what i was talking about :-


except I thought it was more of the skull broken into plates - which could move away from each other if not held together.
Might see if I can locate a copy of brain dead (laser in ranelah maybe).

I was thinking maybe it could have been something like tales of the unexpected or one of those series.

This is doing my head in.

koneko

I have a memory of being at my gran's house (abroad) a long long LONG time ago but I'm not sure if this really happened. The film I saw was about rats. They were huge. All the black/grey rats were bad but there was one white rat which was good. It was killed by the cops because they thought it was bad too. I remember being sad the poor nice white rat was killed.

It sounds too bad to be the plot of a (dodgy) horror film, but it didn't seem like a dream.

RE*AC*TOR

Balls!
Laser only have the Peter Jackson Braindead.

Exit

Originally posted by koneko
I have a memory of being at my gran's house (abroad) a long long LONG time ago but I'm not sure if this really happened. The film I saw was about rats. They were huge. All the black/grey rats were bad but there was one white rat which was good. It was killed by the cops because they thought it was bad too. I remember being sad the poor nice white rat was killed.

It sounds too bad to be the plot of a (dodgy) horror film, but it didn't seem like a dream.

Sounds like Willard or Ben maybe.

mike65

Cant think of any British 70s "head falls apart" movies!

My fragment of movie that annoys me every now and again is a scene form a sci-fi movie which involves some red creeping goo speading through a spaceship. I saw this flick at the cinema in the mid-late 70s.

It might have been this it has the right "look"

http://www.stomptokyo.com/badmoviereport/first_spaceship_on_venus.html

Mike.

neXus9

Originally posted by davidwwalsh
There's an image stuck in my head of this movie which freaked me out as a kid - think it was on tv. Anyway all i can remeber is the main character was in some kind of accident and his head is held together by a type of clamp - towards the end of the movie I think the clamp breaks and his head falls apart.
Now, there is a remote possiblity that I dreamt the whole thing - but putting that aside for the moment - anyone any idea what this might be?

It might of been 'Bad Taste' by Peter Jackson:)

RE*AC*TOR

I know its not Bad Taste - have actually seen that recently enough.

neXus9

Why I thought it was bas taste was because Peter Jackson's character falls off a cliff and his head starts falling apart, so he uses a belt to keep it together.

WetDaddy

I know you probably want a fairly quick answer, but you could always write to Empire Magazine. They do a "What Is This Movie...?" section for readers.

They only do one a month though (I think), but it might be worth a shot.

TCamen

My fragment of movie that annoys me every now and again is a scene form a sci-fi movie which involves some red creeping goo speading through a spaceship. I saw this flick at the cinema in the mid-late 70s.

I have this stuck in my head from my childhood too. I remember the goo bubbling up in some chamber on the spaceship, then gradually spreading around the place!
No idea what it is tho

Ajos

There's an absolutely brilliant short that was made in New Zealand in 1989 that fits your description. It's called "The Lounge Bar" and it's my favourite short film ever. I don't know how old you are - would you have been a kid in 1989? It might have been on TV.
Anyway, there's a screenshot here. Ring any bells?

denissilver

Is it by any chance THE ADVENTURES OF BARON MUNCHOUSEN
Dont know your age but this was released in 1988

RE*AC*TOR

Originally posted by Ajos
There's an absolutely brilliant short that was made in New Zealand in 1989 that fits your description. It's called "The Lounge Bar" and it's my favourite short film ever. I don't know how old you are - would you have been a kid in 1989? It might have been on TV.
Anyway, there's a screenshot here. Ring any bells?

dear god - that could be it - i do for some reason remeber there being a wodden pier (jettie?) - so would fit in with the whole waterfront thing.
Any idea if there's a synopsis anywhere - does the guys head-clamp break.

I would have been 9 in 1989. So yes.

Ajos

Here's the synopsis from the New Zealand Film Commission website:

Will he ever remember? Can she ever forget? In a seedy waterfront bar, sometime during the 70s, a sideburned, bellbottomed singer begins his song. Sheltering from the rainy night, a man and a woman meet for the first time. Or is it? Who are they? What brought them here? What bizarre web of fate links them to the singer, his song and his sideburns?

That's probably not that helpful. OK, the film as I remember it takes place entirely in one room - the Lounge Bar. It cuts back and forth in time. In the past, a new singer arrives and takes his place on the stage. He flirts with the barmaid - there's a spark.

In the present, a man with a clamp on his head arrives in the bar - now the singer is the barman/owner, along with the barmaid. The man has just been released from hospital, and is completely amnesiac. He tells them that he was found at the bottom of the pier with an appalling head injury, but he has no memory of how he came to be there. They are fascinated.

In the past, the manager of the bar makes an appearance. He abuses the singer, and makes inappropriate advances to the barmaid. An unpleasant character.


Anyway, I don't want to give it all away. Yes, the clamp does come apart at the end of the movie. It's not very graphic - just a trickle of blood and a look of horror. The whole thing is tied together by music - I think it starts with the singers cheesy song, which i the present is being played like cheesy muzak. The first few lines of the song are something like:
"There's a man/ at the bar/ staring into spaaaaace..../ What is that thing on his head/ that look/ on his faaaaaace.....".
That's right - the song in the past comments on the action in the present too. I saw it at the Cork Film Festival in 1995.

RE*AC*TOR

yes - that sounds about right - thanks Ajos - now I just have to try and get a copy somewhere.

RE*AC*TOR

Update - found it on the net.

[URL=mms://streamingmedia.xtra.co.nz/live/vf62295.asf?lounge_bar_300.asf]link[/URL]

you'd need broadband for it (300kbps).

i'm fairly sure this is what I remembered - the only difference being that I thought a portion occured on a pier/wharf - but i might have inferred that memory from dialogue about a wharf.

Ajos

Great find! I love that movie. My description was a little off, but it had been a while.

If that does, in fact, answer your question then I'm very impressed with myself, because it was pretty damn obscure.

RE*AC*TOR

if i could figure out how to take a sceenshot of a streming asf i would - but the head-clamp is exactly what i remembered - and i do remember there being a man and a woman as well as the "victim".
You're a legend Ajos.
Now I just have to find out when it was broadcast - and what age I was when i watched it.