the plot: Michael Bower (Furlong) is a nerdy teen, still reeling from the effects of a car accident that killed his mother. He spends much of his time hanging out in his room, watching gory horror flicks, playing computer games and surreptitiously videotaping Kimberly (Hargreaves), his longtime crush. When his best friend and fellow horror fanatic tells him about a new videogame called “Brainscan,” Michael has to try it. The game promises to put players in the mind of a killer and, during his first time playing, Michael slaughters what he thinks is a video game victim. But the next day, Michael sees a news report about a grisly murder—and recognizes the victim as the man from the game. Soon, a grizzled police detective (Langella) is on Michael’s trail. Also following him is the Trickster (Smith), the mischievous, maniacal mascot from the video game. But as Michael quickly learns, “Brainscan” is much, much more than just a game, and getting loose of the Trickster’s machinations may require more blood to be shed.

why it’s good: Basing a movie around emerging technology is always a dicey gambit, a point made painfully clear by “Brainscan.” A rip-off of “Videodrome” for the PC boom of the early ’90s, “Brainscan” looks and feels extremely dated. The special effects used when Michael jumps into the game look clumsy at best, and the details of how “Brainscan” works are fairly ludicrous, making the movie feel like a relic of a time when “Myst” was the most awesome computer game ever and the Internet was still shiny, new and free of funny animal videos and bizarre Japanese porn. But “Brainscan” is still pretty decent, mostly as a novel twist on the tried and true slasher formula. Director John Flynn is average, but manages to work in some suspenseful moments, particularly during a sequence in which Michael is chased through his suburban neighborhood by an armed posse of angry citizens. Edward Furlong, fresh off his big-screen debut in 1992’s “Terminator 2,” is as bland as they come, but his shortcomings are more than made up for by better-than-average performances from Frank Langella and T. Ryder Smith. Langella is his usual bad-ass self, but it’s Smith who steals much of the movie as the villainous Trickster. Wearing a costume and a wig probably cobbled together from David Bowie’s castoffs, the Trickster is an interesting horror movie villain. He’s not guided by vengeance, a demonic curse or a hunger for blood and/or brains. Instead, the Trickster is decidedly amoral, looking only to cause some bloody mischief and not much else. Of course, that’s right up until the end, during which screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker (who would go on to pen “Seven” and “8MM”) throws a curveball that not only fails as a twist but mostly negates the rest of the movie.
why you should own it: “Brainscan” is more of a rental, especially since Columbia’s DVD is entirely devoid of extras and is oddly expensive (it retails on Amazon for $22!). Interested viewers might be better off watching “Brainscan” on Netflix, where it’s available for instant viewing.