It's time for a new scoop of the 31 Flavors of Horror, and it's also Saturday, meaning it's my One A Week Review. What better way to celebrate both of these occasion than with the 42 St. Grindhouse superstar, Belial the deformed, murderous Siamese Twin in his debut, Basket Case, which was just released on Blu-Ray. I was lucky enough to get to review this for DVD Snapshot, but this is a fun, sleazy, playful flick I revisit every few years.C'mon, you know you want to!
Bonus: if you ever wondered what happened to the beautiful leading lady Terri Susan Smith, she now works as an artist who creates amazing, one-of-a-kind stone bowls.
31 Flavors of Horror #8:
Basket Case
Official Synopsis:
Carrying a mysterious wicker basket
wherever he goes, Duane Bradley checks into a flea-bag hotel in New
York's Times Square. What's in the basket, you ask? Why, it's Duane's
hideously misshapen Siamese twin brother, Belial! Together, they're
in town to hunt down and wreak havoc on the sleazy surgeons who
separated them...
With memorably gruesome scenes – such
as the screaming woman with the scalpels stuck in her face – and
some disturbing stop-motion animation, Frank Henenlotter's Basket
Case is one of the most beloved, cheerfully demented cult
classicks of all time. And now, for the very first time, Basket
Case has been remastered in high Definition, making Belial look
even ghastlier than ever before!
So go ahead and open the basket... if
you dare!
Our Take:
Calling this a “Cult Classick,” as
they do in the official synopsis, isn't really a typo. Basket Case
revels in it's cheap “grindhouse”aesthetic. Everything on-screen
is dilapidation and peeling paint. If nothing else, the footage of
seedy circa-1980 Times Square would make this a must watch.
This horror-comedy hybrid is about two
forcibly separated but psychically linked Siamese twins. Duane is
(Kevin Van Hentenryck) normal looking and naïve, but Belial is a
deformed, tiny monstrosity with disturbing eyes and outsized claws.
They gleefully go about “The Big Apple” tracking down the doctors
that split them up to get revenge. As Duane would like to be free to
pursue a girl and Belial requires constant attention and a wicker
basket, there's a running theme about striking out from one's family
and claiming independence. (Just because that family member is a
murderous, lumpen head with arms cleaved from the torso doesn't mean
a general audience can't relate to them.)
