Basket Case 3 - The Progeny

Basket Case 3 - The Progeny

Frank Henenlotter's trilogy of demented freak fun comes to a well-timed finale in 'Basket Case 3 - The Progeny', wrapping up the series with a hilariously wild bang!

The film opens with a lengthy recap of the precious instalments finale where 'normal' Duane Bradley goes slightly insane (following the second films unwinding events) and decides to hand stitch his deformed twin brother Belial back onto the side of his body from whence he first came! Under the care of freak home mother hen Granny Ruth, Duane is placed in a straight jacket and Belial discovers his similarly deformed girlfriend is about to produce a litter of little freak kids - so Granny organises a trip down South for her merry band of misfits to visit her old doctor friend who can assist with the unusual birth. Laughs, shocks and some great gore in this ideal conclusion the Basket case trilogy.

Director Henenlotter brings the proceedings to an ideal conclusion with some wickedly deranged setpieces, a freaky feel good finale and enough bloody grue to have most horror fans cheering! Whilst the first film put the deformed Belial in the spotlight of abnormality and then the second turned the tables with so-called 'normal' Duane being made to seem like the freak, the final chapter sees all unite and stand up for their rights to be accepted - the gloves are off and the 'freak' community are prepared to fight! It is interesting to note Henenlotter makes films in a very distinctive style - his direction is very solid but it is his own unique take on black humour that rises him above most other small film-makers, a witty, perverse and often tasteless humour that is lacking in much of the genre scene (with perhaps only folk like Yuzna and Gordon flying the flag of the demented also). It's a shame that we only have around five or so films from Henelotter to enjoy and hopefully he'll get back behind the camera again soon to bring us some more of his own variety of schlocko entertainment.

But I'm havering just a touch, as I said 'Basket Case 3' is an absolute hoot of a movie and fun essential viewing. The problem (if you can call it that) here is though that to get the most out of this movie you really do have to watch all three instalments (and what a great way to spend an evening!)

The disc from Synergy is pretty good also. Like their previous 'Basket Case 2' disc the image is very sharp, strong and colourful throughout with a decent enough delivered 2.0 audio that does the job nicely. The extras again are limited but kinda fun as it's the usual array of Synergy trailers used on all their releases with fun promos for the like of the Basket Case series, Frankenhooker and Maniac Cop (fine films all!)

Whilst our US counterparts have only just landed a lovely special edition of the first instalment, here in the UK fans are spoiled with all three chapters on (albeit barebones) well mastered discs. Don't bother with just one - go pick up all three chapters and have a freaky fun time with the Bradley brothers and co. Great stuff!

Review by Alan Simpson


 
Released by Synergy
Rated 18 - Region 0 PAL
Running time - approx 85 mins
Ratio - original fullscreen
Audio - 2.0
Extras :
Trailer reel
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