Basket Case

If you haven't seen Basket Case before then you certainly have missed something in your life. However, I presume that half of the SGM readers have seen this classic DIY gem, so I am sure you are delighted to know that it has been given a re-release by none other than our friends at Tartan. This time it's on their budget Grindhouse label which seems to be riding along the fame of Tarantino's Grindhouse. Basket Case fits nicely on this label, New York filmmaker Frank Henenlotter did make the film on a shoestring budget in the early 1980s, so I guess it did run some fleapits in its day. It became popular because of its violence and humour, so it spawned two more sequels.

Basket Case kick-starts with a man being stalked by someone (or something?) who is breathing excessively. The camera gives a POV of the stalker with shadows, what could it be? Well it's Belial of course! Who's that? I hear you ask, patience, all will be revealed soon. The man calls the police and directly afterwards is attacked by a large deformed hand. Lots of blood, strange noises, and screaming follow - great!

The next scene shows our main character Duane Bradley (played by Frank Henenlotter regular - Kevin Van Hentenryck) walking through the street with a basket and then he acquires a room in a seedy New York hotel. This hotel is full of dodgy characters and seems to be a place where all the local hookers take their clients. Duane enters his room and begins to feed burgers to something in the basket - guzzling sounds follow. Later in the night, Duane begins to talk to someone in the room yet we hear no reply! Hmmm…

The next day, Duane goes to the doctor with the basket where we he meets a doctor who obviously knows something about him, we also learn that Duane has a large scar on his back. As an added bonus he scores a date with the secretary Sharon (Terri Susan Smith). The doctor's surgery is rundown and dirty giving us more of a taste of the film's atmosphere - so far the film has shown us seedy, dark, and dingy locations.

Late that night, we see Duane dropping off the "thing in the basket" at the doctor's surgery. This is where we finally see what's been eating all those burgers! It's a strange beige blob (well, more of a lump) with huge arms and a face with sharp teeth - this is Belial. It attacks the doctor and finishes him off by ripping out his stomach (off-screen), spraying tons of nice red stuff!

The following day Duane leaves Belial in the apartment with a TV and he sneaks off to meet the secretary. Bad move, it seems that they have some kind of telekinetic connection. When Duane kisses the secretary, Belial begins to scream and destroys the room disturbing all the tenants of the hotel. The special effects used on the creature here are direct from an old stop motion Ray Harryhausen flick, corny yet effective enough.

One of the tenants enters the room hoping to steal some of Duane's money. The guy thinks something along the lines of: "oh look, there's a basket, let's have a peek!!" He's killed (more blood flows) and through telekinesis Duane feels what has happened. The police are of course involved.

In the next scene we learn the back story of Duane and Belial. Flashback to when he was a teenager, they are Siamese twins (hell, I'm sure you have figured that out by now!!) and one twin is hideously deformed. They are forced to have a separation by their father but with no compassion towards the deformed twin - after the operation they throw Belial in the bin!! The father is quickly killed and the aunt covers up the murder. Also remember the doctor? Well he's indirectly involved through another doctor.

Back to present day, the body count rages on from this moment with Belial killing uncontrollably - including Sharon! The film ends on a downer adding further to the films depressing atmosphere.

But don't be put off by the dingy setting, this film is a must have. It's violent, really quirky in parts, and delivers the goods. DVD wise, it's a clean uncut 1.33:1 transfer with little noise. It's an old budget B-Movie so I'm guessing you can't get much better than this, although I have read that the Something Weird R1 release is nice? The 2.0 sound is clear with all the effects, breathing, munching, crunching, squelching, spurting, and screaming booming out at you. The score is actually good fun at points with a change of tempo or style to add to the humour or horror - again this sounds clear and well balanced. Another thing to mention is the artwork, although it was a screener without a cover that I reviewed, what I have seen of the released artwork looks great! A big improvement from the original Tartan release and it reminds me of the heydays of Palace video.

Compared to the original Tartan release, it has more or less the same extras: a trailer, Tartan horror trailers, a nice Alan Jones film review, and filmographies for some of the cast and crew. For the low budget price we can't complain, but I'm sure the R1 disk will still be sought after.

An excellent film that makes you think twice before making a bad joke about Siamese twins. Buy it now and check out the sequels and Brain Damage too!

Review by: Broonage