Three Heads: Basket Case 3- The Progeny

Let's wrap this crazy mess up with the third film, shall we?  In this film, we continues the story of the 'freak' house and their quest for privacy.  Meanwhile, things are not all that rosy between the two brothers.  I guess being pulled away from your girlfriend and sowed to someone's torso could do that.  Thankfully, there's not another multi-year gap between the films, allowing the continuity to be a bit smoother.  Just like the last film, this movie is a crazy as hell and actually goes even further.  Is a blatant turn towards freaky camp a good idea?  Will our hero get another dramatic and unmentioned haircut between films?  Find out all of these facts and more in my review of...

The film begins with a five minute explanation of what happened in Part 2.  Wow, you couldn't do that any better, huh?  All this says is two things: we need to fill time and we think that nobody saw the second movie.  The film proper begins with our hero being let out of a psychiatric holding cell...which is apparently in the attic.  Several months have gone by and he's still not exactly trusted.  While he's been gone, more 'freaks' have joined the household, including a frog-like one.  That's...random, movie.  In addition to that, the freaky torso sex has led to a pregnancy!  Our hero is taken on the bus with the rest of the residents to go see Uncle Walter and deliver the child.  Naturally, she waits until the torso-lady is due to give birth in mere weeks.  Yeah, you used to be a doctor too, idiot!  On the trip, the 'freaks' partake in a sing-along, even playing some big band music while they do so!  Hey Webster's, I found the true definition of the word 'surreal' for you!  During this time, the movie focuses on a weird old man, his friendship with the Sheriff and his unseen son.  Gee, I wonder if these two things are unrelated?!?

The freaks stop in town for some supplies, running into the Sheriff (whom the woman charms) and his daughter.  They arrive at the house, meet the doctor and say hi to his son.  As it turns out, his son is a giant mass of flesh with 11 arms covering his torso at random points.  Oh yeah, his face is apparently unaffected...somehow.  After finally convincing the woman to let him out of the straight jacket, our hero immediately jumps out the window and escapes.  You're made of fail in this movie, lady!  He runs over to find the Sheriff's daughter while the doctor readies the woman...ish thing for birth.  They bring in Belial to see the even take place, but he freaks out when they play the 'doctors separating the brothers' scene for a third time and attacks the doctor.  He survives, but there is still a birthing to be done!  The 'freaks' manages to give birth the baby...or make that babies.  Defying all logic, the thing gives birth to a dozen babies that all look like Belial!  The 'freaks' celebrate with a loud party, which apparently gets a noise complaint called in.  Some Deputies break in, find the people and get scared by the recent-mother...and shoot her.  They decided to take the babies with them as well...which is a bad idea.

Over at the jail, our hero shows up and gets arrested when they realize who he is.  The daughter plays dominatrix with him for a while, before the dad puts a stop to it & the Deputies arrive with babies in tow.  The 'freaks' don't take this well and set up a plan to get the babies back.  Belial breaks in and kills most of the men, giving the movie some random and trippy effects to boot!  He has to flee when he is shot, but he has his brother with him.  They plan revenge against the Sheriff, but he holds his ground and calls for a face-off with Belial.  Why?  Because he accidentally shot his daughter in the struggle and blames the torso.  Belial, meanwhile, awakens in the XI-armed man's lab where he is presented with a weapon: a robot suit!  Yeah, you read that right, people!  He tests it out by killing the two Deputies from earlier (they were sent home) in bloody fashion.  The face-off between Sheriff and robot-armed torso is both freaky and ridiculous.  The torso wins the fight at first, but turns his back on his foe.  Thanks to an assist from his brother, he kills the sheriff and gets most of his babies back (a couple died).  In the aftermath, the 'freaks' invade a Geraldo-wannabe show and make a public stance: you're with freaks or against them.  The End.

This movie is...well, completely insane.  I mean, what part of this needs to be explained?  The lead character is a man in a straight jacket with a torso for a brother.  We get a houseful of 'freaks' who go to a small, Southern town to let a different torso give birth.  When they are wronged, they wreak bloody revenge on the men behind it.  If you want a good comparison for this movie (really this and Basket Case 2), look at Freaked.  It's a weird, silly movie with lots of deformed people and it's played for laughs.  Thankfully, this film is marginally-better than that Alex Winters (aka the other guy from Bill & Ted) film.  The effects are on about the same level as the second film though, which is a bit of a disappointment.  We do get more gore in this movie and some freaky stuff like a man having his head twisted backwards.  Like a lot of these movies, you don't see that kind of stuff until the last act.  As far as recommending this film, it's hard to do.  Most people will find it too bizarre for words, while others may find the gore scenes to be very dramatic and freakish (pun intended).  If you are a fan of the stuff I like, you'll get some enjoyment out of the film...but will ultimately not be a fitting successor for Basket Case.

Up next, I turn towards a very different film trilogy.  The first film involves young girls, menstruation and werewolves.  Stay tuned...