Brain Damage (1988)

Brain Damage (NR) - Review

"DARE to Stay Off Parasites"

From the Midnight Movie madness of Frank Henenlotter (Basket Case) comes Brain Damage, the simple story of a boy (Brian) who has a cartoonish parasite symbiotically attached to the back of his neck that feeds Brian's brain addictive hallucinogenics in order to keep itself well fed on fresh human brains.  Alymer is the little creature and star of the film.  It talks, it sings, it tells jokes and it feeds the protagonist enough drugs to blow his mind and keep it blown.  Dark humor and icky gore abounds, it can almost be seen as a gonzo "horror of drugs"after school special, though most kids will enjoy it too much for it to succeed.  As low browed as it is low budgeted, Brain Damage might cause you to lose some braincells as you wonder what were the filmmakers smokin' when they thought this up (and subsequently thank them for it).

6.5 Hokey GoodOld Fashioned Special Effects out of 10 (GOOD)