 Thanks for checking out this movie review video. So we're gonna be talking about the 1988 film Brain Damage This is a Frank Hennan-Lotter film. So he wrote it. He directed it. That's usually how he does his films This is another film that was actually considered to be a dud when it came out And then in the 80s with the magic of home video. Yes VHS tapes It gained a cult following once it hit home video. So just another one of those films This is also another one of those films that had to do heavy editing on its content in order to get an R rating from the MPA to be released in the first place. So Now we have all the content and yeah, you can see it how I saw it I watched it on the shutter streaming service, which if people don't already have it I'm not getting paid by them or anything But it's a great place for horror content and brain damage is on there So now needs to be said that if you haven't seen Brain Damage yet Stop this right now go watch it then come back and break it down because or and listen to me break this film down Because spoilers all the spoilers with this one So if people aren't familiar with Frank Hennan-Lotter, he's the guy who's done basket case Which is kind of an notoriously bad film, but Like fun bad film. I love basket case. I think it's really cool. I actually bought the trilogy blu-ray set just well, I Think just a month ago. Maybe one or two months ago is when I bought it, but I Haven't watched the second or third of the basket cases. I love the first one I've heard good things about the second and third one if you like the first one So I will be doing reviews on those at some point I have seen like I said, I saw the first basket case I've also seen Frank Hennan-Lotter's film Franken Hooker, which is a good time And he also did another film that he's I don't know if he's like super well known for but it was a newer-ish film called bad Biology, I think it was in like the early 2000s Haven't heard anything about that. I'll probably check it out at some point because it's Hennan-Lotter and I just like his approach I like how he does film all his films are like kind of crappy bad films They only become cult classics pretty much because no one would ever accuse these films of being awesome films to be honest Unless you have the kind of approach to them that I have which is I want to have fun I want to see a laughable film. Sorry my cats yelling in the background I want to see a laughable film that doesn't take itself too seriously But throws out tons and tons of fun things and has some cool stuff thrown in there, too. So that said Brain damage Isn't a bad film like you would think like there's directing as well done There's a lot of interesting things done with practical effects in it that you would think for as low budget as it probably was and not Very serious of a film at least people not taking it very seriously. Okay, hold on Chloe. Can you please be quiet? Sorry my cat gets really she's something anyway, I'm just gonna leave that in so So yeah, but there's good stuff in this film the acting is rough But and that's kind of a thing throughout Hanon lotter films is that the acting is not great But in this film the acting gets a little better as it goes on But at the same time like the guy who who was the main character in this Brian Ryan played by Ryan Hearst who actually is still getting some work mainly with like TV shows His last credit on IMDB is like this year. So he's still doing some work here and there He he had a tough role to deal with and especially because he basically needs to play this dude Who's like a drug addict freaking out all the time because that's you know at the heart of it that's what this film is about it's about addiction and It does this kind of cool thing where you're seeing it from the perspective of Brian who obviously has this weird Like let's call what it is like penis shaped creature that injects him with its fluid and He becomes hallucinogenic and he gets like this amazing hide that he he then becomes very addicted to and can't get off of So it's it's all about addiction basically I mean and you see other aspects of addiction in it mainly there's one shot that looks really amazingly good Actually, I was very surprised when it happened. I was like, oh, that's really cool That's a great shot where he's like kind of jones in for a fix of Elmer's juice And he goes into like an alley and there's like a stairwell and it shows like a homeless man Who's like swinging booze out of a brown paper bag and it so it focuses on him And then like to the side of him Brian comes into into the into the scene in the back And it kind of like pans over a little bit so it's showing both of them So it's like the homeless man with his addiction and Brian is asking Elmer to go ahead and plug into the back Well jam his little needle into the back of him and give him some more of his juice So it's this cool moment of like here's this addiction and what people think of as addiction as like Oh, you know, it's just this this bum who's who's an alcoholic and then here's this guy who people look at Well, at least in his life as like an upstanding young man and here he is getting this fix off this Drug that no one else knows about basically except the old couple in the beginning Who those people were keeping Elmer? So I just thought that was really well put together scene that kind of shows the dichotomy of perceptions of Addiction which which was cool. So good job Frank on that one. So now I'm gonna go to my notes Make sure I hit what I wanted to on that The score the score for this is super heavy-handed It is over the top It kind of reminds me of a lot of the kind of like 80s and 90s Made for TV horror films They all kind of had that same kind of like heavy-handed musical feel and it's it's like that. It's very over the top In the very beginning when the the old couple discovers that Elmer's missing their destruction of their apartment where they're just like Throwing stuff over and smashing plates and just like emptying cabinets and all that stuff It's so over the top, but that makes it fun And it also doesn't like it it's even better because it doesn't make sense It's like why would you destroy your house like I understand you're looking for this thing But you wouldn't destroy your house the way that they destroyed it. So Well, I guess maybe part of it was supposed to be kind of like over the top because they're addicted to the juice so And you kind of see that in them much later in the film when they show up and they're like they're looking even more haggard and They're a lot around their mouth like they're a little bit blue and there's kind of like some bluish splotches on their faces So it's like they're like they're dying because they can't get the juice basically or they're at least severely Degrading physically kind of like someone who's addicted to crystal meth. So it's interesting Like I said the acting's not that great But you know for a film like this totally fine There are a lot of scenes where it takes forever He had a lotter is obviously a fan of the long shot scene Just letting things go letting things play out Sometimes it's cool because you can kind of you know take it in a little bit more and it makes it a little bit Funny or two like some of the death scenes are insanely long and That makes it funny because it's just like over the top like so much yelling so much of Elmer You know plugged into someone's forehead and wiggling his I guess his butt the end of his tail Just like wiggling while someone like flails around a blood spurting So those are like the great ones, but there are also some other scenes where it's not much going on and they're like long scenes So maybe some editing some a little heavier editing could have really helped with this to cut down some of the more downtime But overall it doesn't bother me bother me that much the reveal of Elmer was great You kind of don't know what you're getting into with Elmer like what's he gonna look like he looks funny like I said He looks like a penis But the fact that he's got like these little eyes that actually move and this little mouth that actually moves when he talks They could have simplified him a lot more and I appreciate the fact that they didn't it's like they really went for it They really wanted to show you something they wanted to have Elmer Really interact with not just Brian in the film, but the audience really so Although the one thing about Elmer that I was just like what was his voice It's he's like he's like prim and proper in his voice And I just feel like that doesn't match like what Elmer is Which you know that may be a conscious it may have been a conscious to choice. Excuse me It may have been a conscious choice Because it's kind of this Soothing way for the creature to you know earn the favor of Brian and anyone He would have been in contact with because as we find out he has a long storied history Which I will talk about a little bit more later, but Yeah, I assume maybe that's the way they were going with it where they're like he needs to seem very Soothing and calm and nice so we don't want him to have some sort of like raspy like Devilish voice so his voice just doesn't match what he looks like really The first like big trip out scene I mean like the first tripping scene is when Brian has like the blue liquid when you're seeing like the blue water in his In his room and then it's like on his ceiling And then like the eyeball with his light fixture on the ceiling that's like his first hallucination But the first hallucination he has and I was just like oh, this is funny and kind of ridiculous is when he goes to the junkyard The car junkyard, and there's just and like everything's like lighting up And it's funny because you're like seeing that and you're just like How is this all that awesome? I mean I guess it's because he's high, but like just seeing the colors It's like you know when you're almost to When you're almost asleep you you see colors a lot of the time So it's and you're not just like whoa, so I don't know it's just kind of a weird Thing to be like in awe of but I understand he's high and and at that moment It's cool because you're seeing it from the perspective of Brian who's high and then you're seeing it from the perspective of The security guard who's seeing him like flipping out and laughing and yelling and stuff like that and like jumping around literally and so That's something that the film does numerous times throughout where it shows things from Brian's perspective as the addict And things make more sense that way like he's interacting with something and then it shows it from the perspective of the outsider Who's watching him freak out who's kind of looking at it like this guy's nuts. He's addicted to drugs He's a junkie and you see that like they play very well So I think Hennan lotter did a good job of kind of setting those two different perspectives up in numerous instances in the film The security guard death scene was like the first death scene that I was the first death scene I think and yeah, and it was the first death scene that goes on forever So it kind of like set the tone because they kind of all go on forever Which as I said is kind of like a fun thing and makes it funnier Do-do-do oh in particular when I was talking about the different perspectives of like Brian's perspective as a junkie and Other people's perspectives seeing him as a junkie in particular from the standpoint of his brother I think it's his brother Who he's who's living with him and his girlfriend like you see it most from their perspective and it's well done there The pulsating meatball brain scene that's something I really wanted to bring up when he's out to dinner with his girlfriend And he keeps looking down because he's tripping and like he sees like a pulsating brain in place of the meatball And then he just keeps like Going further and further and further. I thought it was just gonna be like the one meatball brain But then they just keep upping the stakes They added more and more until it's like a whole plate of Pulsating brains that's just like And the noises that they had going along with it were kind of like sexual actually which I think maybe was supposed to I think that was that whole scene was supposed to be like a link between Brian and Elmer And so Brian's actually like getting a little bit of what's going on in Elmer's head because he's craving brains so much at that point So it's just my thought I already talked about that really awesome Addiction shot with the homeless guy The probably the most ridiculous death scene in this is the like faux blowjob in it where he goes into the It's like a boy like an outside boiler room or something weird where he's get he the girls gonna go down on him And he's like tripping out and instead of pulling his penis out Elmer comes out and goes in her mouth and ends up taking her brain out but that is another instance where that seems takes on takes forever and I wrote down Elmer got brains literally But does that scene actually insinuate that Brian feels what Elmer feels because I don't know if it was supposed to be that he was like having the physical reaction he was because he was like Which seemed different than his other tripping Reactions before so I don't know if that was supposed to be him just tripping really hard Or if it was insinuating that there's that connection Like now physical connection between Brian and Elmer so he could feel what Elmer was feeling like as he was going into her Mouth and trying to like eat her brains I don't know like that's kind of up in the air put some put a comment down there And let me know your thoughts on it The old man's history lesson. Okay, I said I was gonna talk about this a little bit later It is now a little bit later the history lesson on where Elmer or Elmer as he says came from It's it made me laugh because it's so Ridiculously long like you don't even need to have a history for this thing the fact that it just exists like that's it That's all you need for the film and just go with the premise Especially because you've come so far at this point not having any explanation that you're just fine with it So the fact that they then like give you this crazy long history That this guy tells it just kind of made me laugh because I was like it's taking so long It's funny in my opinion. So I mean some people may have found that just annoying, but it was actually funny to me I liked it So I wrote when it comes to dirty and grungy locations Hennan lotter is king. He tends to do this kind of like He's just a lot of his stuff in like growth Well, okay a lot of his stuff when I say that I say between basket case and brain damage that I've seen it It's very grungy dirty underbelly of New York City type feel from like the 70s 80s and part of the 90s and that's a great setting for For just interest factor, but also especially for horror especially for something like this one where it's an addiction situation Works really well the bathroom stall blood flinging scene that death was so gratuitously funny in my opinion I just I loved it the fact that they kept showing like the top of the stall and blood just like flinging out Like you could tell that someone like had it in like a squirt bot like a squeeze bottle And was just like squeezing really hard and just like flailing their arm around because you see it just coming out in a stream It's a single stream. It's not like splattering But those those types of things make me laugh and I love it in films Especially films like this that don't take themselves seriously which actually gets to another point which is it's categorized as a horror comedy I want to know like I would be interested to know if the comedy was intentional in this film or not Because sometimes it feels like it is sometimes it feels like it's not so I don't know This I wrote down the sex scene was excessive That's just another one of these instances of the scenes just being too drawn out at times the scene where Brian's who I think his brother Starts getting it on with his girlfriend while he's in the other room just kind of listening to it like I get that like it's kind of long because it's like he's kind of had enough at some point and It makes you kind of feel that by having it be a long scene, but it's just like it's boring to be honest like that sort of stuff It's like there's nothing going on, you know in my opinion. I've seen enough sex scenes in film I don't need that, you know But then again, this was from the 80s and that was kind of like a thing that was more of a thing back then It's like people wanted nudity. They wanted sex scenes in their horror films a lot There was an awesome quote in this when he's trying to get away from His girlfriend because he doesn't want to kill her his quote when he goes one brains as good as the next Awesome amazing amazing quote. I might use that at work When I'm working with people just be like, you know what one brains as good as the next alright So my wife was watching this film with me. Well, semi-watching and when that quote happened She laughed really hard. She loved it too. It's funny man So the scene on the subway I was really I got really excited about this and I know my wife was like what? the scene on the subway where Brian's on there with his girlfriend and then Dwayne Bradley shows up, you know the character from basket case if you haven't seen basket case That's Dwayne Bradley the guy with the basket with the lock on it Insinuating that Belial his brother is in the basket. I thought that was awesome that kind of tie together with the two films So it makes it gives you the idea that these two stories are happening in the same city at the same time That's cool. I love that. So that begs the point that you should do a double feature This is an idea for people a double feature of brain damage and basket case do it because they're tied together It's all part of the same story in a way Really cool The end with the lightning coming out of Brian's head where like he shoots himself in the head and his head just Opens up and it's just so much light I thought the lightning looked really cool when they kind of like pan up and it's just like all the lightning flashing The lightning looked cool. I liked it. It was it was cool But it then ended and my wife was like, what is it? Was that the end of it? That's the end. It's like, yeah I mean, what else are you gonna do? You know, it's so ridiculous like it fits that you ended kind of in a ridiculous way so, you know So one of the thoughts I had on this is that well actually first of all there were kind of some volume issues with the film Throughout like it would be I'd have to like turn the volume up because the the audio Having to do with dialogue was kind on the lower end So I needed to hear it at a certain level and then all of a sudden someone was getting attacked So they were screaming and then it goes way up. So there is an issue with the audio levels with that You know, it actually looked pretty good for having been from 1988 to be honest I don't know if that has Excuse me has to do with any like cleanup that went on with the film before Whatever iteration it is shutter had was released But it looked pretty good. So one of the things that I really needed to point out is that These are sit like this film brain damage and basket case are very very similar They actually have some shots in it that are very similar such as the shot in the motel room where Brian is talking to Elmer in the sink and he's like crouched down the shot looks very very similar to the scene in basket case where Dwayne is bent down is like crouching down and talking to his brother Belial who's on a toilet at that time So there was some crossover there But also these films are very similar because it's about someone being controlled by a creature in a sense and In brain damage, it's he's being controlled by this creature because of drug usage Basically the drug that it's giving to him whereas in basket case Dwayne's being controlled by his brother because because of revenge. So Both addictive things drugs and revenge just saying I'm gonna and then this is where I'm gonna do it people are gonna think this is ridiculous But I'm gonna go ahead and say this right now. This is just kind of being funny But I think this is where they got the idea for the matrix The movie the matrix come on now Because he gets this port into the back of his neck just like in the matrix where the drug goes in and he's living in a fantasy world Just like the matrix Boom Frank Hannon lotter is the precursor For the matrix. You're welcome Keanu Reeves. Just saying Anyway, that's all I have to say about brain damage. I if you can't tell I enjoyed watching this film It's so absurd, but it's so fun Frank Hannon lotter. I just want to see more by him. Like I said, I haven't seen basket case two or three So I'm very excited to check those out, but I am gonna check out bad biology then But he hasn't made enough films in my opinion, although I have heard Joe Bob Briggs I think it said that He thinks that he could do a fourth basket case. So I don't know maybe it will happen at some point I don't know, but I'm I'm all in on Hannon lotter. Maybe at some point. I'll review Franken Hooker. That's a really fun one. And like I said, I'm gonna do the basket cases We'll see when that happens. So giving my star rating on brain damage out of five stars with half stars in play This is one of those ones. I'm gonna rate it twice. I'm gonna rate it as a How good of a natural film is it in all the pantheon of film? I would give it a one and a half stars on that scale and My second rating has to do with how good is it of a film when it comes to kind of like cult horror films That are kind of dumb, but a lot of fun and I'm gonna give it a Three and a half it is pretty good. It is pretty fun So three and a half stars for my purposes on this one, but you have my two ratings so you can understand it So thank you everyone for checking this out Please do me a quick favor hit that subscribe if you like any videos that I've done not just this one I don't make money on it or anything. I'm just having fun So if you can subscribe it really helps motivate me to keep it going put some comments down there If you've seen brain damage, I want to talk to you about your thoughts on it You know, these are just my opinions So you probably have your own opinions and I'd like to hear those and then you can do a like if you really want to But the subscribe is the thing that matters most but thanks again everyone and until next time keep it brutal