Basket Case [Special Edition]

Rating:
Summary: Ludicrous Fun!
Review: Basket Case delights me to no end. Its cheesy special effects, terrible acting, and absurd plot keep my friends and I laughing almost non-stop. The fact that I am almost certain that the director and cast knew it was terrible pleases me even more. It has an almost Troma-esque feel to it (and if you're considering buying this movie, you know who Troma is). If the movie weren't enough, Something Weird Video, in their usual fashion, heaps on a slew of extra features. The documentary with the director and some random guy revisiting locations from the movie is thoroughly enjoyable. Although, the scenes from the cable access show that Beverly Bonner (an actress in the film) did has to be one of the most unfunny and revolting things I've ever scene. Despite that (or possibly because of it), this DVD is definitely worth purchasing if you are a fan of schlock horror (and you know who you are).

Rating:
Summary: Ludicrous Fun!
Review: Basket Case delights me to no end. Its cheesy special effects, terrible acting, and absurd plot keep my friends and I laughing almost non-stop. The fact that I am almost certain that the director and cast knew it was terrible pleases me even more. It has an almost Troma-esque feel to it (and if you're considering buying this movie, you know who Troma is). If the movie weren't enough, Something Weird Video, in their usual fashion, heaps on a slew of extra features. The documentary with the director and some random guy revisiting locations from the movie is thoroughly enjoyable. Although, the scenes from the cable access show that Beverly Bonner (an actress in the film) did has to be one of the most unfunny and revolting things I've ever scene. Despite that (or possibly because of it), this DVD is definitely worth purchasing if you are a fan of schlock horror (and you know who you are).

Rating:
Summary: Basket Case
Review: Basket Case is a truly original movie.It is not your standard horror flick.That is why I like it even more; originality is always a plus.The plot is really interesting; Frank Henenlotter did a good job.The dialogue is standard horror dialogue; which you expect.The acting is absolutely horrendous.I didn't really get into the movie until it was the first 20 or so minutes in.The killer is different and sometimes fun to laugh at.The gore is really good in this film.This film is like a horror/comedy movie.If your a horror fan you will get a kick out of this one.I can't really come to give it higher than a six; though.If your a horror fan then you should check it out; if not just wait till it comes on T.V.

In the quiet town of Glens Falls, a very nervous Dr. Lifflander is suddenly attacked by....well... something.Something very small, misshapen, and very mad.Something with a swollen claw-like hand which rips the good doctor's face off.Basket Case is about a young man who was born with a Siamese twin attached to his side.At an early age, the monstrous twin was surgically removed, but lived to deeply resent his cut-off day.His normal looking brother goes to New York, carrying a large basket is the hideous twin.Neither brother can rest until they avenge their surgical separation by killing the doctors responsible.

"Quirky horror on no budget."
Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)
Ken Hanke

Rating:
Summary: A Chilling But Twisted Classic...
Review: BASKET CASE is one of those movies that you tend to remember even if you've only seen it once. The chills are there; the scares are just right; the blood and gore nearly match each other. Plus, you've got pretty decent actors in the movie, some providing humor and some providing some reality. Casey is my favorite...she's beautiful, busty...and she's got a heart (even though she's a hooker!). But the real show belongs to that little deformed guy in the basket...Belial!

This movie follows the trials and travels of Duane Bradley and his siamese twin deformed and menacing brother Belial. They were once joined at the side...but some doctors separated them, and now years later, they want some payback...cold-blooded revenge in the least sense! Belial is every bit as angry at these doctors as Duane, but when Duane falls in love with a coy and busty receptionist (Terri Susan Smith), things between the brothers get very tense...leading up to a climactic finale!

BASKET CASE spawned two sequels, which in and of itself is a feat that many horror movies have mastered...but some have not. Although the sequels were not as good, BASKET CASE remains a classic in a pure sense. Every bit as scary and every bit as attention-grabbing as the little monster on the keep case!

Rating:
Summary: SICK, SICK, SICK, SICK
Review: Basket Case is WAY out there and so sick that the mouths of those watching it fall open in disbelief. This movie was made outside of Hollywood; the sets consists of a seedy flophouse (not a Hollywood soundstage designed to look like a flophouse), a 42nd street grindhouse movie theater, and what looks like an abandoned building that is supposed to be a doctor's office. The actors and extras look like they were not saleried but worked for a chance to be on film and/or a bottle of wine. There was not much money to be spent on this movie. Instead, this horror masterpiece relied on imagination and a twisted sense of humor to make it work. The story concerns a pair of separated Simease twins. Duane, the normal (normal as in being able to walk on his own and not scare people with his looks) carries his brother around in a wicker basket. The bother looks like a big glob of putty with claws and teeth. Their goal is to exact revenge on the doctor's who separated them. There is lots of blood shed, horrendous acting by non pros, and a femme fatale with the most ridiculous hairstyle ever put on celluloid.

Rating:
Summary: Twisted Classic
Review: Basket Case tells the heartwarming story of siamese twins who were surgically seperated. They did not wish to be apart so they take revenge on those responsible. Did I forget to mention that one of the twins is a murderous, hideously deformed freak that the "normal" half carries around in a basket? The film is a twistedly original excursion into the weird and is full of nice graphic bloodletting. It also is darkly comedic and I would expect many laughs when Belial finally emerges from his basket in some of the worst stop motion animation ever. Basket Case will be a welcome and often viewed addition to any DVD library.

Rating:
Summary: A stunningly prescient rumination on Euro-American relations
Review: Every generation or so, a movie appears that redefines the boundaries of the medium, that turns the status quo on its collective head and brings about a paradigm shift in broader social and academic circles. Basket Case is one such film. Released to lukewarm attention at the Cannes Film Festival in 1982, the movie's overarching theme -- two separated brothers engulfed in a love-hate relationship because of their once conjoined state -- seemed out of place in the height of the Cold War. Yet the Berlin Wall ultimately fell, much as a doctor's scalpel separated the film's mismatched protagonists. Who knew then that the brothers' subsequent search for justice, marred by periodic distrust and misunderstanding, would so aptly serve as a post-glasnost roadmap for diplomats on both sides of the Atlantic? After all, Europe and America were separated, too, if by revolution rather than a surgeon's knife. If the thinkers at the Project for a New American Century and the French parliament had heeded this movie's cautionary tale, we wouldn't be involved in such current frivolities as "freedom fries."

But I digress. While this film was unjustly shut out of Oscar honors in 1982, someday Kevin VanHentenryck may well receive the award his masterwork most richly deserves: The Nobel Peace Prize.

Rating:
Summary: Twisted tale of brotherly love in EC mode!
Review: For anyone who could not sit through BASKET CASE 2 or 3, I strongly urge you to see this movie! This is a hirlarious, original and demented film, and unlike its two sequels, it's also intelligent! You will never be as disturbed by cheesy special effects the way you will be by the ones in this nasty classic! Henenlotter is a genius (as evidenced by his other midnight classic, BRAIN DAMAGE), but he should never do sequels. Forget THE HOUSE OF FREAKS and THE PROGENY and save a space on your shelf for this monster movie gem. You won't know whether to laugh or scream at little Belial, the thing in the basket.

Rating:
Summary: THE HORROR OF IT ALL!
Review: I give just about every movie a chance...including "Basket Case". Unfortunately, it wastes its chance and is nothing more than low budget schlock. It's pretty sad when a horror movie made in the '80s uses stop motion photography to show its monster moving around. The "monster" in this case is actually a deformed Siamese twin which was separated from his brother during childhood. His brother carries him around in a basket and feeds him hamburgers by the dozen. The brothers decide to track down the doctors responsible for their separation and kill them. Something like this needs good humor to make it watchable but instead it relies on you to find the concept itself so funny that it will keep you giddy throughout the film. It doesn't work and the viewer is left neither laughing nor scared. They're just bored.

Rating:
Summary: SICK! SICK! SICK!
Review: If you like your movies to be a little humurous, a little strange and a lot sick then this is definately for you. The premise behind this film is one of the most twisted that I have ever encountered, right up there with Texas chainsaw massacre. The effects have not aged well in terms of realism but somehow this adds to the overall wierdness of the movie. The acting is actually surprisingly good, Kevin VanHentenryck is particularly suited to his role as Duane, a man driven to murder because of his love for his hideously deformed brother, for whom he seeks revenge. So if you've got a soft mind and a hard stomach i'm sure you will enjoy this as much as I did.