Aylmer

"This is the start of your new life, Brian; a life without worry or pain or loneliness, a life filled instead with colors and music and euphoria, a life of light and pleasure."

- Aylmer influencing Brian to use his liquid.

Aylmer is the main antagonist of the 1988 comedy horror film Brain Damage. He is an brain-eating alien parasite who manipulates Brian in feeding him human brains in exchange for his addictive "brain juice".

He was voiced by the late John Zacherle, who was best known for being a television horror host.

Appearance
Aylmer is a small, dark blue leech-like creature with a rounded head. He has two blue eyes and his mouth consists of razor sharp teeth and blue tentacles. From these tentacles, Aylmer can extract human brain matter and turn them into his "brain juice".

Personality
Aylmer is a savage alien that only seeks to eat human brains. He carries no remorse for any humans he slaughters, seeing them only as food sources. Although Aylmer acts in a polite fashion to Brian, he cares nothing about Brian and is only using him as his pawn to carry out his brain feast. The liquid Aylmer uses to drug Brian is only to make Brian unaware of Aylmer's true intentions. When Brian testifies against Aylmer, he suffers nightmarish illusions until assisting Aylmer again.

History
Aylmer is an alien that arrived on Earth centuries ago. He was coveted by humans due to his addictive blue juice that drugs the human brain. From generations he was handed down into the hands of elderly couple Morris and Martha, who kept him alive by feeding him animal brains. Aylmer grows tired of animal brains and demands human brains. Realizing this sudden change, they try to dispose him but he manages to escape into the streets of Manhattan.

Aylmer ends up in the apartment of Brian, who he encourages to trust and inserts liquid into Brian's brain, which Brian quickly becomes addicted to. Aylmer offers more liquid if Brian can bring him human victims so Aylmer can eat their brains. Brian accepts to become Aylmer's pawn and secludes himself in indulgence to Aylmer's liquid, isolating himself from his brother and girlfriend Barbara. Brian takes Aylmer "on walks" to feed him human brains, such as a security guard detaining Brian while high in a junk yard, and a man holding up a public toilet. Later in a club, Brian is about to make love to a woman only for Aylmer to eat her brain.

Brian soon realizes what Aylmer is doing and tries to get rid of him, but Aylmer insists that he owns Brian and continues to insert liquid into Brian's brain, this time suffering disturbing illusions that dwindle his sanity. Aylmer mocks Brian and insists to feed him more brains, which Brian reluctantly accepts. After helping Aylmer kill a man at a motel, Brian is drugged and under Aylmer's influences once more. Barbara shows up and tries to drive sense into Brian, but Aylmer kills her without Brian's knowledge.

At the film's climax, Morris and Martha confront Brian and warm him of Aylmer's true intentions. Holding Brian at gun point, they retrieve Aylmer from the back of Brian's head, but Aylmer fights back and attacks the two, killing Martha. As Aylmer feeds Brian more of the liquid, Morris uses only half of his thoughts to strangle and crush Aylmer while Brian painfully receives an overload of the liquid. Following Morris and Aylmer's death, Brian attempts suicide by shooting himself with Morris' gun, only for the bullet to shoot through a glowing hole in his head.

Trivia

 * The song Aylmer sings to Brian as he goes through withdrawal is the 1941 jazz standard Elmer's Tune by Glenn Miller.