Editorials
[It Came From the ’80s] Belial is a Total ‘Basket Case’
With horror industry heavy hitters already in place from the 1970s, the 1980s built upon that with the rise of brilliant minds in makeup and effects artists, as well as advances in technology. Artists like Rick Baker, Rob Bottin, Alec Gillis, Tom Woodruff Jr., Tom Savini, Stan Winston, and countless other artists that delivered groundbreaking, mind-blowing practical effects that ushered in the pre-CGI Golden Age of Cinema. Which meant a glorious glut of creatures in horror. More than just a technical marvel, the creatures on display in ‘80s horror meant tangible texture that still holds up decades later. Grotesque slimy skin to brutal transformation sequences, there wasn’t anything the artists couldn’t create. It Came From the ‘80s is a series that will pay homage to the monstrous, deadly, and often slimy creatures that made the ‘80s such a fantastic decade in horror.
Writer/Director Frank Henenlotter’s feature debut, Basket Case, showcased how even with a meager budget, creature effects could still be impressive. An underseen gem that follows Duane Bradley (Kevin Van Hentenryck) as he arrives in seedy New York City with not much more than a large wicker basket. It turns out that what’s inside is his very deformed Siamese twin brother, Belial, who was surgically separated from Duane against their will during childhood. Despite Duane’s plucky demeanor, the brothers are in New York to unleash vengeance upon the doctors that separated them. Their quest is complicated by Duane’s budding friendship and romance with nurse Sharon.
There’s a scene in the film where Duane retrieves a wad of cash when checking into the hotel, and Henenlotter has later said that this wad was pretty much the film’s entire budget. Basket Case was the definition of guerilla-style filmmaking, with the cast and crew rushing through scenes to avoid run-ins with the police because they couldn’t afford the required permits to shoot. Which meant that they had to get creative with Belial, too. Hentenryck provided a face cast for the Belial puppet, as well as voice effects for his deformed twin, and scenes where Belial’s hand attacked victims was really just a glove worn by Henenlotter. A full-sized puppet was used in scenes where Belial’s eyes glowed red or when he shared a scene with another actor. It wasn’t the puppetry that transcended the minuscule budget, though Belial’s design is pretty cool, but the stop-motion animation. During a production under the pressure of no money and limited time, stop motion is a lengthy process. Belial’s rampaging was made all the more impressive for the effort, too.
John Caglione Jr. (Amityville II: The Possession, The Hunter, C.H.U.D.), Ken Clark, Kevin Haney, and Ugis Nigals, made Belial both frightening in primal slaughtering and heartbreaking with the expressive design. Trapped forever in a deformed body while his seemingly normal brother could fit right into society and find love meant that Belial was the type of monster that invoked both fear and sympathy.
Released theatrically in 1982, Belial’s story became a midnight movie hit for years after, and it wasn’t until 1990 that Henenlotter picked right up where he left off. Basket Case 2 and Basket Case 3: The Progeny were released a year apart, and really felt most like two parts to a single story. If it wasn’t clear before that Henenlotter viewed Belial as the hero, and humans as the monstrous villains, well, he hammered that home as Belial became a full-blown protagonist. Henenlotter didn’t even plan to have Hentenryck factor much into the sequels, save for maybe a couple of scenes, until distributor Shapiro-Glickenhaus Entertainment insisted otherwise.
Whereas Basket Case was a more grounded horror-comedy set against the sleazy underbelly of New York, Henenlotter dialed up the wackiness to eleven in Basket Case 2, with a plot that lovingly lampooned 1932’s Freaks. With a much higher budget, the sequel brought in a whole new group of monstrous freaks for Belial to call family and even a love interest. Lead by special effects artist Gabriel Bartalos (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, Gremlins 2: The New Batch, Dolls), Belial got an updated makeover. Admittedly, I prefer Belial’s original, cheaper look, but at least the sequel gives me a lot of distraction with the fun character designs behind Granny Ruth’s entourage of misfits.
The jarring tonal shift between Basket Case and Basket Case 2 means that Belial’s story arch can become quite polarizing. You’re either going to love or hate that Belial essentially becomes a family man with a love of his own (don’t worry, he’s still a vicious killer), but the deformed, basket dwelling monster unleashed on unsuspecting audiences in 1982 is one worth adding to your viewing repertoire if you haven’t already. I’ll always have a soft spot for this creature from the ‘80s, and I think you might too.
College kids, strippers and vampires—those were Donald P. Borchers’ only requirements when he approached Richard Wenk about writing and directing a movie for New World Pictures. As requested, Wenk cooked up Vamp (1986), a tailor-made blend of the decade’s teen movie craze as well as its horror boom.
Grim and earnest stories were still very much a part of the ’80s horror landscape, yet Vamp is something of a comedy. One difference between it and, say, Saturday the 14th, though, is the former avoids using schtick. Wenk’s movie proves that horror comedies also don’t have to subtract thrills from their recipes. Of course, it takes a minute before reaching that point; college antics and culture shocks preface this one macabre misadventure.
Vamp‘s initial setup is apt for a typical college-set, sex-driven comedy; to bribe their way into a fraternity house, two pledges (Chris Makepeace, Robert Rusler) go looking for some adult entertainment. Without wasting time on any further exposition, the characters embark on an all-in-one-night trip that quickly detours into terror.
To procure their elusive MacGuffin—a stripper willing to gyrate for some frat boys—Keith (Makepeace) and AJ (Rusler), plus a third wheel named Duncan (Gedee Watanabe), trade the safety of their remote college campus for the seediness of some unnamed city. The setting is recognizably L.A. by day, but as soon as night falls, downtown, along with the characters, slips into a kind of surreal universe. Director of photography Elliot Davis gave this early entry on his prolific résumé an unusual yet distinctive look; that Mario Bava-esque, magenta-green lighting is omnipresent, so much so that it’s almost its own character.
Chris Makepeace and Robert Rusler in Vamp
The faint comparisons to Martin Scorsese’s After Hours are merited, although not just because of Vamp’s distinguishing nighttime aesthetic. Save for the primary characters, the supporting roles in Wenk’s movie are also quite colorful and transactional in their behavior. The difference here, though, is the additional urge to ruin Keith and his friends at every turn. Some of that harm is humorous and tolerable enough, whereas the moment Vamp dishes out its first fatality, it’s abundantly clear how this movie qualifies as horror.
Vamp falls into that category of horror movie that reveals its genre with a scream rather than a series of whispers. The opening scene can function as a hint of what lies ahead—things are not at all what they appear to be—but otherwise, Wenk is more than happy to hold off on the horror. When that time does come, though, it catches the viewer off guard. In addition to the pure shock value is that sudden decision to upend the movie’s foremost feature. Or so it would seem.
If afraid of major spoilage, those new to Vamp would be wise to stop reading here. There’s just no skirting around the fact that the central fellowship in this buddy movie hits a serious snag when AJ is killed. That development causes the story to become more of a “long, bad night” journey for Keith and his romantic interest. So while Wenk scores points for subverting expectations, there is also a touch of sadness in his decision. Because if Vamp does anything well, it’s making the characters likable.
Something that comes easily to Vamp—and other teen horror movies from this same era—is its ability to invent young characters worth caring about, or at the very least, are interesting and not so immediately off-putting. More impressive is how Wenk did all this without actually fleshing out those characters. Still and all, Keith and his kind are a grade above cookie-cutter, and in some cases, aren’t completely devoid of growth.
Grace Jones in Vamp
Vamp appeals with an assorted cast of characters. No two are the same, nor are they operating on the same wavelength. The cinematically extroverted AJ, whose actor conveyed charm and vulnerability in near equal amounts, comes alive when he’s at his most undead. Makepeace then makes the chronically cautious Keith a sympathetic fellow, even as he’s more and more affected by the night’s bizarre events. Meanwhile, Duncan is indeed the designated loser of the whole bunch, but Watanabe still manages to humanize him. As a bonus, the role didn’t require him to pull a Long Duk Dong.
As for Dedee Pfeiffer, she is plain adorable as the mysterious After Dark server nicknamed “Amaretto”. She spends all night fixing her dress strap while at the same time trying to get Keith to remember how he knows her. As their offbeat romance grows, it becomes another highlight of this movie. Whether or not Pfeiffer’s character is really a vampire also creates some welcome tension in the story.
Like a lot of its contemporaries, Vamp went on to become a bit of a cult classic. That current status is determined by several factors, but without a doubt, the casting of Grace Jones is the most considerable. The image of her writhing on that unique-looking chair, a Keith Haring original, springs to mind whenever this movie is brought up.
Chris Makepeace, Billy Drago and Paunita Nichols in Vamp
Prior to that first display of unequivocal horror, local vampire queen Katrina (Jones) took to the stage and delivered a strip show like no other. One would expect nothing less from that renowned model and performance artist. By now reports of Jones’ tardiness on set are no secret, yet it’s also hard to deny her commitment to the part of Katrina. It was, in fact, Jones who took charge of her character’s appearance—on top of Haring painting her body and that now-iconic chair, she had Andy Warhol handle her costuming. And not too many actors could seize a room’s attention without saying a single line of dialogue.
In 2022, Vamp received a retrospective novelization from Encyclopocalypse. This literary union of preexisting source material—Wenk’s original screenplay—and new ideas from author Christian Francis amounts to a more comprehensive visit to the After Dark Club. The basic story there is no different than what’s shown on screen; however, Francis gets creative with the characters’ origins and designs, and he enhances a number of key scenes.
The novelization expands on the urban and social decay of the main setting, and supplies a background for the After Dark Club. Sandy Baron’s character, Katrina’s emcee and familiar, is given ample motivation for sticking around; up until the fiery end, he is loyal to his friend and former business partner “Squeak”, who looks like he was “fed through a combine harvester, and left as nothing more than a heap of mangled remains”. Then there is Billy Drago’s character Snow, the leader of a street gang called The Dragons. His reason for menacing Keith and AJ is more altruistic than in the movie; he and his peers act tough to scare off any potential food for the vampires.
Lisa Lyon in Vamp
If not for all the backstories, Francis’ Vamp would be a hell of a lot shorter. Instead, this tie-in read dives into how AJ met Keith—the orphaned Anthony Joseph hailed from a broken home back in Brooklyn—and how their friendship flourished over the years. Keith’s archership is no longer just an assumed part of his entire being; it’s a confidence-building extracurricular for a boy who got picked on before coming into the protection of the new kid in town. These supplemental, in-depth looks at the protagonists, plus their close connection, are maybe unnecessary. The movie already did a fair and concise job of addressing their platonic intimacy without the need for flashbacks and insights, specifically in that scene where AJ lays it all out as he sacrifices himself.
Where the novelization gets off course is its approach to the minor characters. Intermittently backstorying the likes of Katrina’s indentured servants, Seko (Leila Hee Olsen) and Vlad (Brad Logan), ends up disturbing the flow of the writing. Was it absolutely essential that readers know Vlad was the Grand Duke of the House of Romanov, or how Snow’s accomplice Maven (Paunita Nichols) became so dentally challenged? No, not really. However, one’s mileage with these random biographies may vary.
The novelization is a more substantial experience, but for a movie like Vamp, less is more. And as plentiful as they are, it never simply coasts on its campy charms, either. The character work sits comfortably in that realm between cursory and meticulous, the script is sharper than first realized, and Greg Cannom’s vampire makeup is straightforward yet effective. Most of all, the movie didn’t squander its out-of-the-box concept. Richard Wenk made his vision of a “comic nightmare in which just about anything that can go wrong does” come true, and it is very enjoyable.
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