“What's in the Basket?” It was this very day on April 2nd 1982 that audiences finally discovered the answer to that question, and did indeed find out was in the basket, as Frank Henenlotter's (director and writer of such delights as Frankenhooker, Brain Damage and Bad Biology) low budget, debut slasher film “Basket Case” screened in American cinema's for the first time. Branded as a slasher/comedy, Basket Case for me is somewhat of an extremely rare and unique, wait for it, monster... on he surface and upon first viewing of the film, it's grubby, gross-out, totally off the wall and gory, of course all very typical tropes you would most definitely expect to find within the horror genre. However Basket Case offers that little something extra, and hidden away behind a rough and rugged façade, is actually a touching story of brothers, and most importantly, family. Shot in a neon lit, sleazy and deprived NYC on locations such as 42nd Street before the New York clean up, the streets were filled with high mounds of litter and waste, hookers, junkies and porno theatres, live sex shows and so on, making the perfect backdrop for a tale like Basket Case. The film tells the story of Duane Bradley (Kevin Van Hentenryck) who carries around with him a basket that contains his grotesquely deformed Siamese twin brother Belial (which Kevin Van Hentenryck provided the face cast and performed the voice effects for) Revenge is the name of the game for the twins, because when they were younger, the brother's father hired a group of doctors and had them separated against the will of them both, casting Belial out and leaving him to die, believing him to be nothing more than just a freakish monster. The two check into the grimy Broslin Hotel and plot to track down the doctors responsible for the separation job and gain vengeance. I guess we all handle rejection in our own little ways.
Basket Case is well and truly up there on the B movie spectrum, and over the years it has gained itself quite the following, becoming somewhat iconic and stand out in the eyes of horror and film fans alike, it even spawned two sequels, which to me are just as strong, if not better than the original. Now that really isn't too bad a feat at all considering the way the first film was made. Initially starting out with a $35,000 budget, Basket Case had pretty much a non existent and non consistent budget that during production, scenes were filmed and the budget would run out completely, so completed scenes would be shown to potential investors for more money, and once a bit more cash had been secured as a result, they would continue and film the next scenes within the film using the new found money, this stop start affair would be on going until shooting had wrapped. Yes you can totally tell the film was made on a shoe string budget, but again for me that just adds to the overall charm of it, and during the scene when Duane first checks into the hotel, he pulls out a wad of cash to pay for a room, supposedly that wad was the entire budget for the film at that point in time of shooting, that might give you a good gauge of how tight and limited things were for the cast and crew. But as with all aspiring artists, actors, creatives or whatever it might be, you do have to start somewhere and just make things happen regardless of the tools and resources available, and even on occasions filming without a permit.. which did happen, one scene where Duane is running around the city nude, and the other was whilst on location at the Statue of Liberty, the crew figured by the time they were asked to leave, they'd have the footage they needed, a nice little way to cut corners I would say. Speaking of limitations, the crew itself was very limited in terms of numbers and hands on deck, so when it came to the film's credits, fake names were used instead of just repeating the same names over and over again, now that is gorilla film making at its absolute finest.
As with most films of the horror genre, particularly the ones from the 1980s, Basket Case features some very cheesy practical effects and a pretty solid supply of fake blood to hand also. In terms of the effects work, it is admittedly very cheap looking, but at the same time it kind of works within the film, and at the end of the day, as I said before, this movie was made with what was available at the time, so it wasn't really going to look totally fantastic and pretty anyway, but for me I think this just adds to that nasty, sleazy tone the film has already. If you are not at all familiar with the Basket Case films, you may be wondering what does Belial, the monstrous, basket bound creature look like? Well folks, Belial is kind of just a big blob of flesh, with a face and claws really, he ain't much of a talker either, and just makes grunts and groaning sounds, but man, he sure does have one powerful ass scream!. And he does have eyes that glow blood red once in a while. Oh, and by the way, he is able to communicate with his brother via the mind, which leads to some very amusing interactions throughout the film. Brought to life through a mix of stop motion and puppetry, Belial in my own humble opinion is truly one of the most underrated screen monsters of all time. Which I think is down to the fact that we are actually in some instances made to feel sorry for the poor little guy, at least until he starts shredding people to pieces, then maybe not, though some of it, definitely warranted. A favourite moment of mine involves Belial going completely berserk, and start trashing the hotel room, the scene makes the most of stop motion animation, and is very humorous to watch, of course it is very clunky, and by no stretch is is it perfect and polished, but again you just have to sit back and appreciate it for what it is, also it just works for the film so damn well, plus the animation on this scene was done by director Henenlotter himself, who had never done that sort of thing prior to Basket Case, but yet again, it worked for the film, and was made as best as possible under the circumstances. So I would like to say bravo sir. In terms of special effect makeup for the film, it was done half and half by Kevin Haney (Altered States, Poltergeist 3, Cocoon, The Adams Family) and John Caglione Jr. Haney, between projects, had a small window of time to sculpt and design the beast that would become Belial, but soon dropped out of the film to work on the 1981 picture Wolfen. Leaving Caglione Jr to take over the reigns and add the finishing touches, Caglione Jr does also have quite an impressive catalogue of work, and has worked on movies like C.H.U.D, Manhunter, The Blob (1988), Dick Tracey, Chaplin, The Irishman, and many more. You may also be surprised to know that he was also the dude behind Heath Ledger's Joker makeup on The Dark Knight. Belial vs Batman vs Joker..now there's an idea...
Shot entirely on 16mm, Basket Case on first glance is raw, but if you stick with it, it really is something more, taking it beyond that, it's just another cheap video nasty almost type of film, it has substance, bringing in the old cliché but extremely true, you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover, but portraying the subject in such a different way, and as the trilogy develops, a whole new bunch of so called freaks come into play, and you do sort of ask the question in a weird way, are they really monsters at all? It honestly progresses to heights you would not believe in the follow up films. Basket Case you could argue, is a film that falls victim to just that, it looks damn nasty that is for sure, but having watched them all now a few times, I have to say, they grow on you like mould, they are cheap, low budget, but highly entertaining gems. The original Basket Case's fame boomed during the VHS era, circulating on the market, becoming an underground cult hit. So naturally when it came to the sequels, they were given a bigger budget to work with, so the quality did improve, but remained very much so in line stylistically with their predecessor, wacky, bloody, demented and all round fun. The over the top nature of Basket Case for me is extremely loveable, Frank Henenlotter is a self confessed exploitation film maker and he sure did exploit the shit out of elements in this movie, so much in fact that during the filming of one of the more explicit death scenes involving Terri Susan Smith (portrays Sharon and actually wore a wig for the whole film as she was bald at the time) crew members became so outraged and offended that they walked out during the production. The same thing would go on to happen on the set of Frank Henenlotter's next film Brain Damage, well the guy states he's an exploitation film maker, so making something that can clear the set and spark rage amongst the crew is probably a compliment in his eyes...or quite possibly a warning that he needs help..
Upon completion of Basket Case it was decided by the distributors that it would make the perfect midnight film, but only if the film was a comedy, director Henenlotter argued that the film was already a comedy and not meant to be taken seriously, but the powers that be insisted on removing all of the blood and gore ridden moments, and naturally this bloodless cut bombed and did not perform very well at all in the theatres. After a number of failed screenings, Henenlotter fought tooth and nail to get his vision onto the screen and show the film as intended totally uncut, this though was proving in vain, until a drive-in film called Joe Bob Briggs came to the rescue. Briggs was happy to host and preview the film at its Dallas opening, however he was told that the version he would be seeing was going to be the cut down version and not uncut. This just did not sit well with him and he outright refused to screen the film should it be the watered down cut. This small act of defiance ultimately is what led to Basket Case getting the release it warranted, complete and intact, no cuts, and as intended to be seen by audiences. Soon after this, the film started to be shown everywhere in its full form, and to the disbelief of Frank Henenlotter, Basket Case was becoming a successful hit.
Cast for the film, as with a lot of first time feature length efforts, consisted of a lot of untried and first time actors, but luckily for Frank Henenlotter his best friend at the time worked at the American Academy Of Dramatic Arts, and was able to hand select and cast actors that were attending the school at the time, and as luck would have it, this is where leading man Kevin Van Hentenryck was discovered and later cast in what would be his feature length debut. Other names of cast members included Beverly Bonner (featured in all of Henenlotter's films, Massage Parlour Murders, There is No 13), Terri Susan Smith (first and I believe last acting role, but was part of a punk band called the Tattooed Vegetables) and as for the rest of the cast, Basket Case would be their only credit as an actor, depending which side of the fence you are sat on, this probably ain't bad news at all. As the film series progressed though, the cast would get some very noteworthy additions and become part of this spectacularly silly and warped bonanza. Names such as Annie Ross the British-American singer and actress, Kathryn Meisle, Jason Evers, Leonard Jackson, David Emge, Matt Mitler and many more. Usually film trilogy's tend to decline, but as mentioned earlier, Basket Case is one of those that is an exception, each instalment tops the last, and just when you think the madness just cannot go any further, it well and truly does, but in the best way possible. You just have to see it to believe it. And that folks brings down the curtain for this write up, I hope to have divulged the contents of the Basket concisely, and piqued the interest of those who are into the same kind of madness I am. Basket Case for me is a must see, and I would recommend it highly to anyone, especially those out there that enjoy their low budget and wacky films. Really all of this is just touching the surface, there is an awful lot more to know about this particular set of films, but I shall leave that to you to explore. Let me just state that with Basket Case and its sequels, it is a matter of only seeing the tip of the iceberg, on face value they are without a shadow of doubt just pure garbage, yet if you stick with them, you'll learn to love them for what they are. Horror movies with moral lessons? Now that to me is special..
Thanks again everybody for reading, please feel free to feedback what you think, and let me know what you think about the Basket Case movies.
-Otto.
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