September 5, 2018
Written by: Frank Henenlotter
Starring: Kevin Van Hentenryck, Terri Susan Smith
Budget: $35,000
Quote: "Without words. I just here him whispering in my brain. Sometimes he talks for hours and won't shut up. i used to be able to talk to him like that, but that was when we were still connected. Our aunt said it was our special gift. But since we've been separated, I can't do it anymore, but he can still do it to me. In fact, he's even better at it now, he always knows what I'm thinking..."
Trivia: Most of the credits that appear at the end of the film are fake. The crew was very small and, rather than repeat the same names over and over again, they decided to just make up names.
Oh, Basket Case. Such a weird and amazing film. I first saw this movie a dozen years ago when my friend Raul told me about it. After watching it, I loved it but could not believe that it could ever have been made.... it's just too odd, in a genre that already prides itself on it eccentricities. The effects are largely practical and done with a shoestring budget but hold up as much today as they did in 1982 (sure the stop-go animation for the monster look like stop-go animation but it too adds to the skewed nature of the film). What really makes the movie interesting is that while the deformed brother is more silly looking than scary or gross, I came to feel for it. The movie really makes the viewer side with the deformed monster as the film progresses. I felt sorry for the little guy... until maybe the end when things just get bat-shit crazy.
Basket Case is the story of Duane Bradley and his deformed separated conjoined twin Belial that is kept in a basket. Duane and Belial are combing the street of New York for the doctors that separated Belial from Duane despite his pleading not to and then threw Belial in the trash hoping he was dead. In the midst of killing doctors and nurses, Duane befriends another nurse named Sharon who he begins dating against Belial's wishes. Eventually Belial becomes frustrated with Duane and goes to Sharon's house and murder/rapes her. When Duane discovers Belial on top of the bloody body of Sharon, the two fight and eventually both fall out of the window dying on the street below hand-in-hand.
The character of Belial looks like a cheaply made, melted foam head and arms. His mouth opens and closes and his arms flail a bit but that is it. It is almost as low budget as you can get. Also, since he has no legs and is obviously cheaply made of foam, the filmmakers are forced to use stop-go animation to make the monster move across the floor and whatnot. Aside from that most of the Belial parts are him partially exposed in the basket or POV seeing only his hands strangle his victims. Overall, it is surprisingly effective. During the film, I forgot that Belial is nothing more than a cheaply made prop and really started to empathize with him. What's more is there are a couple flashbacks that give him and Duane's backstories that really help to make them both sympathetic characters. They just want to be loved like anyone and they both feel abused after being separated from their brothers and best friends. Belial's being thrown in the trash just adds insult to injury.
Duane is also a really likable character. The actor is baby-faced and has an innocence about him that contrasts the crazy world of early 1980s New York City. During the film, Duane meets some really great NYC characters. There is the prostitute with a heart of gold that lives in his building. After getting drunk with him Duane actually tells her all about Belial much to her fear. There is the hotel manager where Duane and Belial are staying who is fed up with all the racket, "This isn't a hotel, this is a nut house!" There is a drug pusher on 42nd street who has a great rap about all the drugs he has. And Sharon, the cute nurse who's infatuation with Duane leads to her death.
There is one more "character" in the film that always adds to the films. And that is 70s/80s 42nd Street. I've looked at several movies that prominently display this wonderful setting in all its glory (Nightmare and New York Ripper come to mind). An area of a world where sleaze and exploitation were king. Where anyone could watch a triple feature Kung Fu movie, see the newest Russ Meyer breast flick, watch a sex show, score drugs, or see a splatter flick about mutant hamsters.
Finally, it has to be address, that final scene to the movie. It begins with Duane dreaming about running down New York street completely naked (we get full frontal male nudity here). Eventually he gets to Sharon's apartment and fondles her breast for a while before the POV begins to imitate a thrusting motion on top of Sharon. When she wakes up and discovers that it is Belial on top of her and that Duane had just been dreaming himself as Belial, the little critter becomes upset and chokes her out. I still don't understand if he actually raped her (if that is possible) or what but there is a lot of blood around her crotch. It is a particularly disgusting scene. The male full frontal comes out of nowhere too. Joe Bob, on his commentary on his amazing show The Last Drive-In, said that the director chose to do this because Duane was dreaming himself as Belial and Belial doesn't wear clothes. I don't know if I buy that. I think he just wanted to raise the bar on shock. Either way, he succeeded.
If you haven't had a chance to see this film, it is an absolute must! Weird, heartening, vile, it is a movie like no other. I haven't had a chance to see the two sequels yet, but eventually I will. Word on the street is that there is a possible fourth movie in the works as well.
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