Brain Damage (film)

Brain Damage is a 1988 American comedy horror film directed by Frank Henenlotter.[2]

Brain Damage
Limited edition DVD cover
Directed byFrank Henenlotter
Produced byEdgar Ievins[1]
Screenplay byFrank Henenlotter[1]
StarringRick Hearst
Jennifer Lowry
Gordon MacDonald
Music byGus Russo
Clutch Reiser
CinematographyBruce Torbet[1]
Edited byFrank Henenlotter
James Y. Kwei[1]
Production
company
The Brain Damage Company[1]
Distributed byPalisades Entertainment
Release date
  • April 15, 1988 (1988-04-15)
Running time
86 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States[1]
LanguageEnglish[1]

Plot

Brian begins an unwilling symbiotic relationship with a malevolent leech-like brain-eating parasite called "Aylmer". Aylmer secretes a highly addictive drug-like hallucinogenic blue fluid into Brian's brain. Brian, hopelessly hooked on the fluid, is forced to do what Aylmer wants. In return for a steady supply of the drug, Brian must seek out human victims for Aylmer, so that he can eat their brains. All the while, though, as Brian adopts a heavily secluded life in his addiction to Aylmer's blue fluid, it begins to draw a rift in his relationship with his girlfriend Barbara and his brother Mike.

The film climaxes with Brian allowing Aylmer to kill Barbara, soon after which he is confronted by Morris and Martha, a middle aged couple who were Aylmer's previous hosts before he escaped and found Brian. Holding Brian at gun point, they retrieve Aylmer from his back, but Aylmer fights back and kills them both. But while Aylmer is feeding Brian his next dosage of blue fluid, Morris, who is still alive, fiercely grabs Aylmer and accidentally squeezes an overdose of the drug into Brian's brain, causing him severe agony as it goes in to overload.

Aylmer dies and Morris succumbs to his injuries while Brian, still in agony from the overdose, retrieves Morris's gun and shoots himself in the head after returning to the apartment he shares with Mike. The movie concludes with the police bursting in on Brian, not dead from the gunshot but now with a glowing hole in his head. Brian's ultimate fate is left unknown.

Cast

Release

Brain Damage was distributed theatrically in the United States by Palisades Entertainment and premiered in New York on April 15, 1988 and later released in Los Angeles on May 20, 1988.[1] Synapse Films released it on DVD in 2007.[3]

Reception

In an interview with Fangoria, Henenlotter said that the film was initially ignored and disliked. When it was released on home video, it acquired a cult following, and his later films were compared to it.[4]

Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports that 67% of fifteen surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating is 6.29/10.[5] Walter Goodman of The New York Times called it a "brainless movie" with poor special effects and bad acting.[6] Leonard Klady of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "It's a veritable crazy quilt of ideas that manages to engage our attention while our heads continue to dart away from the shocking images on screen."[7]

See also

References
  1. "Brain Damage". American Film Institute. Retrieved July 17, 2019.
  2. The Staff and Friends of Scarecrow Video (2004). The Scarecrow Movie Guide. Seattle: Sasquatch Books. pp. 630–723. ISBN 1-57061-415-6.
  3. "Brain Damage (DVD)". synapse-films.com. Archived from the original on May 17, 2011. Retrieved April 18, 2011.
  4. Thompson, Tristan (May 31, 2013). "The Monster Movie Memories of a Brain-Damaged Basket Case: In conversation with Frank Henenlotter". Fangoria. Archived from the original on January 24, 2015. Retrieved September 18, 2014.
  5. "Brain Damage (1995)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved May 31, 2018.
  6. Goodman, Walter (April 15, 1988). "Brain Damage (1988)". The New York Times. Retrieved September 18, 2014.
  7. Klady, Leonard (May 24, 1988). "Movie Reviews : 'Brain Damage' a Bizarre Crazy Quilt of Ideas". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved September 18, 2014.
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