Brain Damage (1988) — Triskaidekafiles

BRAIN DAMAGE

WRITER: Frank Henenlotter

DIRECTOR: Frank Henenlotter

STARRING: Rick Herbst as Brian
Gordon MacDonald as Mike
Jennifer Lowry as Barbara
Theo Barnes as Morris
Lucille Saint-Peter as Martha

QUICK CUT: Drugs’re bad, mmmkay?

THE MORGUE

Brian - We never REALLY get to know Brian before his addiction, but he SEEMS like he used to be a nice guy, with a bright future ahead of him. But once he’s hooked on the worm, he’s selfish, he’s uncaring, and he is only living for his next high.

Barbara - Brian’s girlfriend, and that’s pretty much her character.

Aylmer - The new pusher in town, and he is hella charming, with a velvety smooth voice, and will use his charms, and access to drugs, to get you to do what he wants.

After ten years of watching these trash movies…

TRISK ANALYSIS: Welcome back, Triskelions, hope y'all had a good Memorial Day, and you are doing your best to help keep everyone safe. Meanwhile, the movie meat train grinds on, and I'm sticking with my theme of gooey things that latch onto people.

Now, if you're reading this, you might also be a fan of Joe Bob Briggs' Last Drive In, and you probably just saw him feature this very movie, Brain Damage. I've had this movie sitting next to me for a year, and had every intention of doing it this month, written down and everything, since sometime last fall. So I am not following in anyone's footsteps, but the synergy is also nice. Anyways, let's get into this.

We open up on an older couple in a small apartment, as the husband comes home with a package of tiny little brains for...someone or something.

I told you the dishes are in the OTHER cabinet, calm down!

But they are surprised to find "Elmer" missing, and the wife goes absolutely spare. They ransack their place trying to find him, their pet? A roomie? We don't know yet, and yes I am playing clueless on purpose.

They start banging on the doors of their neighbours, barging in, checking their tubs, and finding a whole lotta nothing.

Meanwhile, we meet Brian, and his girlfriend Barbara, and roomie Mike. Brian is having trouble getting up, and he is just absolutely tired. He says if Babs still wants to go out, Mike is welcome to take her while he sleeps off this bug or whatever. Oh, bad move, Brian.

Brian curls up to get some more zonks, and wakes up some time later, finding his head in a pool of blood, and a cut in the back of his neck. Man, worst vampire ever, that is some terrible aim.

He tries to get his shit together, wondering what happened, but he falls over, and tries to crawl back to bed, as a case of the giggles wash over him. He begins to experience flashing lights, and other visual hallucinations, as he gets back into bed.

As he lays there dumbfounded, Brian is washed over by blue liquid, eventually coming to and returning to the bathroom.

2000 Flushes Blue? You’re soaking in it!

Once he's in the bathroom, he sees the tub has been filled, and he knows someone is there, and tries to call them out.

What he gets, is probably the last thing he, or anyone else for that matter, would ever expect.

A long, large worm like critter with a giant brain, suckers, bright blue eyes and...the softest, friendliest baritone you ever did hear.

This is a brain sucker. What is it? HUNGRY!

Brian sticks the creature in a bucket, and they have a chat, as the thing explains that he is in for a lifetime of light and beauty and joy. In return, all Brian has to do is talk him for a walk.

Oh, and also attach the creature to the hole in Brian's neck, which he does. And we get treated to some fantastic design and puppetry and a toothy mouth full of hooks needle into Brian's brain and give him a buzz.

Brian heads out to take his friend for walkies, and the world is filled with light and wonder no one has ever seen before. It is quite the visual treat.

It doesn't take too long for Brian's gleeful midnight hoopla to draw the attention of the junkyard's night watchman, who obviously sees someone drugged out of his gourd. The drug allegory is not at all subtle here.

The rent a cop finds Elmer, is naturally confused by it, until the thing leaps off and chows down on the guy's skull and brains.

Brian picks up his new friend, slips him down his shirt, and Elmer gives him a bit more juice to get him home.

Later, Babs shows up for a date, and Mike shows her all the new locks Brian has installed in his bedroom, while he spends half the day in the bathtub with his little dickshark.

The couple goes on their date, and Brian describes how he sees everything differently now, the lights, the trails, and she assumes, correctly, that he's on drugs.

He tries to explain his situation, but Elmer, who joined them as a third worm, gives Brian a warning bite to keep his mouth shut.

Brian starts seeing a plate of brainballs and pasta, and abruptly ends the date. Elmer gives him another hit, and Brian finds his way to a club, where he dances up a manic storm.

A woman takes interest in him because he's dressed nicely, and a bit high, and they eventually make their way outside, where she tries to give a blowjob, but Elmer gives her something else instead.

This leaves Brian's pants a bloody mess, so he sneaks back home, finds the communal trash cans and tries to ditch the evidence. Which is when the old man shows up.

He comes out of the shadows, yelling about Brian feeding the worm human brains, making him stronger, and calling him an amateur. There, I said it! I said amateur!!

And this is when the guy calls him Elmer, cracking up Brian that they named the thing Elmer, of all names. But the man explains the name is AYLMER, which has deeper significance I don't care about getting into. We also get the infodump history of the little guy.

Brian pushes the old man to the ground, and escapes, running back to his apartment.

He runs to his room and starts packing, when Mike comes in wanting to know what's up, since he heard from Barbara.

Brian rants about Aylmer and how he needs to get around, and yeah, this isn't making any sense to his brother.

Our hero finds a cheap motel room and drops Aylmer into the sink, where he tells the worm he's gonna get clean. And they will see which one of them cracks first!

There's more wonderful stuff with Aylmer talking (Not enough is being said about the wonderful work Zacherly did here). He tells Brian everything he's done while out of it, and my favourite may well be "I sucked her brains out!" "Oh my god, is she dead??" "OF COURSE she's dead, Brian!"

Spoiler: The winner is not Brian.

Brian wanders through the halls, trying to find an open door, or someone who will open up for him, and give Aylmer what he craves.

He does eventually make his way to the motel's showers, where Aylmer slithers off, while Brian stands around in a daze, looking like a fresh corpse.

The worm, meanwhile, finds some poor schmuck taking a dump, and latches onto his face. What a way to go. Brain sucked out while on the shitter.

Since his attempt to get clean failed miserably, Brian heads back home to at least collapse into a real bed. Mike calls Babs show up after looking for him, and are they in for a surprise.

Oh, and Mike tells Babs how he feels about her, and since Brian's out of the picture...all of which Brian hears from his room. As well as their having sex. Oh boy.

Brian plugs Aylmer back into his neck socket, and once he's jacked back into the Matrix, he has a nightmare where he eats his girlfriend's brains out.

He then wakes up and 'finds' the two most important people in his life in bed together, and he tells them they have to leave before he gets back, or they might be killed.

Brian runs off, with Barbara not far behind wanting answers, and they both end up having a heartfelt heart to heart on the New York Public subway.

A scene which is hilariously undercut by Aylmer constantly popping out of Brian's mouth when no one is looking, trying to score a bite to eat.

The couple kiss, and Aylmer gives her the worst French kiss of her life, as she is killed by Brian's addiction:

If you don't get it, that's the lead character from Henenlotter's other famous movie we've covered here on Trisk, Basket Case. Those two actually could have a lot to talk about if they sat down together. It's like they're looking into a mirror, and neither of them realises it.

Brian somehow must have gone in a giant circle, as he ends up back at the trashcans at home, discarding his Babs soaked clothes. The old couple reappear, armed this time, to reclaim their worm.

Hilariously, a guy shows up to yell at them, gets shot at, and runs off. Just another day in New York, amirite?

Martha frisks Brian and finds Aylmer, stroking the worm, and the couple fight over who gets their high first. But it's Aylmer's choice to make, and he decides he'd rather eat the old people.

In the fight, the old man loses his gun, and Brian grabs it. Aylmer agrees to give Brian a quick hit before he finishes eating Morris. Which is a mistake, because Morris is Not Really Dead, and gives Aylmer a giant squeeze while he's on Brian's neck. This causes his brain to be flooded with Aylmer's juice.

The squeeze ends up being so bad, that Aylmer dies, and Brian is in bad shape from the overdose, with his brain pulsing and throbbing, and a growth protruding from his forehead.

Brian shoots the glob on his face, and light comes pouring out of the wound like a bunch of kids smashed a giant Lovecraftian spider demon from the stygian depths.

And that's pretty much where the movie ends, on a weird transcendent note of Brian's head exploding in light.

TRISK ASSESSMENT

Video: Looks pretty good, for a grimy New York 80s movie. It’s exactly what I want it to look like.

Audio: About the same, with some good stuff in the surrounds.

Sound Bite: “All I remember is feeling something sticky in my pants, and then finding them covered in blood!”

Body Count: A small number, but it’s a small cast. So power to the percentage with this one.

1 - 22 minutes in, and the night watchman gets his brains chowed on.
2 - Hooker gets death by blowjob
3 - Aylmer gets the poor guy in a stall.
4 - Girlfriend gets eaten by the worm
5 - Aylmer eats the old woman.
6 - And then the old man
7 - Aylmer gets squished to death by Morris' bare hands.

Best Corpse: Probably when Aylmer gets the hooker. That’s a good shock, effective visually, and a bit creative with the way things look.

Blood Type - A: Lots and lots of blood, even if most of it pours out of Brian’s head at one singular point. But beyond that, there’s lots of goo, and I love the puppetry of Aylmer

Sex Appeal: I don’t recall anything TOO overtly nude, but lots and lots of sexual situations.

Drink Up! Whenever you can tell they’re saying Aylmer instead of Elmer.

Movie Review: This is a well made story. The allegory is a bit on the nose, but still works, giving the addiction a form for Brian’s monkey on his back. The acting is decent for this thing, especially Brian. Zacherley is amazing and I could listen to him read a shopping list. The tale of a man struggling with addiction told like this is a thrill to watch, and as always with Henenlotter’s movies, I love the cheap sleazy feel of this New York City. It’s exactly what I want from it. My biggest complaint is the non ending. Four out of five pulsing brain balls.

Entertainment Value: The goo is so much fun in this. And Zacherley is such a treat. And as always, Henenlotter gives a weird trippy view of New York in the 80s. It’s a lot of fun, and a blast to watch for that kinda mid 80s exploitation type way. Four out of five hooks digging into my brain.