Basket Case
| release date | April 2 1982 |
| studio | Image |
| director | Frank Henenlotter |
| writer | Frank Henenlotter |
| starring | Kevin Van Hentenryck, Terri Susan Smith, Beverly Bonner |
| rating | R |
| tagline | The Tenant In Room 7 Is Very Small, Very Twisted, And Very Mad |
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I got to say I enjoyed Basket Case it’s just some plain old crazy fun, when little old Baskie feels his twin brother having fun he gets upset and goes berserk and even the furniture ain’t safe, this is a must have for any bizzare cheesy horror movie collector.
This movie was fuckin awful.I hated it and wanted to kick the shit outta that goddamn puppet.
This movie rocks. Everything you can want.
I happened to come by a video on Youtube entitled “The Best Death Scene Ever” or something along the lines of that, and as you can guess, it showed a scene from “Basket Case” that I found absolutely hilarious, I showed it to my sister who also found it hysterical and my red-headed friend who found it even more so. From there my interest in “Basket Case” was born and I rushed right to Amazon and clicked “Add to basket” (no pun intended) and then watched.
“Basket Case” is a film that is impossible to score seriously. If I was doing a straight-faced techincal review, “Basket Case” would fail on every level, from the acting to the music, “Basket Case” is just bad. It would struggle to get half a star, let alone any at all! But, films are also (sometimes) about enjoying yourself and being entertained, which “Basket Case” thoroughly succeeds at doing so. It’s the ultimate so-bad-it’s-good movie and it had me in hysterics, especially the first time you see Biloul for the first time, which appears to be more like a failed pie made out of dough which happens to have some eyes and sharp teeth, it is something truly surreal to witness and it is completely hilarious!
The puppet has to be the highlight of the whole film for me. It’s almost like it has tried so hard to be scary that it just looks like some incredibly funny doughy mess! It was also equally funny (and charming) to see the puppet converted into stop-motion animation whenever it’s seen moving around on the floor. It’s really funny, yet surprising to see the effort that’s gone into such a bad film, and I appreciate it.
I’d say the second highlight would be the acting. It is stupendously bad and even the actors are funny to look. Especially the main character with his 60′s wig-like afro hair, and the “sexy”* Shirley bassey looky-likey prostitute and even the main characters love interest with her lion-like blonde wig. They’re all a joy to watch with their horribly bad acting abilities, it’s a wonder at how they got past the auditions (if they had any) they’re not even any good at screaming! (Which they do a lot!)
The screenplay (if you can call it that) is also really unintentionally funny. I read a quote from the director on the DVD extras which says something along the lines of “A good script shouldn’t take long to write, it’s the bad scripts that people slave over, that’s why “Basket Case” works because the script just seemed to fall into place” which I found really funny because the script is hideous! With every character he comes across asking “What’s in the basket?” My favourite being the receptionist saying “What’s in the basket? Easter eggs?” Why would someone carry around easter eggs in a wicker basket? At one stage he replies “Clothes”.
Their are some surprisingly touching scenes during the flashback with the lovely nanny being so understanding. However, even here their were some hilarious moments like operating on a young boy in the dining room and then sending him off the bed when they’re done!
But hey, “Basket Case” is no cinematic masterpiece, the DVD producers didn’t even bother to remaster the picture, so the picture and sound quality are in their full hideous glory, although I have heard it’s available on blu-ray now! Anyway “Basket Case” is a rare gem of horror, that I found thoroughly enjoyable and incredibly hilarious. Like with “Dead Alive” don’t take it seriously and you should have a brilliant and unforgettable night out.
*Just to point out that I did not find the prostitute sexy in the slightest, it just seemed to me that the makers intended her to be an attractive, seductive character, which they failed at doing at as well.