Brain Damage

(1988)***1/2

Directed by Frank Henenlotter (Basket Case), Brain Damage features Brian, your everyday average guy who shares an apartment with his older brother. One day Brian begins experiencing LSD-like, neon-fused hallucinations such as a feeling like he is drowning in his bed,

Following several days of confusion, Brian’s experience is finally explained to him, in the form of a talking purple penis. Okay, it’s not really a penis, it’s a brain-eating parasite named Aylmer who has been secreting an addictive hallucinogenic fluid into Brian’s brain while he’s asleep. For what purpose, you ask? Well wait just a sec, I’m getting to it. You see, while Brian is high on purple penis fluid he goes into a trance and Aylmer is able to control him. Why? Gee whiz stop being so impatient. Here it goes; Aylmer takes over Brian’s body and uses it to commit murder so Aylmer can eat people’s brains, the only food that sustains him.

Hi

When this is all revealed Brian realizes that he’s in a dilemma; while he’s not into the whole murdering thing, he really likes Aylmer’s hallucinogenic juice – its apparently really good shit. Attempts to go cold turkey fail miserably and Brian becomes resigned to his fate.

Withdrawal sucks

Oh my God I loved Brain Damage! It’s just one of the weirdest films I’ve ever seen and it is yet another example of an effective horror/comedy, which I keep suggesting is difficult to find. I seem to keep finding them so perhaps I should shut the hell up. There is absolutely no fat in this film, it moves at a brisk pace and it’s pure lunacy. There’s ample gore, the hallucinations are terrific, and the talking penis is beyond hilarious. I forgot to mention that his voice, it’s just perfect. Picture a refined old man’s voice coming out of this,


At one point he sings while Brian is going through terrible withdrawal, it’s just great. I just noticed that “Brian” is close to “Brain”, that had to be intentional, right? Oh yeah, near the end of the film there’s a Basket Case cameo on a subway. As Brian struggles with the evil penis we see Duane sitting across from him holding a locked basket in his lap.

I'm an awesome movie