Basket Case

When originally released in the UK by the late lamented Palace Video company, (like their other low budget seminal video release 'Evil Dead') Frank Henenlotter's 'Basket Case' went down a storm in the UK horror market. Ultra low budget and wildly bizarre to boot, director Henenlotter surely couldn't have realised the impact that his little movie would have made...

The story (for those of you that may have missed it, and why?) is about brothers Duane and Belial Bradley. Born as Siamese twins, they are unwillingly separated at a young age by their spiteful father and some less than scrupulous surgeons - their father desperate to rid 'normal' Duane of his deformed appendage of a brother from his waist. Luckily their sympathetic auntie saves poor Belial from an early grave and hides him from prying eyes bringing up both brothers in a secure and loving environment. Sadly in time their auntie dies and Duane and Belial are left to their own devices, which inevitably leads to them planning to seek out the surgeons that separated them and reek their own line of bloody revenge! So, they head off to the underbelly of New York with Belial hidden in a basket (hence the cool title) to let the fun commence...

Most likely never intended to be seen outside of New York fleapit cinemas and backwater Drive-ins, 'Basket Case' is a true classic of B-movie cinema - easily overcoming its low budget origins with a wildly fun storyline, some laid back grade z acting skills, a soundtrack that H G Lewis would be proud of and some outstanding gore! What probably stands 'Basket Case' out from other low budget films of the era though is the slightly perverse and demented slant that the feel of the movie dictates, with a great variety of oddball lowlife characters that bring added life to the proceedings and some truly seedy setpieces including a (previously unseen in the UK) violent dwarf creature rape sequence!! All of which have been lovingly pieced together by director Henenlotter for our delectation (and I for one am grateful for his contribution to the genre scene).

After a considerable wait, it is Tartan Terror who have eventually brought this schlocko gem onto UK DVD and a welcome release it is too. Albeit a threadbare release, it's still a good one. The film (contrary to the cover packaging's letterbox claim) is presented in its original fullscreen ratio. The image is good considering the films age and low budget origins - whilst some early dark scenes do show slight grain evident, things quickly pick up with a surprisingly colourful and vibrant image throughout. Also, interestingly the film is presented here on DVD fully uncut, which will be a very pleasant surprise for UK viewers with some excellent scenes of carnage restored that were previously excised from the old Palace print. This is moreso unusual as some UK companies would be quick to plaster great big 'uncut best version yet' statements all over their packaging (guess who) but Tartan have slipped this cracker out with nary a whisper to the public!

As I say though, there's not much in the way of extras going on here which is a bit of a shame - especially as Something Weird have just released an all-singing special edition stateside which ideally Tartan could have tried utilising as a source for additional material. What you do get is a lengthy written overview (and interview) on Henelotter's work by Alan Jones (and a fine read it is too). There's the obligatory (if somewhat short and repetitive) bio pages and the films trailer, as well as a selection of cool trailers for Tartan's other releases.

No doubt completists will have already ordered the US special edition disc, but anyone that picks up this UK release will be pleasantly surprised with the films uncut debut onto the UK DVD market. Bloody great movie!

Review by Alan Simpson