Basket Case

this film was alot of fun to watch as a fan of cheesy films. it isn't for hardcore gorehounds but is a treat for anyone who gets a kick out of b-movie classics like "the horror of party beach".

this film is genuinely entertaining despite it's low budget and doesn't seem to take itself too seriously. forget the plot holes and bad acting, this film is STILL worth watching.

things to look for:

the cheesy stop animation of the "monster" moving around

the silly sounding howls of rage it makes

feeding time LOL

the "scary eyes" scene LOL

"bloody folder? what bloody folder?"

basket case isn't the meaning of life or a technical marvel, but it is fun to watch nonetheless. if you're in the mood for a fun b-movie, then basket case might be exactly what you're looking for. it won't scare you, but it just might entertain you.

One interesting side effect of the DVD revolution is that I've been watching lots of movies I haven't seen for YEARS, and some aren't as great as I remember them to be, and others are better. 'Basket Case' was one of THE great late 70s/early 80s low (and I mean looooow!) budget horror movies, linked in my mind with such genre classics as 'Phantasm' and 'Evil Dead'. Watching it now I don't think it's QUITE as great as those two, but it's still enjoyable to watch, and along with 'Re-Animator', 'Motel Hell' and 'Dead And Buried' it's one of the essential horror movies of the 1980s. Look, it isn't perfect, the animation sequences in particular are pretty poor, but considering the lack of funds, it's creepy, bizarre and doesn't take itself very seriously, and Kevin VanHentenryck (Duane) actually gives a very good performance. Writer/director Frank Henelotter went on to make the even better 'Brain Damage' and 'Frankenhooker' (as well as two sequels which I haven't seen) but sadly hasn't made a movie in the last ten years. Henelotter mixes horror and comedy as good as, if not better than, vintage Sam Raimi and Stuart Gordon in my opinion. Why isn't he making movies?! Why doesn't SOMEONE give him a million dollars and freedom to make anything he wants?? I really, really hope he makes a comeback soon. Until then check out 'Basket Case', it's cheap, nasty and LOTS of fun!

BASKET CASE is, for what it is, superb.

That's not to say it is technically proficient or boasts particularly good performances from its actors. But it's intelligent, creepy and viciously horrific.

A young man, Duane, enters a seedy Times Square motel carrying a large wicker basket. Inside the basket, as we soon discover, is his monstrously deformed Siamese twin brother, Belial. Belial looks like a twisted lump of fat and gristle, with two clawed arms and an eerily human-like face. He was, not so long ago, attached to his brother's side, until his father and some crooked surgeons decided to seperate the brothers against their will. Now the pair is in Manhattan, to do away with the doctors who performed the operation.

The very premise is as bizarre and sordid as one can imagine. And the movie doesn't disappoint. Everything is washed out with red and blue neon, every location is dirty and grungy, every character is twisted or crazed. The movie jerks the viewer's emotions around brutally, going from silly to grim to nightmarish to funny to horrifying to tragic. It may take the movie a little while to sink in. If you allow it to, it will leave you speechless.

BASKET CASE is a classic of exploitation cinema. It's as gruesome as any splatter movie and sleazy as any grindhouse porno, but it's far better written and crafted than most of its type. It's a nightmare not unlike David Lynch's ERASERHEAD, but with a more EC-comics feel. If a mixture of sleaze, extreme gore, expressionism and poetic justice are your cup of tea, don't pass up BASKET CASE!

Basket Case (1982) happens to be one of the greatest shoe string budget horror films ever made. A true cult classic and a tragic tale of brotherly love and jealousy. The sleazy surroundings and characters that the movie was shot in and around adds to it's charm. Duane and Belial are a pair of brothers you don't want to cross paths with. This film was such a success that it spawned two sequels and a funny cameo in another. Highly recommended.

A

Dwayne Bradley (Kevin Van Hentenryck) carries a basket around with him. He tells his landlord (Robert Vogel) that it contains "clothes", but that's not quite true. The secret of the basket is fiendish, nasty and is liable to tear your face off if you stand in its way. (And there's a plot that's sort of like "The Abominable Dr. Phibes" in the way Dwayne tracks down the doctors...)

This film is very obviously low-budget, costing only $33,000, but the director (Frank Henenlotter) does not let that distract him. In fact, he almost turns it into a joke, using his friend's apartment as a makeshift "hotel". He has Dwayne carrying a large sum of cash, but is actually rather small when you know that it represents the actual budget of the film. And to make the film appear more professional than it was, they even faked the credits. As one trivia site explains, "The crew was very small and rather then repeat the same names over and over again they decided to just make up names."

There's something of a time capsule effect in this film. Much is filmed on 42nd Street in New York, during its porn and hooker glory years. You won't see that anymore, but you can forever see it in this film. And one scene is filmed in the basement of the legendary sado-masochistic Hellfire Club, complete with real-life glory holes. (To see what the club looks like now, you can see it on the DVD features.)

I think this movie must set the record for most times the phrase "what's in the basket?" is used in a single film. I'm surprised it's not the film's tag line, because I think I counted six instances. I'm not sure if it's supposed to be a running joke or if the writer is just that uninventive. (For fun, if you're a smoker, have a cigarette each time someone asks. That will be almost as much fun as the "In the Mouth of Madness" smoking game!) Some scenes are fairly cheesy. The puppetry is amateur and the claymation is like something from "Pee-Wee's Playhouse" (yes, not even good enough to be compared to "Clash of the Titans"). I enjoyed this and totally let it slide (cheesy effects from the 1980s are still better than modern computer effects in many cases).

For some reason, I really enjoy male nudity in movies (ask about my love of the films of Gregg Araki). I'm not gay or anything... I'm all about the ladies. But something about male nudity still comes off as a special thing in movies, maybe because I've seen just about all you can see in life and this still remains a rarity. Well, anyway, this film has some unusual male nudity that leads to the film's climax (pun intended) and I think you'll want to be there when it happens.

Oh, and mullets. If you're hankering for a Jeff Goldblum mullet (the hair from "The Fly", not "Jurassic Park") you really need to see this one. It's actually more like the hair of noted linguist and psychologist Steven Pinker.

Mike Mayo calls the film, "One of the all-time great low-budget horrors" that "is an ingeniously twisted original in every respect." It is one of the few horror films that Mayo has praised with four out of four bones on the Videohound rating scale. And with good reason. When it comes to low budget, few if any films get this big with so little -- "Basket Case" is a modern classic, and decades later can still be found on the shelves of many video stores. And what other film has mutant Siamese twin necrophilia?

I went almost 25 years without seeing "Basket Case". Don't make that same mistake. While this is not the greatest horror movie and not my favorite Henenlotter film, it has found its way into cult horror history (admit it, even if you never saw it you've still heard of it). This happens for a reason, and after watching maybe you'll understand what that reason is. At the very least, you'll find out what's in the basket.