Basket Case (1982) starring Kevin Van Hentenryck, Terri Susan Smith, Beverly Bonner, Robert Vogel directed by Frank Henenlotter Movie Review

Basket Case (1982)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Kevin Van Hentenryck in Basket Case (1982)

B is for Basket, Belial and B-Movie

A young man by the name of Duane Bradley (Kevin Van Hentenryck) rents a room in a seedy New York hotel full of freaks and weirdoes. With him he carries a large wicker basket which during the evening he feeds burgers to. But it is not a pet he carries around with him but his Siamese twin, a disfigured lump which his father and some dodgy doctors removed with out permission and left for dead. Now Duane and his Siamese twin, which goes by the name of Belial, are after revenge as they hunt down the doctors who performed the surgery.

Where do I start, well I feel a strange urge to mention double standards because as I watched the poorly acted, poorly scripted, poorly everything "Basket Case" I thought to myself how this movie is more loved than a TV movie as this is weak in comparison. In fact the opening scene to "Basket Case" establishes how weak it is with branches swaying in the dark meant to be foreboding, some terrible acting by the man playing a doctor, poor editing and some poor special effects when it comes to something with a clawed hand ripping the face off the doctor.

But "Basket Case" is one of those movies which delight in their tackiness from the poor acting to the poor editing and in a strange way it is the weakness of it compared to the more refined horror of a big studio movie which makes it entertaining. Basically as we watch Duane and Belial seek revenge amongst the freaks of New York the cheesiness of it is what makes you smile and keep on watching. This is definitely the case when we eventually come face to face with the deformed blob which is Belial

What this all boils down to is that "Basket Case" is technically weak in every single department yet the cheesiness of it all from the poor acting to the bad editing keeps you watching rather than the storyline or the initial mystery as to what Duane has in his basket.


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