Brain Damage
Brain Damage is a 1988 film from the USA, directed by Frank Henenlotter, running 84 minutes. reelscum files it under splatter and body horror.
- Year
- 1988 · 1980s films
- Country
- USA
- Runtime
- 84 min
- Director
- Frank Henenlotter
- Updated
- 29 Oct 2026
- Obscurity
- cult (44/100)
- Also known as
- Elmer the Parasite
Defined in the glossary: Splatter, Body horror
A parasite gives a young man euphoric highs in exchange for feeding it brains. Addiction as horror.
Frank Henenlotter's smartest film, an addiction allegory in which a young man is befriended by Aylmer, a phallic ancient parasite that injects him with a euphoric blue fluid in exchange for being fed human brains. The high is ecstatic, the price is murder, and the parasite sings show tunes.
It is grimy, funny and pointed about addiction, made with Henenlotter's usual love of sleazy New York. Aylmer, voiced by horror host John Zacherle, is a great creation. Under the gore is a real film about needing something that is killing you.
Trailer
The numbers
Nobody has rated this yet. Be the first to make a claim you'll have to defend.
Your call
Where to watch
Legal options in USA
Links open in a new tab (↗). Availability data via TMDB and changes constantly, so confirm on the service. Legal options only. Checked 8 Nov 2026. All options ↗
Discuss with AI
Open a chatbot with a question about this film already typed out. Useful for a second opinion, plot detail, or where to find a copy.
Filed alongside
Tokyo Gore Police
The Japanese splatter movement at full arterial pressure, from the man who built it.
Frankenhooker
A man rebuilds his dead girlfriend from the parts of exploded sex workers. Exactly that stupid, and great.
Basket Case
$35,000, shot on 42nd Street, and completely charming. The best kind of cheap.
Tetsuo: The Iron Man
Sixty-seven minutes of industrial nightmare. Nothing else looks like it.
From Beyond
Stuart Gordon and Jeffrey Combs do Lovecraft again. A machine that lets you see what should stay unseen.
Color Me Blood Red
Lewis finishing his gore trilogy. A painter, and his pigment source.
Ebola Syndrome
Anthony Wong versus the world, armed with a virus and no impulse control.
Tromeo and Juliet
Body piercings, a penis monster, and Lemmy on narration. Troma's actual masterpiece.
Night of the Bloody Apes
Mexican horror at the gore end: a gorilla-heart transplant, real surgery footage, and a masked lady wrestler.
Guinea Pig 2: Flower of Flesh and Blood
The fake snuff film that got Charlie Sheen on the phone to the FBI.
Nekromantik 2
Buttgereit's necrophilia sequel, prosecuted on arrival, and stranger than the first.
Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky
A live-action gore manga where nobody has heard of restraint or arterial pressure.