Brain Damage

The first 10 minutes of Brain Damage are awful and hard to watch, as an elderly couple are trashing their apartment looking for Alymer and then we get an overlong hallucination from our main character Brian. Then we are introduced to the Zacherle voiced parasitic Alymer, with a show stopping "hi" and the film just goes bonkers and never stops. There's nothing quite like Brain Damage, a tale of a young man who gets addicted to the intoxicant that a parasitic creature injects into his brain and while running about hallucinating, Alymer feeds on unsuspecting victims brains. It's hilariously gory and thanks to the uncut version finally on the market, the brain removing fellatio sequence is intact in its full ridiculous glory. Henenlotter was firing on all cylinders while making this classic B masterpiece.

Are you tired of the sameness of Hollywood's over-priced commercialized dross? Check out Mr. Henenlotter's work today. This is a weird film, but in a good way. Elmer is a parasite who will get you high in exchange for brains. The problem was the old people was feeding him animals brain, so Elmer decide to find a new host. The young man was getting so high that he didn't know what Elmer was up to. Elmer didn't care just as he was getting human brains.

The film is also a moral warning about the effects of drugs - they make you feel great at first but before long you're addicted to them, you've screwed your life up and you'll do literally anything to get the fluids you're now dependent on. A very black form of comedy with a serious edge to it, and the inner-city locations provide an excellent atmosphere. Very original, with good writing, and neat visuals for such a low budget.

Overall rating: 7 out of 10.

This is one of my alltime favorites of the horror genre! A great movie to watch.

What i like about this movie is the underlying drug related messages throughout. It's like watching requiem for a dream almost in that drug-related sense.

I don't need to tell much about the plot, since i'm sure many have already explained it.

I am a hardcore horror fan through and through, and i will just say that this movie rocks. It's got a great and interesting story, some awesome gore scenes and some hilarious comedy as well. It's not scary, but it is a gory, funny, bizarre, and original movie that isn't even close to being like anything else out there...you gotta see it to believe it.

10 out of 10 (based on a horror fan's review)

From the director of BASKET CASE comes his second feature, and this one's his best. And we also get a Collector's Edition DVD from Synapse with a couple of extra goodies.

There's a parasite loose in an apartment building named 'Elmer' who infects a guy named Brian (Rick Herbst) and addicts him to his blue 'juice'. In order to get more juice, Brian has to bring Elmer some more brains to eat. Elmer even smiles and sings in the bathroom sink. What a cute little turd. (laughs) He's so detestably obnoxious that I can't help but like the little b***ard.

It's kinda neat that when Brian brings Elmer out, he attacks people by latching onto their foreheads and burrowing into his victims skulls and eating out their brains with what looks like a long straw. Most of the jerks Elmer does this to, deserve it anyway.

This collector's edition DVD restores the long censored fellatio scene where Elmer pops out of Brian's pants and goes down the prostitute's mouth. And when Elmer's done eating, big hunks of gray matter come popping out of the hooker's mouth. It's a riot!

And there's also the scene where Brian hallucinates during his withdrawal from Elmer's blue 'juice' and imagines pulling a string of tissue out his ear until his ear pops out and the side of his head gushes blood. Cool gore scene.

The Synapse DVD uses an excellent wide-screen print with a great 80s synth soundtrack that includes the song, "Corruption" by The Swimming Pool Qs. Not at all like the crummy, muddy-looking censored VHS tape from a few years back. The only drawback is that there aren't many extras beyond a very interesting separate audio track commentary by director Henenlotter, and a movie trailer for the film.

It's an all out classic in my book. Watch it! Get it!

8 out of 10

Brian (Rick Herbst) a young, handsome 22 year old is "possessed" by a talking, independent parasite (named Aylmer--NOT Elmer) which lives in his clothes and injects him with a mind-inducing drugs in exchange for brains! Brian tries to get rid of it, but realizes he's hooked on the drugs. What will he do?

Very strange, very gory horror film with obvious drug overtones (although writer/director Frank Henelotter says Aylmer represents a penis). In terms of dialogue and characterization, this is amateur night (you know next to nothing about the characters), but the film does work.

Herbst (now Herst) is very good-looking and pretty good as Brian. Also Gordon MacDonald as his brother/roommate is also very handsome and gives a very good, sympathetic performance. Also, each has scenes with their clothes off--not that I'm complaining! However, Jennifer Lowry as Brian's girlfriend is pretty lame.

This was heavily cut for an R rating back in 1987--the complete version is available on DVD. It looks great, sounds great and some incredibly sick scenes are in it--all played for laughs. It's a great low-budget horror film. Worth catching.