They say that horror films run in cycles. The first major one involved the classic Universal monsters like Frankenstein, Dracula and the Wolf Man. The second came during the fifties when we had radiated monsters that turned miniscule pests into giant sized terrors. The early sixties provided us with two forms of horror, the drive in low budget films that included the Poe tales from Roger Corman and the imported Hammer horror films more often than not starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. Then a lull came along with only THE EXORCIST on hand. All of that changed in the late seventies and early eighties.The invention of the VCR ushered in a new wave of horror films. Once again the budgets were low but the creative levels were high. Video renters couldn't get enough of horror films. Directors who went on to become famous were making many of these movies, cutting their teeth on combinations of editing techniques and gushing goo. It was a time when horror fans were delighted. Then Hollywood became aware of the money to be made. Suddenly it changed from creative output to franchise material. Many were good movies but it became all about how long a series could run.Fortunately fans can still partake in the classics of the time period, those 70s and 80s slashers and creature movies that made you force your parents to allow you to traipse down the horror aisle as the local video store. One such movie has now made its way to blu-ray format in the best offering of the movie ever seen. That movie is Frank Henenlotter's BASKETCASE.The movie tells the story of two brothers, Duane (Kevin Van Hentenryck) and Belial. Joined together at birth Belial was a malformed creature attached to his brother's side. When years later a medical team separates the pair, Belial survives and communicates with his brother. Together the two run away with plans of revenge against the medical staff who forced them apart.After an initial murder we find the pair walking the streets of New York in the 42nd Street area, notorious for the sleaziness of the times. Porn theaters, hotels with hourly rental rates and greasy food joints abound. Checking into a hotel with Belial in a wicker basket, Duane begins his search for the staff.As their story unfolds Duane meets and falls for a young nurse named Sharon (Terri Susan). With his attentions deviated from their goal Belial is enraged. The malformed monstrosity is not one to take lightly, especially when angered. Whether the pair will carry on with their plans for revenges or if Duane will find some sense of normality isn't revealed until the end of the film. The fact that the film generated 2 sequels answers part of that question. Both of those films are available on blu-ray now as well.To start with the movie provides us with a new monster, something that had disappeared from the film landscape for some time. After years of radiated creatures we now had one born for no apparent reason other than that he simply was. It would be a few more years before the genetically altered creatures arrived and Belial is not one of those. The effects used to create Belial were practical effects, puppets and the like, giving him a more sinister appearance than any computer generated creature has had. That added to the terror aspect of the character, making him frightening, something you'd hope to never encounter. And at the same time there is an amount of sympathy imbued in the character, a monster not by choice but by birth. In this way he becomes the new Frankenstein in a modern world.As I said earlier the movies from this time period had some of the most miniscule budgets ever known to man. Many were shot on the fly, no permits sought out for locations, shot in actual buildings rather than sets and using actors who were lacking on so many levels. But all of that combined to give films like this one a charm all their own. Hentenryck's delivery of lines leaves much to be desired but it also makes his performance as an innocent in a nasty world more believable. The side actors also offer lines in the worst way possible but who cares? This is a creature feature and no one is looking for Shakespeare.Henenlotter has delivered the goods with this film, his first feature length movie. Many directors their first time out try to dazzle us with their techniques, film angles, effects laden shots and more. Henenlotter just wants to tell us a story and frighten us at the same time. That makes for a much more enjoyable film. The seediness of the area the film takes place in is embraced by Henenlotter, a world most of us will never visit but we get a glimpse of here from someone familiar with it. It is a world that suits Duane and Belial Bradley and their story.Arrow Video has done their standard amazing job with this one. To begin with their presenting the film in a digital 4k format making it the cleanest possible version you'll find of the film. In addition to that they've loaded the film with a ton of extras sure to make any fan foam at the mouth. Those include a brand new audio commentary track with Henenlotter and Hentenryck, "Basket Case 3 : An Interview with Duane Bradley" a look back at the character with Henenlotter, "Seeing Double: The Basket Case Twin" a new interview with Florence and Maryellen Schultz the twin nurses from the film, a brand new making of featurette with interviews of producer Edgar Ievins, casting person/actress Ilze Balodis, associate producer/effects artist Ugis Nigals and Belial performer Kika Nigals, "Blood, Basket and Beyong" a new interview with actress Beverly Bonner, "Belial Goes to the Drive-In" a new interview with film critic Joe Bob Briggs, an outtakes featurette, "In Search of the Hotel Broslin" an archive featurette, "Slash of the Knife" a short film made by Henenlotter in 1972, "Belial's Dream" a brand new Basket Case inspired animated short by filmmaker Robert Morgan, behind the scenes of "Belial's Dream", trailers, TV spots, radio spots, an extensive still gallery, a reversible sleeve with original artwork by Sara Deck and for the first pressing only a collector's booklet with new writing on the film by Michael Gingold. Whew! That's an exhaustive amount of extras for a movie that probably costs less than all of these combined!Fans of the film will rejoice at the opportunity to revisit Duane and Belial once more. They'll revel in every blood soaked moment that appears on screen. Those who have never seen the film will discover just how great it truly is, enough so that they might decide to gather the entire set of three films. In any event this edition from Arrow shows once more how dedicated they are at offering the best quality version of the films they carry. A fan couldn't ask for more.

Been a while since I saw this one, but man, Belial's fits of rage and...well, simply dismay and throwing of tantrums, will forever be scared into my memory. Kinda a neat idea for a movie, guy's conjoined twin who, by medical standards really should not even be able to survive in his state, is alive and well, able to speak telepathically to his seemingly normal, yet mentally unstable brother? The movie has some pretty comedic parts, and it moves at a decent pace, not dragging on like many other movies of its time. It's something the squeamish shouldn't watch though, definitely, it sure can be gross at times too.

Country boy Duane Bradley takes a motel room in New York with no luggage other than a basket. But it contains his surgically removed Siamese twin who is not only physically deformed so badly the doctors don't really consider him human, but is also the vindictive drive of their trip, with the purpose to kill off all those he blames. But in the reception of one of those doctors, Duane gets his first ever date and wants to start a new life too, but his brother has other pans......This is another one of those movies that I should have seen a long time ago, because I just can't see where the love for this film comes from. Its funny for all the wrong reasons, the acting is appalling, I'm sure a lot of those people didn't know they were being filmed, especially those in the lobby, and my gosh, that scene where Belial has a freak out, is one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time.I appreciate the film is over thirty years old, and the budget was minuscule, but please, Craven made a more effective horror in The Hills Have Eyes almost eight years earlier, and I'm sure the budget wasn't much more.The film has such a dirty feel to it, the setting, the people, the hair, it's all grimly lit, and this detracts you from the absurdity of it all.I'll see the other two for sure, but honestly, I'm not a fan.

Directed by Frank Henenlotter, nothing says, low budget, then a puppet monstrous attacking people in a silly matter. The movie produce two sequels by him, 1990's Basket Case 2 and 1991's Basket Case 3: The Progeny. The movie is about Duane Bradley (Kevin Van Hentenryck) who is carrying a basket around NYC with a cannibalism monster in it. At birth, the creature was attached to Duane's side. At an early age, they were surgically separated against their will and his brother, Belial, the creature was left for dead. Now, Belial seeks revenge on the doctors with the help of his brother. It's no secret that Belial is in Duane's basket as it was given away by theatrical posters, DVD cover art and more. I would love to see more suspense before the revealed. The action scene is some of the cheesy special effects, I have ever witness. Belial comes alive, through the use of a puppet in some scenes and stop motion clay animation in others. When Belial's hand is seen attacking his victims, it is really a glove worn by the director. The hands never does match up with the full size puppet. To avoid showing Belial's obnoxiously unrealistic, the camera oftentimes follows his point of view close to the ground and with jerky movements that is hard to watch. You can't take him as seriously threat with scenes of him stealing women's underwear, chows down on hamburgers, and leaves one of the doctors with a face full of scalpels. You just can't. I also don't understand the logic of the supernatural powers, Belial has. In the film, they make him seem limited by movement, that his brother Duane has to carry him around, but in other scenes, he can walk blocks upon blocks of street alone with no legs, and kill somebody twice his size. Not only that, he can climb walls, pick up beds and tossed them, and somehow jump off building without getting hurt. Yes, but somehow that last power disappears toward the end. Where in the hells did these powers come from? Because in the flashbacks, he seems pretty helpless without his brother. Also, Belial and Duane having a psychic bond that they can read each other's mind or something like that, but it's badly use. Somehow, Duane can understand, Belial quiet questioning, and complaining voice. Couldn't they use a voice-over to make it look like Belial is speaking with his mind, rather than mute talking? The blood, and gore is just over the top, and the actor's reacting to the pain is hilarious bad. I have to say, the scene of Belial raping a nude woman is pretty controversial. It got some complain by the crew during production, that they almost left the project. It was kinda a big deal since, most of crew were made out of four people that made the film. The credits that appear on the end of the film of the large crew were fake. I have to say to them, what type of film did they think they were making? If a person, in this case a woman, gets brutally murdered on screen, that's just your basic gore-fest. But if a woman gets brutally murdered while in attire, a pose or situation that is meant to arouse the male audience, or resembles some kind of sexual violence, that's just down-right bad taste. Come on! Was that scene in bad taste? Yes, but its tame compare to other early 1980's horror films. Was the male nudity streaking scene help the story? Not really. Well, clearly this is a metaphor for his repressed sexuality. That is why they killed their mother, why they were separated at the edge of puberty, why they passed by all of those sex shops without going in, and why the receptionist was always off-putting. There is also that Shakespeare's Tempest reading scene, in which the boys' aunt reads them a speech by Caliban, a deformed, animalistic creature that once attempted to rape the protagonist's daughter and was enslaved as a result. And those prostitutes at the end also represent something, but the symbolism is pretty lost here. The nudity wasn't needed. I have to say, all the acting is this film is awful. The worst has to be, its two leads. First off, Kevin Van Hentenryck acts and talks like a dumbass. While, Terri Susan Smith as Duane's love interest Sharon, who comes across as rude, and mean-spirited. That attitude really shows when Duane tell her, he haven't got time to go site seeing yet. She react in anger like New York City is beautiful in the late 70's and early 1980's. I'm sorry, but it's not, with its hookers, grindhouses, triple-X theaters, etc., compared to what it is now. I'll take NYC now. It seems out of character. I just don't see how both could end up liking each other. The love interest arch seem rushed. I found Robert Vogel as the Hotel Broslin Manager as my favorite character in the film. The reason why is because of his New Yorker accent and attitude, added with the fact that he looks like Super Mario makes me laugh. Joe Clarke as Brian 'Mickey' O'Donovan has some silly one-liners. Something Weird Video did a really great job with the DVD. I was a little disappointed that the movie was only available in full screen format, but the amount of extras included was truly amazing. I really enjoyed the piece where the director goes back and tries to locate certain locations from the movie. It was funny when they got locked out. Overall: it's one of those it's so bad, it's good, type of a movie. It's good for a few laughs, but as a scary horror movie, it's mediocre at best. This movie will forever have that cult movie following, due to its B-list horror schlock.