Synopsis
It's A Headache From Hell!
A normal, average guy who lives in New York City becomes dependent on an evil, disembodied brain.
Brain Damage
1988 Directed by Frank Henenlotter
Cast
Rick Hearst Jennifer Lowry Gordon MacDonald Theo Barnes John Zacherle Lucille Saint-Peter Vicki Darnell Joseph Gonzalez Bradlee Rhodes Michael Bishop Beverly Bonner Ari M. Roussimoff Michael Rubenstein Angel Figueroa John Reichert Don Henenlotter Kenneth Packard Artemis Pizarro Kevin Van Hentenryck Slam Wedgehouse Daniel Frye Jeff Calder
Director
Producers
Writer
Editors
Cinematography
Art Direction
Visual Effects
Composers
Sound
Make-Up
Studio
Country
Language
Alternative Titles
Brain Damage (La maledizione di Elmer), Elmer le remue-méninges, Il succhiacervelli, Повреждение мозга, Έκρηξη Εγκεφάλου, Elmer, O Soro do Mal, Danos Cerebrais, Ekrixi egefalou, Pgua mohin, Zniszczenie mózgu
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Sooo I don’t usually read through the other reviews before I write my own but this time I had to because I just needed to see if everyone else saw this movie like I did and wouldn’t you know that only ONE other review that I read mentions it! Everyone else talks about how this is an allegory for heroin addiction and I’m not disagreeing, but I totally saw this as an allegory for coming to terms with one’s sexuality. And don’t get me wrong, I really don’t go looking for gay subtext in movies most of the time, but it was just so glaringly obvious here!
A cute guy with a nice ass becomes attached to a phallic creature…
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My partner Samantha never saw this film before and came across it while scrolling through Shudder titles. She asked me how it is and I replied "one of the best films ever, let's watch." So we did. And it was a great watch as always. I love Aylmer so much.
Watched on Shudder and now I want to deep dive in to the Arrow Video steelbook Blu-ray that I've had for a while now.
The extras are amazing:
- Isolated Score
- Brand new audio commentary by writer-director Frank Henenlotter
- Listen to the Light: The Making of Brain Damage – brand new documentary featuring interviews with actor Rick Herbst, producer Edgar Ievins, editor James Kwei, first assistant director Gregory… -
For my money, this movie has the greatest ever ratio of atmosphere per dollar of budget. I would say that its $900,000 bought about 15 atmospheres, which is 1.69 pascals per dollar.
To put this in perspective, something like The Neon Demon is admittedly even more atmospheric than Brain Damage - it has maybe 40 atmospheres. But on a budget of $7 million, that's only 0.579 pascals per dollar. (There are 101,325 pascals in 1 atmosphere, and that's yer actual physics.)
Anyway, I am glad to report that the beautiful clarity of the Blu-ray proves that Frank Henenlotter put all that atmosphere in the film himself, and it wasn't artificially added by being poorly transferred to VHS. You know, I never realised it was shot on 35mm.
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“When it comes to blood in my underwear I wanna know how it got there!”
High art scuzz drenched in exquisite colors with a slathered in goo creature so Henenlotterian it’s not even funny. Also, homoerotic, plus Aylmer’s voice (and who it’s voiced by) is perfect.
A prime slab of head trip NYC neon grime.
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84
The greatest Venom movie in existence. Psychedelic, detestable, and hysterical, all at once. If you're looking for a blood-soaked anti-drug fable with questions of sexual identity that all involves a slimy munchy-brain monster who speaks in polite English, then I have a film for you! Some all-timer gross-out gags in this, with a seriousness applied to the thematic content that doesn't negate the insanity on full-neon-display. A must-see.
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"when it comes to blood in my underwear i wanna know how it got there."
"it's no big deal, nothing to get upset about, it came from that girl at the club."
"what girl?"
"the girl whose brains i ate."
"what?"
"the blood came from a girl whose brains i sucked out."
"you sucked out her brains?"
"yeah, right through her mouth."
"is she dead?" -
It's always refreshing to see a horror movie where the parasitic creature has good manners and is polite with his host.
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"IT'S A HEADACHE FROM HELL!"
Brain Damage never ceases to amaze me. Unlocking every deep corner of the mind and activating every ounce of deranged imagination from it's viewer. It's perfect blend of low budget psychadelia and surrealism provides a dopamine rush like no other. Imagery from another dimension that engulfs you in a neon cloud of comfort. As the mind drifts away...
Henenlotter crafts such a pronounced vision that was completely ahead of it's time. Taking gritty exploitation and high campiness to a whole new level of lunacy. There's this indefinable frantic energy to his films that's absolutely intoxicating. Like a pleasurable panic attack in a comforting abyss.
So many memorable scenes! The tiny brains in the spaghetti, the…
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Wow, this was sooo good! This is my second Henenlotter, after seeing Basket Case only recently (a disgrace, I know). I basically loved everything about this: the crude but effective effects/gore, the performances, the humour, even the cinematography! I think it's super commendable that Henenlotter is able to achieve so much with so little (money).
Truly a master of his craft!
A great time watching this with Michelle!
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A colorful head trip of bad taste, Hennenlotter continues to straddle the lines of both art and sleaze just as good as (if not better) than any cult director.
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The Mind is a Terrible Thing To Taste said Ministry. Try telling that to Elmer! This little critter can't get enough of the old grey matter. In exchange for jizzing some electric blue trip juice into the CPU through the back of the neck, he just wants feeding. Good deal, thinks Brian, and so begins a story of hopeless addiction; a boy and his phallic foot-long smooth-voiced parasite.
Can't believe I've never seen this until now. Frank Henenlotter's beautifully deranged schlockfest of junkie fixation, co-dependence and transcendence via disgusting little shoulder worm hits so many sweet spots. It's got oodles of atmosphere - scuzzy NY is given a lurid sheen through primary coloured lighting (blue and magenta feature a lot).…
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Somehow not the only horror film from 1988 to have a meatball gag.
I could write way too much about this, but just two quick things: it’s maybe Henenlotter's best – striking that perfect balance between 42nd St gorehound sleaze and pervy schoolboy glee that colors all of his work in one way or another. Of all of the great 70s/80s New York exploitation directors – thinking Cohen, Ferrara, and Lustig – Henenlotter’s channeling and interpretation of the city’s grime might be my favorite. Unlike some of those directors, you can tell that he’s got a clear love for the city and its inhabitants – he’s not using the punk clubs, streetwalkers, and, uh showering bodybuilders as some cheap way…
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