Basket Case (1982)    Analysis Releasing Film Corporation/Horror-Comedy    RT: 91 minutes    No MPAA Rating (language, strong graphic violence and gore, nudity, sexual content)    Director: Frank Henenlotter    Screenplay: Frank Henenlotter    Music: Gus Russo    Cinematography: Bruce Torbet    Release date: April 2, 1982 (US)/February 1985 (Philadelphia, PA)    Starring: Kevin Van Hentenryck, Terri Susan Smith, Beverly Bonner, Robert Vogel, Diana Browne, Lloyd Pace, Bill Freeman, Joe Clarke, Ruth Neuman, Richard Pierce, Sean McCabe, Dorothy Strongin, Ilze Balodis, Kerry Ruff, Tom Robinson, Florence Shultz, Mary Ellen Shultz.    Box Office: N/A

Rating: ****

 I couldn’t decide whether to classify Basket Case as a cult movie (which it surely is!) or a wild gorefest of a horror flick (which it also is!) so I decided to go with the latter category because that might inspire more of my readers to watch this crazy movie. Now, allow me to take you back to a time when Times Square was a nightmarish fantasy land of grindhouse movie theaters, adult book stores and cheap fleabag hotels populated by hookers, pimps, junkies, pushers, winos, muggers and other assorted crazies. This is what Times Square looked like before Mayor Rudy Giuliani cleaned it up and made it a safe place to visit.

 It’s the perfect setting for Basket Case, a horror movie about Duane Bradley (Van Hentenryck), a young naive man who comes from upstate New York carrying a basket with some mysterious creature inside. Once he registers at the sleazy Hotel Broslin, he pours a bag of hamburgers into the basket and something inside makes short work of them. What’s in the basket? That’s a question repeated many times throughout the course of the movie. Duane never provides a definitive answer, but we soon learn that the basket is occupied by Belial, a mass of flesh with a face and two arms. Belial was Duane’s conjoined twin. The father, bitter about his wife dying during childbirth, hires three doctors to surgically separate them. They leave the deformed creature to die in a garbage can. Belial survived and wants to get revenge against the doctors who performed the procedure. He’s already killed one and wants the others. That’s why the brothers are in the big, bad city.

 Along the way, Duane falls in love with Sharon (Smith), the receptionist for one of the doctors. Because of their strong psychic connection, Duane attempts to hide his feelings for Sharon from the jealous Belial. He knows how Belial will react and what he’ll do to ensure that he is never apart from his brother again.

 Basket Case is low budget all the way and a large part of its appeal. A more polished production wouldn’t have been as effective. The special effects involving Belial might be about as sophisticated as an episode of Gumby, but in the context of this movie they work! It’s a combination of stop-motion and animatronics. Belial’s claws are actually gloves worn by the writer-director Frank Henenlotter. We look at it knowing it’s totally fake yet we still believe it because of the movie’s overall cheap production values. This might be detrimental in some movies; it’s an asset here because it adds a note of comedy to a bloody horror movie. That’s right, there’s plenty of splatter in this movie! Belial doesn’t just kill people, he mutilates them! One victim is graphically torn in half. Another ends up with a face full of scalpels and other surgical instruments. Duane is a willing accomplice initially until he meets Sharon; at which point, he wants to lead a more normal life, something that doesn’t set well with his deformed and insane twin. Eventually, things come to a head and it’s brother against brother as Duane attempts to escape the psychic hold Belial holds on him.

 I have to admit Basket Case is one of the better horror movies that I’ve ever seen. It defines what 80s horror films were all about. Forget about any social relevance or redeeming qualities; it exists merely to provide a good time for fans of the genre. Henenlotter isn’t taking the material seriously; he knows he’s making a schlock picture and is more than okay with it. It helps that he gets a good leading performance out of Kevin Van Hentenryck, apparently his favorite lead actor. Duane is naive to the ways of the cruel world. He thinks nothing of flashing a huge wad of money in front of the sleazy guests of the hotel. He isn’t aware that somebody might possibly try to relieve him of his money. No, he’s in the city with a distinct secret purpose. He’s not shy about revealing his true identity to the doctors in question though. Needless to say, they are shocked to see him and his still-living conjoined twin.

 I saw Basket Case for the first time in February ’87 and it made a real impression on me. I remember being moved by the sequence right after Duane and Belial kill their father (Pierce) and their aunt (Neuman) steps in to take care of them. In one scene, she reads a story to the two brothers with Belial sitting on her lap wrapped in a blanket. It might sound funny and perhaps the director meant it to be one of the movie’s comedic scenes, but I found it touching. It shows somebody loving a deformed creature even when other people are frightened of his appearance. Like I said, Belial is a lump of flesh with a face and two arms. He uses his arms for mobility and sometimes his eyes glow red. Even though Belial is clearly insane and Duane is mentally disturbed at the very least, the viewer still feels sympathy for them. Their father clearly didn’t love them; he tried to have Belial murdered. With a childhood like that, you can’t really blame the guys for wanting to get bloody revenge against certain people.

 The makeup effects are gloriously bloody and the Times Square setting couldn’t be more appropriate. Basket Case is an excellent midnight movie. Not everybody is going to like this movie; it’s made with a particular audience in mind. When I say that, I’m not referring to the audience you might find at The Trip to Bountiful or A Room with a View. This is one movie that will only appeal to people with a taste for the macabre. I don’t see anything wrong with that. I love a good splatter flick and Basket Case definitely satisfied by insatiable blood lust. It also provided a few laughs, some cool cheesy effects and a glimpse of Times Square as it used to be. In other words, I think that Basket Case, on its own grimy terms, is a great movie!