Review of Basket Case (1982) by Robert B — 23 Dec 2011

Basket Case (Frank Henenlotter, 1982).

The only movie at this year's 12 Hours of Terror that I hadn't previously seen was Basket Case, Frank Henenlotter's infamous debut film. And I wasn't sure whether I'd seen it or not until the film began, actually; I've heard so much about it over the years that I honestly couldn't remember. This was another film that had recently been digitally restored (cf. Zombi 2 review elsewhere this ish), so a lot of audience members were very excited by this one. I was feeling a bit more reserved. I'd seen a couple of Henenlotter flicks over the past few years and been, to be kind, unimpressed. As I feared, Basket Case had all the things I didn't like about Frankenhooker and Bad Biology, and no extra redeeming qualities.

Plot: Duane Bradley (Kevin van Hentenryck in his screen debut; he would not make a movie not directed by Henenlotter for twenty-two years after this) is visiting New York City for the first time. He always carries around a locked wicker basket wherever he goes, which makes the tenants in the seedy hotel where he sets up shop wonder what's in it, especially after he pays for his room with bills peeled from a huge wad of cash. (Henenlotter has said in interviews that was the film's entire budget, liquidated. I don't think he was joking.) We soon find out that (a) what is in the basket is Belial, Duane's brother, a psychotic, homicidal, insanely strong lump of flesh, and (b) Duane and Belial are in town to find and take revenge on two of the doctors who separated them (they were conjoined twins until the age of twelve; the third doctor we see being murdered in the film's opening sequence). All well and good until Duane meets Sharon (Terri Susan Smith, the best actress in the film; ironically, this was her only screen role), the receptionist at the office of Dr. Needleman (Lloyd Pace, also in his only screen performance), and is attracted to her. You see, Duane and Belial have a psychic bond...

What really annoyed me more than anything else about this movie is that the script had so many interesting places to go and Henenlotter refused to explore any of them. There's a great bit about two-thirds of the way through where a love triangle might have developed, as Duane and his neighbor Casey (Beverly Bonner) go out drinking and get to some soul-baring, but Henenlotter uses this as a plot device and nothing else. That's typical of this script; it knows where it wants to go and refuses to allow any distractions. It's always better if, when you ask yourself "what if?", you at least spend enough time exploring to get some background on your characters. Even if they are cardboard representations at best, like here.

And then there's everything else. I was half-surprised by Smith's acting, and even taking into account that everyone else here being so terrible makes her look good in comparison, she probably could have worked herself into a solid career given better material. Instead, she disappeared. Henenlotter's direction is decent in that he does know where to point the camera, kinda-sorta, but that's about the best I can say about that. And the creature effects... well, they're cheesy enough that horror fans can buy shirts and stuff with Belial's mug on them, and Belial really does look kinda cool... until they attempt to move him. Good god, the stop-motion animation in this movie is worse than that in some of the creature features of the 1930s. Back then, you can excuse it as primitive technology. What's the excuse here?

This is just plain bad, especially for a movie with as much staying power among hardcore horror fans as this one has had. And it doesn't even have the affectionately-cheesy angle of something like, say, Street Trash to make it worth watching by anyone who doesn't have nostalgia for it. *.