In New York City, a simple young man named Duane rents out a room in the Hotel Broslin. He settles down and tends to keep to himself, which catches the attention of the other tenants. Well, that and the oversized basket he seems to keep with him at all times. Sooner than later, we discover why Duane and the item seem inseparable; it contains his deranged and deformed twin brother Belial. Both brothers have come to the Big Apple in order to wreak havoc on the people who separated them when they were younger.
Well, I've approached the final day of this blog, and I figured I'd go out on a high note, though I guess that might be entirely subjective to say the least. Basket Case was the debut film from director Frank Henenlotter, who went on to do other notorious horror-comedies like Frankenhooker and Brain Damage. This one is usually considered to be his best and is probably the most famous of them (though Steve Martin's "praise" of Frankenhooker might have pushed that up higher in some people's eyes). The film is ridiculous, but somehow works. It's a very campy, but very fun horror-comedy, with a monster that you probably won't forget any time soon.
The actors definitely know they're in a movie about what essentially looks like a killer silly putty monster, and they decide to have some fun. The scene with Duane (who looks remarkably like Ug from Critters...or is it the other way around?) drunkenly telling another tenant about his backstory and his siamese twin is pretty god damn funny, mostly due to how sort of nonchalantly he tells part of the story. Heck, we do get a flashback scene that shows how the twins were separated, and it has a surprisingly serious tone, most likely embodying the real life trauma that some twins may have to go through once they are their own person per se. The blood and kills in the film are all fun, though you can tell they weren't working with the largest budget they could have had. There are also scenes involving Belial that are done with stop motion which look AWFUL, but you'll end laughing more than being annoyed with it.
Basket Case is a fun little film, and one that I wouldn't mind adding to my DVD collection down the line. I know they made two sequels to this as well (both directed by Henenlotter), and I'd definitely be interested in checking those out too. Recommended if you've got a pretty good sense of humor and like your horror movies with some cheese on top.
Well, that's it. Seriously. Thanks a lot to any of you who commented, read, suggested films, etc. I really enjoyed doing this for the blog, and I wouldn't be opposed to doing another one next year either. I've had thoughts about doing 30 comedies I've never seen for the month of April, but I'll have to see what I'm doing then. For now, I leave you with a few notes about changes or whatnot that were made to the list and why.
-Laid to Rest was originally on, but was taken down by Netflix the day that I started the blog.
-Frogs was originally in place of Waxwork, but after suffering through Thankskilling and Shark Attack 2, I needed a break from killer animal movies. That and I've heard Frogs sucks BAD.
-The Prowler was at #8 or #9, but alas, not available.
-Considered doing Hellraiser 5-9. Might review them next year.
-Antichrist was suggested to me by quite a few folks, but I'll confess I'm not a Lars Von Trier fan. I'll probably watch it on my own and do a review on either here or Facebook.
-Others I considered, but that didn't make the viewing list (mostly due to time):
The Fog
Session 9
Squirm
Warlock
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer
Misery
Splinter (own it on DVD, never watched it)
The Wild Hunt (watched the last 30 or so minutes, felt like it'd be cheating)
Scarecrows
Subspecies
Monkey Shines (see Wild Hunt)
Wolfen
The Thing Below
I'm sure I'll watch most of these on my own, but for now, the horror blog is closed. Happy Halloween everyone!
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