A young man carrying a big basket that contains his deformed Siamese-twin brother seeks vengeance on the doctors who separated them against their will.
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One morning a young man wakes to find a small, disgusting creature has attached itself to the base of his brain stem. The creature gives him a euphoric state of happiness but in return demands human victims.
Director:
Frank Henenlotter
Stars:
Rick Hearst,
Gordon MacDonald,
Jennifer Lowry
Duane recovers from his delusional breakdown to find his freakish basket-bound brother Belial will soon become a father. But not everything is joyous as the once tight knit brothers no longer seem to trust each other.
Director:
Frank Henenlotter
Stars:
Kevin Van Hentenryck,
Annie Ross,
Gil Roper
When a liquor store owner finds a case of "Viper" in his cellar, he decides to sell it to the local hobos at one dollar a bottle, unaware of its true properties. The drinks causes its ... See full summary »
A delicious, mysterious goo that oozes from the earth is marketed as the newest dessert sensation. But the tasty treat rots more than teeth when zombie-like snackers who only want to consume more of the strange substance at any cost begin infesting the world.
Director:
Larry Cohen
Stars:
Michael Moriarty,
Andrea Marcovicci,
Garrett Morris
When two bumbling employees at a medical supply warehouse accidentally release a deadly gas into the air, the vapors cause the dead to rise again as zombies.
A dedicated student at a medical college and his girlfriend become involved in bizarre experiments centering around the re-animation of dead tissue when an odd new student arrives on campus.
Director:
Stuart Gordon
Stars:
Jeffrey Combs,
Bruce Abbott,
Barbara Crampton
A group of scientists have developed the Resonator, a machine which allows whoever is within range to see beyond normal perceptible reality. But when the experiment succeeds, they are immediately attacked by terrible life forms.
Charming country bumpkin Duane Bradley takes a motel room in New York with no other luggage than a basket. In a flash back-series we learn it contains his surgically removed Siamese twin who is not only physically deformed so badly the doctors hesitated to consider him a human, but is also the vindictive drive of their trip, with the purpose to kill off all those he blames. But in the reception of one of those doctors, Duane gets his first ever date, with the receptionist, and wants to start a positive life too - when the freak twin escapes, the scene is set for a grim finale. Written by
KGF Vissers
The "bedtime story" that the boys' aunt reads to them is Shakespeare's "The Tempest." Specifically, she is reading them a speech by Caliban, a deformed, animalistic creature that once attempted to rape the protagonist's daughter and was enslaved as a result. The speech - found in Act 3, Scene 2 - is considered amongst Shakespearean critics as a moment of humanity for Caliban, as he comforts a newcomer to his island home by describing its natural beauty and tranquility. See more »
Goofs
When Casey enters Duane's room to drop him off after he drinks a lot she proceeds over to the basket. By the basket is the file Duane and Belial retrieved after the first kill. On it is blood that is still red. With the amount of time that has passed it should have dried up and been maroon. See more »
It's rare to see a horror film that is actually "good", featuring an original premise and decent acting/plot. Some films should have been "classics" because they feature both, but are mocked years later for their horrible special effects (think about it - most "classic horror films" feature human or human-like villains e.g. slasher flicks and "Rosemary's Baby"). Well, Basket Case is no exception.
The premise is one of the most original, then and probably still now. Duane carries his brother Belial around in a basket, and the two are trying to find and murder the doctors who separated them. It reminds one of "Freaks", with the deformed Belial and his brother Duane as anti-heros of sorts, getting revenge on the "normal" people that treated them so cruelly. A flashback to Duane's and Belial's separation and events in the film actually made me feel sorry for both (Duane because Belial won't let him have any time or romance for himself, and Belial because everyone is deathly afraid of him but his brother).
For a low budget '80s flick, Belial actually looks really good for the most part; though the first few deaths in the movie where he remains invisible are still more effective. When Belial jumps at some people it looks sort of funny, but when he is stationary (must've been a better puppet), he looks either frightened or damned frightening. Belial also makes some thankfully short appearances as a decent stop-motion animation.
It should also be noted that the lower quality grainy film stock does add to the seediness of the film and its bad-side-of-New York setting to give it a more creepy and realistic quality. There's a fairly high amount of gore, and the events leading up to the ending are eerie and shocking (it should be noted that, though it has some weak comedic aspects, this film isn't the intended horror/comedy its sequels are). Some of the acting isn't the greatest, but that's to be expected. After all, this is a horror film, and after all, it's low budget. Knowing that just makes this film seem all the more classic.
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It's rare to see a horror film that is actually "good", featuring an original premise and decent acting/plot. Some films should have been "classics" because they feature both, but are mocked years later for their horrible special effects (think about it - most "classic horror films" feature human or human-like villains e.g. slasher flicks and "Rosemary's Baby"). Well, Basket Case is no exception.
The premise is one of the most original, then and probably still now. Duane carries his brother Belial around in a basket, and the two are trying to find and murder the doctors who separated them. It reminds one of "Freaks", with the deformed Belial and his brother Duane as anti-heros of sorts, getting revenge on the "normal" people that treated them so cruelly. A flashback to Duane's and Belial's separation and events in the film actually made me feel sorry for both (Duane because Belial won't let him have any time or romance for himself, and Belial because everyone is deathly afraid of him but his brother).
For a low budget '80s flick, Belial actually looks really good for the most part; though the first few deaths in the movie where he remains invisible are still more effective. When Belial jumps at some people it looks sort of funny, but when he is stationary (must've been a better puppet), he looks either frightened or damned frightening. Belial also makes some thankfully short appearances as a decent stop-motion animation.
It should also be noted that the lower quality grainy film stock does add to the seediness of the film and its bad-side-of-New York setting to give it a more creepy and realistic quality. There's a fairly high amount of gore, and the events leading up to the ending are eerie and shocking (it should be noted that, though it has some weak comedic aspects, this film isn't the intended horror/comedy its sequels are). Some of the acting isn't the greatest, but that's to be expected. After all, this is a horror film, and after all, it's low budget. Knowing that just makes this film seem all the more classic.