Runtime: 91 minutes
Directed by: Frank Henenlotter
Starring: Kevin Van Hentenryck, Terri Susan Smith, Beverly Bonner, Robert Vogel, Diana Browne
From: Basket Case Productions
Somehow, this was one I had never seen in full before last night. That is despite my tastes, my amusement at the Bad New York City of Old (boy is it ever bad, between the run-down buildings and the scene filmed in the seediest parts of Times Square) and my enjoying director Frank Henenlotter as a talking head in various documentaries.
By now most probably know the basics of the plot; after all, I’ve known Belial’s appearance for years. Duane Bradley carries around his massively deformed formerly conjoined twin brother Belial in a large wicker basket. They reside in Glens Falls, New York but travel to NYC for revenge on the doctors who unwillingly separate them. The deformed half of the pair is the fact the evil of the two that still share a psychic bond and Belial is NOT a fan of Duane getting a girlfriend…
The film was exactly as expected. It was a low budget affair where the acting usually wasn’t great (OK, it’s nominally quite bad; that even goes for lead Kevin Van Hentenryck, although he DID have a magnificent mane of hair…) and some locations were obviously something else IRL-I’m looking at you, “doctor’s office.” Those aren’t really demerits in this case as I understand how the production had to be. Basket Case was a grimy, trashy picture which was darkly humorous and is the sort of cult horror movie which should please more genre fans due to its memorable characters (Casey the prostitute was my favorite), possible hidden themes (is Belial Duane’s id? I did feel sympathy for the leads) and believable effects that brought Belial to life.
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