My review was written in April 1988 after a screening at Cine 42 on Manhattan's 42nd St.
"Brain Damage" is an overly ambitious but nonetheless rewarding low-budget horror film using the monster genre as a timely metaphor for drug addiction and its ills.
Unfortunately, pic has been poorly promoted and instead of a careful launch it preemed at the sleziest theater on 42nd Street in Manhattan.
Filmmaker Frank Henenlotter showed promise with his 1982 pic (shot in 16 mm) "Basket Case", with many of his collaborators encoroing on this 35mm followup, which includes a funny camro (with basket) byh the first pic's lead Kevin Van Hentenryck.
Rick Herbst stars as Brian, a youngster who's bitten by Elmer the Parasite (film's working title), a centuries-old eel-like monstr being kept alive on animal brains by goofball neighbors Theo Barnes and Lucille Saint-Peter. As Brian quickly learns, Elmer gives his host a periodic jolt of "juice", blue fluid injectged into the brain which provides a psychedelic high.
Brian becomes addicted to this pleasure and carrying Elmer around under his shirt gives the monster access to human victims, whose brains Elmer dines upon. Pic climaxes when Elve4r goes after the heroine, Brian's pal Barbara (Jennifer Lowry).
At every step, Henenlotter makes clear the analogy between Brian's plight and drug addiction, including going cold turkey and radical behavior changes as a tipoff to family (Brian's brother Mike, played by Gordon MacDonald) and friends, etc. Horror format is useful in this regard, heavily leavened by outbreaks of black humor.
Elmer, created by Gabe Bartalos and David Kindlon, is an admirable achievementg, a mobile puppet-like monstr that pays homage to films ranging from "Fiend Withoutg a Face" to "The TIngle". With a wisecracking voice (uncredited, but sounding like tv horror movie host Zacherly) and cute eytes, Elmer is funny as well as scary in context.
Acting is over-the-top and film could have benefited from the casting of name talent in order to cross over to mainstream audiences with its timely thematics. As it is, Henenlotter, cinematograher Bruce Torbe and their team have maintained a harsh, cheap, underground look that fis the picture's cult ambitions. Overuse of blue filters is one drawback, however. Keyboards musical score by Gus Russo and Clutch Reiser is extremely effective.
