Brain Damage
1988
Directed by Frank Henenlotter
I have an enduring love of trashy, campy movies, particularly of the horror variety. Directed by Frank Henenlotter of Basket Case fame (unfortunately have not seen that one), Brain Damage has enough camp, trash, and brain-eating to go around, so I was sold on it pretty quickly.
Brian (Rick Hearst, who somehow went on to star in "The Bold and the Beautiful") wakes up one evening to find his neck covered in blood, and proceeds to have trippy and enjoyable hallucinations. Turns out a weird worm-like creature named Aylmer which injects people with a hallucinogenic substance has turned up, and he wants to help Brian have a real good time. All he wants are some nice human brains to munch on. Brian goes around tripping out and Aylmer devours lots of brains, but Brian doesn't seem to remember what happened after the fact. When he finally clues in, he's already addicted to Aylmer's "juice."
Brain Damage belongs to an older variety of horror film, riding the last wave of extreme gore and ridiculousness that probably had its culmination in Peter Jackson's Dead Alive in 1990. Things just haven't been the same since, with spooks and creepiness replacing good old gory lunacy like this. Not to say that's necessarily a bad thing, but I miss films like Brain Damage: weird, original, funny, disgusting, and yeah, a little uneven too. There is really no such thing as character development, the acting is pretty hammy, and some of the violence is in pretty dismal taste - but in a film like this, those are actually good things. It's not trying to change your life, it's not trying to be a masterpiece. It's just... a lot of fun.
Negatives? Sure. The pacing is a little odd, there's some scenes that feel pointless or dragged out. But overall we enjoyed this movie. The effects for Aylmer were pretty good, and his voice... well, you just have to hear it for yourself. Hearst is actually not too bad, for a C-lister in a low-budget horror pic. The violence is gruesome, ridiculous, and funny - there are a few things you've probably never seen in a movie before, nor will you anymore, considering the contemporary market. The bottom line is, if you're a fan of old-school horror, this is going to seem like gold to you. For everyone else, well, it's a movie about a talking, brain-eating, hallucinogenic worm; if you think that sounds stupid and juvenile, avoid this film.
6.7
The Toxic Avenger
1984
Directed by Lloyd Kaufman
Corey and I were in stitches for much of this movie. I'm actually surprised I haven't seen it yet, as it undoubtably deserves its cult status. I thought Brain Damage was pretty trashy, but The Toxic Avenger has it beat by a long shot!
It's really more of a comedy than a horror film. The first (I think) feature produced by the legendary independent Troma Productions, Toxic Avenger blends Mad Magazine farce, old-school brutality and gore, a sort of crude Swamp Thing comic-book hero plotline, over-the-top crappy acting, and social justice into a completely outrageous and baffling whole. It's no surprise to me now that they've made it into a musical in recent times - for a movie this insane, it's really not a stretch to imagine it put to music.
The story revolves around the nerdy janitor Melvin, who is turned into a huge, beastly mutant after a toxic chemical accident. He inherits a sudden drive to eliminate evil and goes around the corrupt city of Tromaville mashing a variety of criminals. The effects are ridiculous, but somehow effectively vile. In fact, the whole film is basically vile. If that's what you're into, then pretty much everything you usually want to see in a horror film (but don't) can be found right here. There's enough amputation, running over of children, head-crushing, and yes, even granny-punching to keep any 13-year-old boy or underdeveloped adult male (hi!) smiling for weeks. But wait, there's even a love story between Toxie and a blind bombshell. Total wish fulfillment for every nerd who never got his due. But for a guy who brutally murders people for a hobby, Toxie is a real sweetheart to regular folk, and he wins Tromaville over with his "good works."
Toxic Avenger is super-low budget. The effects are laughable. I won't even discuss the "acting." Even the writing is frequently stupid - some of the jokes are just terrible. But in such quantity, you won't really care if some of the humour falls flat. What this movie has going for it is that it uses all of these negatives to its advantage. Knowing that it was stupid, atrocious, in poor taste, etc., Kaufman clearly decided to go for the gold. Always tongue-in-cheek, it's actually a great send-up of more serious horror fare. Not everybody will find running down a kid on a bike for "points" funny, but it's pretty hard to be seriously offended by anything in a movie so obviously excessive.
Some people have pegged Toxic Avenger as a "so bad it's good" movie. Those people are wrong, because that term really refers to movies that failed so miserably at being good that they went right past sad and unwatchable to being unintentionally funny. The earnest but completely talentless Ed Wood falls into this category. But there is no way that Kaufman and friends set out to make a passable movie here. Toxie is meant to be bad, and it totally revels in it. It turned out exactly the way it was intended to turn out - love it or hate it, it is the definition of a cult classic.
7.9
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