Brain Damage

Woahhh I didn't expect to be really entertained by this holyyy, the practical effects are really impressive here- there's some solid gore that hits the sweet spot between restrained and satisfying. Most of the kills involve Aylmer drilling into victims' skulls, but there's this one moment where blood just erupts from Brian like a busted water main that's absolutely wild to see. I loved how they used blue throughout the film- the lighting, and especially that scene where Brian's room fills up with this blue liquid that looks almost like alien ocean water. It's genuinely beautiful but also shows how seductive Aylmer's drug really is. The hallucination sequences work well too. The stop-motion work on Aylmer himself is fantastic. What makes him so effective is his voice as he sounds pleasant, gentle, almost like someone you'd want to hang out with. That's what makes him terrifying and really nails what's dangerous about him. The urban setting works perfectly too, all those grimy, run-down locations that mirror Brian's mental state. Everything feels like it's falling apart, just like he is. The story builds this great sense of impending doom, Brian isn't entirely sympathetic but that's the point, as he gets deeper into his addiction, he's sealing his own fate. What I appreciated was how it shows addiction destroying not just his body but his relationships too. There's this dual tension where you're hoping he'll get clean while knowing he's probably too far gone and maybe doesn't even want to be saved. If you're looking for something weird and different in horror (and random homoerotic moments lmaooo), this is definitely worth checking out but bare in mind that just like a lot of b- horror movies in the 80s that there's also a lot of cheesy acting in here lol.