Brain Damage (1988)

Trailer:

*Spoilers Throughout*

What’s It About: It’s a heart-warming tale about a young man named Brian and his symbiotic relationship with a worm-like brain-eating parasite named “Aylmer.” In exchange for really cheap and weak hallucinogenic blue fluid that Aylmer injects into his host’s brain, Brian must find unwitting victims so Aylmer can eat their brains. Aylmer left his initial hosts in the beginning of the film due to the fact that the old geezers kept buying him animal brains. So he finds Brian and Brian is instantly hooked on the blue goo that is inserted into his medulla oblongata. Eventually Brian succumbs to the horrors of his misdeeds when he is so dependent on his blue goo high. His girlfriend tries to help him but ends up sleeping with his brother. She then finds herself a victim for Aylmer. The old couple who used to be Aylmer addicts come looking for him and attack Brian. While thinking Aylmer killed his previous owners, Brian then attempts to get more blue goo from Aylmer but the old man squeezes Aylmer while on Brian’s brain and giving him an overdose. The old man subsequently killed Aylmer and eventually Brian’s overdosed brain explodes with a brilliant tower of light and electricity.

I didn’t know Edward James Olmos was in this!

Is It Actually Scary: Being a blatant and not-so-subtle horror film allegory for drug abuse and addiction there’s nothing scary in this film. Its fun and campy and highly entertaining but not really scary. Aylmer is voiced by a famous late night horror host John Zacherle, who has a very friendly yet menacing voice which is funny and unnerving to be coming from a slug who injects blue goo onto brains. The kills are usually tongue-in-cheek like one fella getting killed while on the toilet and another hapless chick’s death which I’ll describe thusly…

Scariest Moment: While not scary, one scene stands out as memorable and disturbing. Brian (while high on Aylmer’s stuff) picks up a girl at a club and they both go into a quiet place to make out. Brian, basically passing out, leans on a wall and the girl decides to unzip his fly and administer some oral sex. Aylmer pops out of the fly and down the girl’s throat to eat her brains. When shown on screen it looks none other like she’s deep throating a very dark, blue-skinned and very alien penis and at the same time blood is trickling out of the corner of her mouth and she’s obviously dying in the process. Bet you’ve never seen a scene like that before, eh kiddies?

How Much Gore: Gore-ful. All the kills are graphic and most head-wounds with either Aylmer attached to someone’s skull eating through to the brains or in one scene Brian is attempting to detox from Aylmer and in the process his withdrawal is making him envision his ear falling off and blood, in hilarious quantity, gushing out of his ear cavity.

Dumbest Moment: The film isn’t that smart. The metaphor is tired by the second act about being about drug addiction. However, every time Brian got a “hit” from Aylmer it was a long drawn-out process of Aylmer sticking to Brian’s back, slowly lowering his jaw about 4 inches and a needle-like extension slowly entering Brian’s brain. A close-up of Brian’s brains is then shown with the needle inside slowly pumping blue liquid (looked like Windex) onto his brains and then an electric charge starts the drug in effect. While it was interesting and necessary to show this special effect the first time, it was shown about 5 or 6 more times through out the picture, practically the same exact shots and length of time. It was beginning to get really annoying quick.

Any Nudity: Quick glimpse of Brian’s girlfriend’s breast. In a public shower, some dude’s ass was shown quite a bit as well. Something for everyone.

Overall: This gem was the brain-child (ha-HA!) of Frank Henenlotter, who also gave the world Basket Case. Both films are seriously flawed in their production, the pacing and the way they are acted and filmed but both are entertaining as well. Both also have a very seedy and sleazy way about them. I’m thinking mainly because both feature a protagonist who isn’t root-able and tends to be controlled by a weird mutant/alien entity that wants them to kill people. While most of the film is fun to watch it drags more than a RuPaul look-alike contest and there’s even one shot of a distraught Brian briskly walking down the street for about 2 minutes with nothing else going on. Anyway, Even though I enjoyed it, I can safely say I’ll probably never have the urge to see it again.

Brian’s 9/11 tribute was not well received by the populace

Score: 5 Squirts of Aylmer Juice (out of 10)