Very twisted and very mad!

Frank Henenlotter is one of my personal favorite cult film directors and in 1982 he
directed this low budget gem known as Basket case. When Duane Bradley rents a room in a New
York apartment building, the existing tenants have no idea what is in store for them. Duane does not have much belongings but he does carry around a large basket everywhere he goes. As he meets new people and runs into some strange situations he does his best to keep what is hiding in the basket a secret to everyone he comes in contact with. What is in the Basket is (Belial) Duanes Siamese twin brother who was attached to Duane at the hip until removed at a young age. We actually get a scene of the surgery to remove Belial that is really gory and a bit disturbing which is no surprise in a Henenlotter film. Duane can only contain Belial so long as the twisted creature becomes restless and stir crazy. Belial basically looks like a large head with hands and some growths all over. The puppet created for the movie is pretty funny in a cheap bad way. There is also some stop motion animation of Belial that is really cheesy yet hilarious. Things really start to spin out of control as Belial gets into all kinds of mischief and kills some people in the process. The sleazy landlord is well on his way to having a heart attack as he is constantly called to Duane's apartment for numerous strange occurrences. Duane ends up meeting a girl and as soon as he gets his chance to get some action Belial decides to rear his ugly mug scarring the girl away for good. Duane finally looses his mind as we enter the third act as one crazy scene after another rolls out before your eyes.
The gore in the film is excessive and well done for the budget they were working with. Apparently, when Duane checks in to the hotel and pulls out a wad of cash, this was the films entire budget. It is very apparent that Henenlotter was going for a comedy/horror with Basket case, as he has done with most of his films. In the original cut of the film all the gore was taken out to appeal to more of the comedy crowd, it was later released as "Fully uncut version" in it's entirety. Frank Henenlotter has a very dark sense of humor and you either get it and find it funny or you will probably just find his films dumb.
In 1982 the slasher trend was really taking off in horror films making Basket case a true stand out movie of it's time and for any time. There is no other film I can compare to Basket case in terms of it's themes and story. Although the acting is pretty terrible it works for this kind of movie adding another wacky twist into the pot.
Something Weird Video released a DVD of Basket case in 2001 with a plethora of extras including a great transfer of the film, commentary by Henenlotter, Levins and Beverly Bonner, Trailer, 2 TV spots, outtakes, a video short art, radio spots, interviews and more.
Basket case is definitely not for everyone but it is worth a watch and if you like this one you will surely like some of Henenlotters other films like Frankenhooker and Brain damage. In my eyes this is a classic of 80's horror/comedy cinema that will be displayed proudly in my collection right next to it's sequels with sadly are not nearly as good.

Review by Jason

Rating: C