Poor Bastards of Cinema: Basket Case 2

Stepping away from animals and more recent fare, let's take a look at a Poor Bastard from the late '80s/early '90s.

At the beginning of Basket Case 2, the previously-conjoined twins are in the hospital after their fall eight years earlier...er, I mean, hours ago.  A cop is assigned to watch the door, since the pair are implicated in a few murders.  The young man wakes up from his coma and frees Baliel in order to aid in their escape.  After the guard chats up a nurse, he vigilantly returns to his post...and is choked to death.

Unlike a lot of figures in situations of this nature, the man did not 'set up' his death by saying mean things about freaks or anything like that.  He was just doing his job- so he had to die!

Next up, a man learns a simple lesson: never do your job while Clint Howard is nearby.  Stay tuned...

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...

Three Heads: Basket Case 2

Things change over the years and so do people.  Such is this case with today's film: Basket Case 2.   In the time between the two films- 8 or 9 years, depending on your source- I'm convinced that the film's director- Frank Henenlotter- went insane.  Why do I say that?  Because this film is such a direct, polar shift away from the tone of the last film.  That one was about brotherly love and featured one mutant among the arguably-weirder humans.  A natural escalation of the series for the sequel would be to introduce a second mutant with a similar mutation, perhaps even a second human brother for them.  The film does just that, but decides to throw in a shit-ton (a real measure, by the way) more crazy things too!  Why?  This feels like 'I had six or seven ideas that couldn't become their own films, so I'll just put them in here.'  Does this craziness ruin the movie?  Find out in my review of...

The film begins right where the last one ended- with our heroes dead in the street.  As it turns out, they're actually alive and have made quite a stir.  The pair end up at the hospital and the news covers the event, something that gets the attention of an old woman and her young companion.  At the hospital, the 'normal' brother is covered in bandages, but is pulled awake by unheard voices.  He retrieves his half-sized, but full-brother Belial and they kill the guard.  The pair casually walk down the hallway as guards and nurses look just far enough away to not see them in their peripheral vision.  This is either good satire or shitty writing.  The pair wander into a station wagon that pulls up and leave.  Some time has apparently passed as our hero wakes up, only to see a cadre of deformed people in front of him.  Naturally, he decides to pretend that didn't happen and go back to sleep.  When he wakes up again, the old lady and girl from before are there.  They explain that the woman houses those that we would call 'freaks' and treats them like normal people.  No offense, but one of them looks like Mac The Night from the old McDonalds' toy line- that's not normal!  We are introduced to the players of the B-Plot, which are a newspaper editor and his newest hire.  He tells her that she needs to get the story on the 'freak brothers' for the paper.  She calls up a weirdo who owns a freak show & he claims to have Belial.  Hmm...

Things get interesting back at the house as we learn that one of the 'freaks' is another torso with arms...but this one is female.  Well, to be fair, it has a female face- who's to say whether it has any lady parts at all!  In the meantime, the old lady goes to see the freak show owner and sees his collection of dolls and figurines posting as real freaks.  She leaves, but forgets to take a big basket with her.  Yeah, Belial kills the guy.  A bit later, the reporter shows up and finds the body.  This drives her to get her cameraman and look more into the story, but also consider hiring a private detective she knows.  Eventually, they discover that there was an old woman who wrote about praising 'freaks' for their differences and that she used to house them.  The woman goes to see her, finding out that the house is well-fortified.  In a complete Big-Lipped Alligator Moment, she hears a noise, sees only a gargoyle and walks off.  As we learn, however, this was actually another 'freak' who just looks like a gargoyle.  Thanks- that added nothing and that character only shows up once more in a crowd shot.  In his time at the house, apparently a few months, the brothers have not been as friendly towards each other as before.  Yes, I realize how relative that statement is.  Our hero pulls Belial away from his new lady friend for a talk and heads back inside, inadvertently running into the reporter.  Time to kill the bitch, I guess.

Despite the lackadaisical efforts made, the woman figures out that the brothers are there and sends her photographer to get pictures.  He breaks in, only to find himself in a trap and killed.  This scares her into talking to the detective, whose first plan is to threaten the brothers and call for a meeting.  They end up in a bar together and our hero appears to wanting to leave the house.  This, however, is a trap and the bar is actually full of the house's residents...just wearing various sizes of masks.  After they kill him and before they can explain how they possibly pull this off, they show up at the reporter's house and threaten her a bit.  After taunting her with the mystery of Belial's presence, they finally let the half-person twist up her face (see above) and leave.  Wow, Mr. Henenlotter also saw Freaks...like everyone else.  The whole clan goes home and celebrates this murder spree by throwing a party at home.  During this, we get one of the most disturbing scenes ever: two muscly-torsos having what they claim to be sex.  Eww, eww and double eww!  On the human side of things, our hero finally gets intimate with the young woman, only to learn that she has a weird snake baby living in her chest.  He freaks out and accidentally knocks her out a window.  Panicking, he grabs Belial and sews him to the side of the chest where he was originally removed as the other 'freaks' arrive and the film ends.

What the hell was that?!?  How do you go from 0 to 600 like that?!?  Seriously, a little low-budget rip-off of Dr. Phibes with a killer torso turns into a film about 'freaks' lashing out at those that hate them.  Why?  The movie escalates in a really ridiculous way by adding so many mutants in giant, latex masks.  To be fair, they look interesting.  Although, as one outside observer (my brother) noted, the things can barely move.  Geez, that reminds me of 'Zombie Dad' in Amityville Dollhouse!  These things are just freaky and distracting in every scene that they are in.  The story involving the two brothers is pretty interesting.  However, the producers clearly put some much of the budget into the other freaks that they are constantly hogging the spotlight.  There are a couple of things I have to note as well here.  The time gap could easily have been addressed by having the characters be in comas or something, but they chose to make the film take place mere months later instead.  Incidentally, they also re-designed the Belial outfit for this movie.  How exactly did that fall change the thing's DNA, guys?  Aside from all these gripes, the movie is an interesting bit of eccentric film-making.  I can't recommend it as much as the original film though- it's just too damn strange!

Up next, I close out the Basket Case trilogy with a film that manages to out-weird the last one.  One word: robot.  Stay tuned...

Three Heads: Basket Case

Does the name Frank Henenlotter ring a bell?  Unless you're a weirdo like me (hello, half my audience), it will not.  The man is a very fringe director who has only made a handful of movies.  However, three of them are weird as hell and connected, so let's talk about them.  His debut film was Basket Case, a tale of brotherly love, doctors and murder.  Not the trio you usually see together, but let's just roll with it.  The movie is also the breakout role for Kevin Van Hentenryck.  Yes, that Kevin Van Hentenryck.  Seriously though, this movie has a serious cult status, so I need to be careful how much I mock it.  Will it live up to nearly 30 years of internet and fan-boy hype?  Find out in my review of...

The film begins with a doctor running into his house, which is apparently located in the woods somewhere.  Look out- the Big Bad Wolf is going to get you!  He makes a desperate call to a colleague to warn them that someone from their past is out to get them.  His phone goes dead, however, and he's killed by an unseen creature as the title card appears.  We cut to New York City where a young man is walking around with a giant basket.  He is bothered by a bunch of people as he walks around Times Square.  He eventually ends up in a dive hotel full of low-class people.  Their eyes raise when he pulls out a wad of bills to pay for his room.  As time goes by, we see him talking to himself.  Hmm, that can't be good.  There are also weird sounds coming from the basket as well.  When asked about the contents of the basket by someone, he dodges the question and simply says that it's clothes.  The neighbors are a small set of characters on their own, including the landlord who looks like Mario, the greedy old man down the hall and the prostitute with a heart of silver.  As it turns out, our hero is in NYC for some sort of plan.  His first act is to go to a doctor, speak to him and leave.  He stops to talk to the flirty receptionist, but a voice in his head seems to cause him ire.  That night, the woman leaves and a basket shows up in the doctor's office.  Inside, there is a small mass of knotted muscle with a face and claw that kills him.  O-kay.

As it turns out, the thing has been in there the whole time.  What is it?  We don't know for a while, so let's make do with the mystery.  Our hero skips his plan, lies to the thing and goes off on a date with the receptionist.  At the hotel, the greedy man breaks in and tries to steal the wad of cash.  Unfortunately for him, the creature is angry and kills him for his offense.  The struggle ends up with the man dead in his own room, however, and the police are called.  After running off on his date, our hero is questioned by the police about the noises from his room and the contents of the basket.  Luckily for him, the creature is not there when the basket is opened.  In the meanwhile, we learn that the doctor from Scene 1 had called the dead doctor and another woman.  At a party, our hero gets drunk and talks to the prostitute.  He tells her that the thing in his basket is actually his brother and that they were conjoined twins.  This sets up a flashback where the dad hires three doctors to separate the pair after every hospital he's gone to has denied his request.  The scene is traumatic as the kid is grabbed and the pair of physically-separated.  I hope you like this scene, because it shows up in Part 2 and 3 as well.  The twin was dumped out in the trash, but rescued by the boys' aunt.  When she died, they went to NYC to get revenge.

Do I like this film because it's a freaky rip-off of The Abominable Dr. Phibes?  No, but it helps a little.  The brothers face some internal strife as our hero wants to get out of the revenge racket when this is all done, but his brother doesn't want him to go.  Speaking of revenge, they track down the third doctor (not to be confused with John Pertwee), who turns out to be a vet.  I guess you can't be picky when you're desperate.  She has a pair of nurses that are fat redheads with matching casts.  Um, why?  Anyhow, the duo kill the doctor and push her head into her drawer full of scalpels.  Right on cue, the nurses come in and find her with a face full of cutlery.  Back at the hotel, there is more strife and the pair argue out loud.  Things get worse when the brother wanders out through the window in the middle of night and goes to see the girlfriend.  By the way, if you wanted a scene with Kevin walking naked through the street, you're in luck...you freak.  This is presented as a dream with Kevin's character, although it's obviously the brother.  Anyhow, the thing breaks in and makes whoopie with the girl, apparently killing her in the process.  The brother shows up and takes him away, which leads to them arguing at the hotel.  They struggle and both fall out the window, with our hero being choked the whole time.  The film ends with them falling to the ground dead....or does it?

This movie is good, but is definitely an acquired taste.  The whole thing is low-budget, strange and full of odd characters.  To me, that's appealing, but I'm certainly not the norm!  A lot of the special effects don't hold up well, especially the movie's use of stop-motion effects.  It's a little silly to use them in 1981, but so did Clash of the Titans.  I guess that's good company, huh?  The acting is about as well as you get from low-budget movies of this ilk.  I will say that Kevin does a good job of acting naive and silly.  This is definitely a star-making role for him, even if his acting stopped for about 12 years after 1992 and hasn't exactly been all that much since.  The director has crafted an interesting tale here that works as a nice slice of low-budget, NYC film-making.  Does he match up to Larry Cohen?  No, but they're certainly different creatures entirely.  If you like movies like this, you should take it upon yourself to see this movie too.  If you have, you already know what I'm talking about.

Next up, the sequel that took nine years to arrive.  In that time, the director appears to have gone insane.  Stay tuned...