On Film: Brand Upon the Brain

Directed by Guy Maddin

Starring Gretchen Kirch, Maya Larson, Katherine Scharhon, Sullivan Brown

After seeing Guy Maddin’s brilliant short film The Heart of the World at a film festival several years ago, I have been a big fan of his ever since. I also loved his film The Saddest Music in the World, starring Isabella Rossellini. So, when my local art house theater booked Maddin’s newest cinematic exploration Brand Upon the Brain!, I was in the front row.

The Movie

The story of Brand Upon the Brain! is told in flashback and divided into 12 chapters, not always told in sequential order so pay attention, film fans.

Imagine if you will a picturesque lighthouse on a remote island. Within that lighthouse, a young Guy Maddin (Sullivan Brown) resides with his pretty sister, Sis (Maya Lawson) and his mother and father. His parents run an orphanage however; father has a lab where some rather strange experiments take place. More on that a bit later.

Mother (Gretchen Krich) is suffocating with her love and attention to her children. In fact, she has a special searchlight and broadcast system in order to keep her ever watchful eye on Guy and Sis, 24 hours a day.

One day, some exciting new visitors arrive on the island. The brother and sister detective team Wendy and Chance Hale (both played by Katherine Scharhorn). This adds some spice to the otherwise somewhat mundane goings-on at the lighthouse. Guy and Sis immediately become infatuated with the duo, Guy with Wendy and Sis with Chance. But, is Chance or Wendy really who they claim to be?

Besides the excitement the Hale family brings to the orphanage, other strange things are happening, not counting Dad’s experiments in his lab. The oldest orphan, Savage Tom, in the still of the night, is leading groups of orphans in strange rituals, one even involving cutting the heart out of little Neddie. Will Neddie make it to the final frames?

Okay, now back to the experiments in Father’s lab. Mother seems to be looking younger, except when she becomes enraged and then she ages quickly back to her wrinkled self. Could this have anything to do with the strange circular scars that are showing up on the backs of the necks of all of the orphans and even Sis herself?

Brand Upon the Brain! is truly unlike any other film you are likely to see at the theater this year, or any year for that matter. It as if you took influences of old silent films and German Expressionism films, mixed in a heaping cupful of bizarre imagery, horror and a bit of gender bending and incest into a blender and hit the power button. If you can imagine that, you grasp the “fever dream” that is this film.

If you are a fan of the spectacular avant-garde cinema that the madman from Canada Guy Maddin can concoct, then don’t miss this film if you are lucky enough to have it play at theater near you. I just can’t put into words what a knock out experience this film truly is for cinephiles.

8/10

Suzie Lackey