BRAIN DAMAGE
Director: Frank Henenlotter Run Time: 86 min. Release Year: 1988
Starring: Gordon MacDonald, Jennifer Lowry, John Zacherle, Rick Hearst, Theo Barnes
“Belongs to a tradition of ‘80s-era NYC-centric horror that suggests the cinematic equivalent of graffiti, and has a foot rooted in the outrage voiced by British punk.”
— Chuck Bowen, SLANT
After altering the landscape of trash-horror history with BASKET CASE and FRANKENHOOKER, the brilliant Frank Henenlotter unleashed BRAIN DAMAGE, his ultimate Grimm’s Fairy Tale for perverted adults. This is a slimy, grimy, gore-soaked slice-of-NYC-life that follows a poor schmo who is addicted to a drug called Aylmer. But unlike heroin or cocaine, Aylmer is a mutant penis monster who needs to eat human brains in order survive. Hooray! BRAIN DAMAGE is hilarious, unsettling, and jam-packed with bad taste gags that would probably cause John Waters to reassess his life’s work. Do not miss.
Restoration courtesy of Arrow Films and the American Genre Film Archive.