Say what you want about Frank Henenlotter, but even when he makes a bad movie, it’s a guarantee you won’t see another movie like it ever again. I am by no means a fan of “Basketcase” but I still have yet to see another movie like it. “Brain Damage” is another movie so far ahead of its time and so surreal that it didn’t stand a chance at being recognized in 1988. It’s too bad too, since the eighties embraced a lot of interesting premises, so “Brain Damage” should have caught on. Thankfully it later garnered a following in the VHS rental market, and it’s a horror comedy that deserves to be embraced by the horror community. It’s short, and simple but absolutely gruesome, and a unique spin on the theme of drug addiction and substance abuse.
Again, I’m not a huge fan of Henenlotter, but I respect how he tries to offer up films that are out of the box creations with something interesting to say. “Brain Damage” is kind of like “Basket Case” where we find another tortured man in service of a beast. This time it’s Brian, a young man who becomes the inadvertent host of a sentient parasite named Elmer. Elmer (voiced by the late, great Zacherley) is shockingly well spoken and able to communicate with a hint of a British accent, and allows Brian the pleasure of a blue fluid he injects in to his brain allowing him the ultimate high. In exchange for more of the fluid, he demands Brian find victims for Elmer to feast on their brains. Soon enough Brian finds himself jonesing for more blue fluid and begins roaming the streets looking for new victims.
Meanwhile, Brian’s girlfriend and best friend are trying to find him and figure out what’s going on with him. Most of “Brain Damage” revolves around what new gags Henenlotter can pull off with the alien parasite eating people’s brains. All the while Rick Hearst is decent as protagonist Brian, a man who hates Elmer but craves his mysterious blue fluid. Henenlotter really drives home the overtones of drug abuse with his premise, even providing a weird detox process that comes from a long period without Elmer’s fluid. Henenlotter takes a few moments out to feature his former owners ransacking their house looking for him, and eventually dropping in to a seizure as they foam from their mouths. Henenlotter makes Elmer’s process of eating brains incredibly gruesome, often breaking the momentum of the dark comedy in exchange for showing this weird creature reveal its true predatory habits.
However there are some notably perverse moments included that will burn in to your brain long after the movie has ended. There’s a very gruesome fellatio gag, and a final scene on a train that felt very reminiscent of the brain eating scene in “From Beyond.” Henenlotter’s pitch black horror comedy is not just a movie but a definite satisfying experience you’ll cringe all the way through. It’s weird, gruesome, and strives for the trademark Henenlotter lunacy.