Brain Damage is a 1988 American comedy horror film written and directed by Frank Henenlotter. It stars Rick Hearst in his debut acting role as Brian, a young man who becomes acquainted with a talking parasite known as Aylmer (voiced by John Zacherle) that injects him with an addictive fluid that causes euphoric hallucinations; in return, Aylmer demands that Brian allow him to feed on the brains of other humans.
Produced on a budget of under , Brain Damage is the second feature film directed by Henenlotter, following Basket Case (1982). Principal photography and filming on Brain Damage took place in Manhattan, New York City, in 1987. The film has been characterized as containing themes relating to both drug abuse and sexuality, though Henenlotter has downplayed such interpretations. Along with special makeup and optical effects, the film makes use of mechanical puppetry and stop-motion animation.
Brain Damage received a limited theatrical release, premiering in select theaters in New York City on April 15, 1988, before being released in Los Angeles, California, the following month. The film initially garnered mixed reviews, but quickly acquired a cult following after being released on home video. An uncut version of the film was later issued on DVD and Blu-ray.
Plot After suffering a brief illness, Brian experiences a powerful and comforting hallucination. He soon discovers that he has become host to a worm-like parasite that speaks perfect English and promises to give him a life free from worry. The hallucination was induced by a fluid injected from the parasite's mouth, through the back of Brian's neck and directly into his brain; the parasite offers Brian a steady supply of this fluid if "you'll take me for a walk." While under the influence of the "juice", Brian is incoherent and unaware of the world around him, allowing the parasite to kill and devour the brains of a night watchman in a junkyard, as well as a young woman at a nightclub. As Brian becomes addicted to the juice, he isolates himself from everything and everyone else in his life, which worries his girlfriend, Barbara, and his brother, Mike.
Brian awakens from his stupor long enough to learn about the murders. He is confronted in a courtyard outside his apartment building by his neighbor Morris, the previous owner of the parasite who dubbed it "The Aylmer", and who states that it has changed hands hundreds of times across the globe since the Middle Ages. Morris, who fed Aylmer with animal brains, warns Brian that feeding it humans will make it too strong to resist. Horrified, Brian rents a flophouse room to wean himself off the fluid and starve Aylmer, but Aylmer gleefully informs him that his body chemistry has irrevocably changed, and that the pain of withdrawal will be too much for him to bear. Brian soon relents, now consciously attending Aylmer as he hunts for victims.
Returning to his apartment, Brian discovers that Mike and Barbara have begun a relationship; realizing that he cannot control himself or choose Aylmer's targets, Brian tries to warn them away before fleeing to the streets. Barbara follows and confronts him on the subway, where Aylmer kills her. Back at the apartment, Morris and his wife, Martha, hold Brian at gunpoint to steal Aylmer back; Aylmer attacks them. As he feeds on their brains, Brian begs for another injection of juice. Aylmer agrees, which distracts them long enough for Morris to regain consciousness, grabbing and crushing Aylmer during the injection process. This kills Aylmer and forces an overdose, leaving Brian in agony. Screaming and bleeding juice, he runs to his room, puts Morris's gun to his own head and fires.
The police arrive at the apartment building. Joined by Mike, they break down Brian's door—finding Brian, who stares blankly with a large, glowing hole in his forehead, emanating with light and long crackles of electricity.
Cast
Additionally, John Reichert and Don Henenlotter appear in the film as police officers, and Kenneth Packard and Artemis Pizarro appear as subway passengers. Kevin Van Hentenryck makes a cameo appearance as "Man with Basket", a reference to his role as Duane Bradley in writer-director Frank Henenlotter's previous directorial work, Basket Case (1982). Van Hentenryck had a crew cut at the time, and so wore a wig in order to match his hairstyle from Basket Case.: Event occurs at 38:48–39:22.
Themes and interpretations Drug abuse Brain Damage was reportedly inspired by Frank Henenlotter's own cocaine addiction.
In a 1988 interview with Henenlotter, Robert "Bob" Martin of Fangoria referred to the imagery of Aylmer's needle entering the back of Brian's neck as being invocative of drug abuse. Henenlotter stated: To me, the drug is a function of the plot and that's that. To see [Aylmer] as a metaphor for real drugs is a very narrow reading. The needle, the fluid—all of that simply moves the plot. In broader terms, [Aylmer] and all of that was simply a free ride, a way out: escapism. There are many other avenues for that besides drugs, but drug imagery was a simple, easy way of expressing that in a film. He likened the film to a "superficial adaptation of Faust", a reading echoed by Los Angeles Times film critic Leonard Klady.
Henenlotter rejected the notion that Brain Damage could be reasonably viewed as pro-drug in nature, stating, "If I planned to portray drugs as pleasurable, Brian wouldn't have lost everything that had meaning to him: his girlfriend, his life, all of it. If he's left alone with his pleasure, then what's the point?" He then asserted that the film is neither "pro-drug" nor "anti-drug" in relation to real-life drug issues, but instead "a monster movie."
Ahead of the film's release in Australia, Neil Jillett of The Age argued, "Brain Damage can be interpreted as an allegory about drug abuse, with the monster Aylmer standing in for heroin and Brian as an addict. The allegory is underlined by the use of the language of addiction in the film's dialogue. The allegory's message is that death is the only cure for heroin addiction."
In 2017, journalist Michael Gingold wrote of the film that, "Appearing in the midst of the 'Just Say No' anti-drug campaign initiated by First Lady Nancy Reagan, the portrait of young man trying to kick a parasitical habit [...] was especially trenchant."
Sexuality
As well as invoking drug abuse, Martin viewed Aylmer's needle entering Brian's neck as "a pretty grim, anti-sexual image". In response to Martin's interpretation of the film's screenplay as being representative of a dread of sexual intercourse, Henenlotter stated: Oh no, I don't think so at all! I don't agree with that at all. In an earlier version of the script, I had [Aylmer] so sexual in nature that it was dangerous; some of that carries over. But the thing is, any time someone mixes sex and horror, it's assumed that this is someone who hates sex or has a loathing of it. And that just isn't so. However, Henenlotter did acknowledge a sexual undertone to the film, adding: One of the guys at the lab was saying, "Oh my God, you're making some kind of weird statement here—you've got a monster that looks phallic, talking about his juice!" What can I say? It's obviously there. I didn't set out to put it there; that's simply what the imagery turned out to be, and I'm not about to change the imagery just to eliminate that.
Brain Damage makeup effects artist Gabe Bartalos later acknowledged the phallic nature of Aylmer's design, including its overall shape and veiny texture, and said that such elements were encouraged during the design process.: Event occurs at 11:14–11:27.
In 2003, author Scott Aaron Stine noted Aylmer's design as being "a bit phallic", writing, "do I sense someone making a statement about male sexuality?"
In 2017, academic Lorna Piatti-Farnell listed Brain Damage as being among a number of films released in the 1980s which highlight "a disturbing fascination with parasitic creatures and aliens crawling in and out of human mouths, leaving not only a disturbing sense of discomfort in the viewing audience, but also a good dose of raised highbrows and open mouths, as far as latent meaning of oral interactions are concerned". Specifically, she writes that "the mouth lies at the center of a broader alien plot" in Brain Damage, in that Aylmer "uses ingestion [...] to gain control over its victims."
Reviewing the film's 2017 Blu-ray release, Chuck Bowen of Slant Magazine wrote that "Brian's degradation suggests the crack epidemic of the '80s, and the threat and alienation of AIDS lingers over the outré, sexualized set pieces, especially when Brian cruises a nightclub called Hell and picks up a woman, who's murdered by Aylmer just as she's about to go down on Brian."
In 2022, Henry Giardina of Into wrote that the film contains elements of homoerotic subtext and serves as an allegory for the transmasculine experience, citing Aylmer's phallic design and Brian waking up to find himself covered in blood (which Giardina likens to menstruation), as well as comparing Aylmer's "juice" to both semen and hormone replacement therapy (HRT).
Production Development and casting The film's working title was Elmer the Parasite; Henenlotter conceived of the name Brain Damage when he "was literally writing the last scenes". Initial plans by the New Jersey–based company Rugged Films—who had temporarily owned the distribution rights to Henenlotter's debut feature film Basket Case (1982)—to finance Brain Damage did not come to fruition. Brain Damage was ultimately financed by Cinema Group, who invested $1.5 million into the production.
In the original script, Aylmer speaks to Brian inside his head with a whispery voice that resembles Brian's own, and only utters grunting and groaning sounds when seen externally. After deciding to have Aylmer's voice be "very sophisticated-sounding, articulate", Henenlotter contacted a vocal agent who offered a list of actors that might suit the part. Henenlotter chose John Zacherle, a television horror host whom Henenlotter had watched in his youth, to voice Aylmer. Later in the film's production, Henenlotter called Zacherle to ask if he wanted his name to be billed in the credits as "John Zacherle" or "John Zacherley", and discovered that Zacherle was a member of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG). As Brain Damage was a non-SAG production, Zacherle went uncredited for his voice role, in order to avoid fines or expulsion from SAG. According to Bartalos, Zacherle visited the set twice.: Event occurs at 12:35–12:49.
Rick Hearst, Gordon MacDonald, and Jennifer Lowry were all first-time actors, and Brain Damage remains Lowry's only film credit as an actress. Henenlotter wanted Hearst to have "some kind of edge" as Brian, and so he had a scar added to Hearst's lower lip during filming.: Event occurs at 21:45–22:52. Hearst later called this "the funniest choice that I think Frank made for me," stating that Henenlotter felt that he "needed to have that as part of the character, otherwise I'd look too pretty. And I was like, 'that did it?' I mean, you could've scarred me [on the cheek], I mean, I could've had part of an ear off..."
The crew of Brain Damage included veterans of Basket Case and 1987's Street Trash (such as Jim Muro, who was Steadicam operator on all three films, as well as the director of Street Trash); seven Brain Damage crew members had also worked on 1988's Slime City (including Muro and Slime City director Greg Lamberson, the latter of whom served as first assistant director on Brain Damage).: Event occurs at 15:02–17:07 and 18:08–18:49.
Filming