# Movies about living disembodied heads? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 10, 2013, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-living-disembodied-heads/658018 "2013-05-10T19:02:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![gytalf2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ac91a4/32.png) [@gytalf2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gytalf2000)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-living-disembodied-heads/658018/1 "2013-05-10T19:02:27Z")
A living-yet-disembodied head is a theme in some horror movies: The Thing That Could Not Die (1958) : > **[The Thing That Couldn't Die (1958) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052289/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1)** > > The Thing That Couldn't Die: Directed by Will Cowan. With William Reynolds, Andra Martin, Jeffrey Stone, Carolyn Kearney. A psychically gifted young woman discovers a centuries-old crate buried on her aunt's ranch. Opening it, her family discovers... Re-Animator (1985) : > **[Re-Animator (1985) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089885/)** > > Re-Animator: Directed by Stuart Gordon. With Jeffrey Combs, Bruce Abbott, Barbara Crampton, David Gale. After an odd new medical student arrives on campus, a dedicated local and his girlfriend become involved in bizarre experiments centering around... I’m sure that there are others, but at the moment I can’t think of any. Can you guys come up with some? Either movies or television shows would be fine… ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-living-disembodied-heads/658018/2 "2013-05-10T19:04:18Z")
Just about every episode of _Futurama_. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-living-disembodied-heads/658018/3 "2013-05-10T19:05:50Z")
Close but no cigar: Donovan’s Brain (1953) [with Nancy Reagan] ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-living-disembodied-heads/658018/4 "2013-05-10T19:11:12Z")
> [@gytalf2000](#): > > The Thing That Could Not Die (1958) : > [The Thing That Couldn't Die (1958) - IMDb](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052289/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1) Is this the one where she opens the box and it slowly, quietly mouths out commands to her? There’s a head, yes, vocal cords, no. Man that scared the bejesus of me as a kid. Nightmare stuff. Not a full head but Steve Martin had the one, **The Man With Two Brains** was it? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-living-disembodied-heads/658018/5 "2013-05-10T19:19:20Z")
**Madmen of Mandoras** AKA **The Saved Hitler’s Brain** **The Frozen Dead** **The Brain that Could Not Die** , that classic of BadMovieDom, which MST3K mocked with “Jan in the Pan” The movie was effectively remade as **Frankenhooker** , which featured, in addition to the chopped-off head, the Brain In A Jar that appears on the poster of The Brain that Could not Die, but didn’t appear in that actual movie. I did a Teeming piece on Brains in Jars (albeit without the rest of the heads: [http://www.teemings.net/series\_2/issue\_03/brain\_1.html](http://www.teemings.net/series_2/issue_03/brain_1.html) Be advised that _Donovan’s Brain_ was filmed THREE TIMES! ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-living-disembodied-heads/658018/6 "2013-05-10T19:21:53Z")
[The Frozen Dead](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060434/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1) best movie plot ever: A crazed scientist keeps the heads of Nazi war criminals alive until he can find appropriate bodies on which to attach them so he can revive the Third Reich. Has the famous ladies head at the end of the movie sayin “bury me… bury me…” ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-living-disembodied-heads/658018/7 "2013-05-10T19:23:17Z")
Oh, and Mombi’s room in _Return to Oz_, where she can choose a head to match her mood. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-living-disembodied-heads/658018/8 "2013-05-10T19:37:08Z")
_The Thing With Two Heads_ had Ray Milland’s head attached to Rosie Grier’s body, which also had Rosie’s original head. Does that count? ---
**Author:** ![Eutychus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Eutychus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eutychus)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-living-disembodied-heads/658018/9 "2013-05-10T19:43:40Z")
Reanimator. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-living-disembodied-heads/658018/10 "2013-05-10T19:46:43Z")
_They Saved Hitler’s Brain_ ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-living-disembodied-heads/658018/11 "2013-05-10T20:26:57Z")
I could have sworn that Charles Band’s _Full Moon Pictures_ put one out that had the disembodied heads of three murdered boys floating around and fighting evil, but I can’t seem to find it on their website. On the plus side, I found out that they are back in business and have put out two more _Puppet Master_ movies. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-living-disembodied-heads/658018/12 "2013-05-10T20:35:35Z")
> [@Eutychus](#): > > Reanimator. My favorite line from that film: Herbert West: Who’s going to believe a talking head? Get a job in a sideshow. It’s said with such dripping contempt. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-living-disembodied-heads/658018/13 "2013-05-10T20:46:23Z")
Does it count as disembodied if the body’s still around? If so, then _Baron Munchausen_ and _X-men Origin: Wolverine_ have such heads. Also, if it’s disembodied but not technically a head, John Carpenter’s _The Thing_ had a head which grew legs and ran away… Also, _Alien3_ had Bishop’s reanimated head. ---
**Author:** ![randwill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@randwill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randwill)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-living-disembodied-heads/658018/14 "2013-05-10T22:38:55Z")
“The Head” (1959) > **[The Head (1959) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053095/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1)** > > The Head: Directed by Victor Trivas. With Horst Frank, Karin Kernke, Helmut Schmid, Paul Dahlke. A scientist invents a serum that keeps a dog's head alive after its body dies. When the scientist dies of a heart attack, his crazed assistant cuts off... Not a movie, but still, you should watch Señor Wences work every now and then anyway: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/AJiYZ6QIAtY/hqdefault.jpg "Señor Wences") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJiYZ6QIAtY) ---
**Author:** ![BurnMeUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@BurnMeUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BurnMeUp)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-living-disembodied-heads/658018/15 "2013-05-10T22:43:27Z")
[Shrunken Heads](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111175/) - Richard Elfman’s movie about a voodoo priest and shrunken animated heads that can move and talk and… it’s just… crazy. ---
**Author:** ![gytalf2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ac91a4/32.png) [@gytalf2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gytalf2000)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-living-disembodied-heads/658018/16 "2013-05-10T23:28:32Z")
> [@lieu](#): > > Is this the one where she opens the box and it slowly, quietly mouths out commands to her? There’s a head, yes, vocal cords, no. Man that scared the bejesus of me as a kid. Nightmare stuff. > > Not a full head but Steve Martin had the one, **The Man With Two Brains** was it? Yes, that’s the one. It frightened me as a wee lad, as well. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-living-disembodied-heads/658018/17 "2013-05-10T23:57:09Z")
There’s a scene in _Red Dwarf_ where Kryten has a conversation with his spare heads. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2013, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-living-disembodied-heads/658018/18 "2013-05-11T00:00:53Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > My favorite line from that film: > > Herbert West: Who’s going to believe a talking head? Get a job in a sideshow. > > It’s said with such dripping contempt. One of the poster cutlines was: Dr. Herbert West has a very good head on his shoulders… and another one on his desk! ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2013, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-living-disembodied-heads/658018/19 "2013-05-11T01:11:26Z")
Zardoz? ---
**Author:** ![Reepicheep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@Reepicheep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reepicheep)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-living-disembodied-heads/658018/20 "2013-05-13T01:20:35Z")
[Mars Attacks](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymk_RPZ0jSI) starts at 01:11. The disembodied heads are not the point of the movie but they are a fun part of it. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-living-disembodied-heads/658018.md?page=2)