Brain Damage

Brain Damage is a horror comedy about a young man named Brian who one morning wakes up feeling ill and disoriented, and soon begins experiencing vivid hallucinations. He discovers the cause: a small, intelligent parasite called Elmer, which offers him intense, pleasurable visions by injecting a hallucinogenic fluid into his brain. Brian accepts, but the arrangement comes at a price, since Elmer feeds on human brains, and keeping the creature satisfied pulls Brian into a life of dependency and violence in his New York apartment building.

The film was directed and written by Frank Henenlotter, released in 1988 between his debut Basket Case and Frankenhooker. Rick Hearst plays Brian, with Gordon MacDonald as his brother Mike, Jennifer Lowry as Barbara, and John Zacherle providing the voice of Elmer among a credited cast of 22. It was produced by Edgar Ievins through Levins-Henenlotter and Palisades Partners.

The film runs 86 minutes. On IMDb it holds a rating of 6.5 from around 15,000 votes, while on TMDB it sits at 6.7 from a much smaller pool of 317 votes. A critics' rating of 6.4 from 16 reviews places critical and audience response at a broadly similar level.