Basket Case

Basket Case

Basket Case
Directed by Frank Henenlotter
USA 1982

PLOT

Duane is a young and quiet guy who is often seen carrying a large wicker basket. What seems like a comedic gimmick hides a terrible and monstrous secret related to the boy’s past, which inevitably affects his present.

CONSIDERATIONS

Basket Case is a violently intense body horror film that evokes the theme of conjoined twins separated at birth.
Strongly influenced by Cronenberg, Henenlotter’s debut film “plays” with the relationship between the Siamese twins, where the protagonist is the good one whose life is overshadowed by his horrible and sadistic monstrous, deformed brother.

Furthermore, the director chooses to show us everything: from when the two were conjoined, how the family and society pretended to accept them, to their separation by a team of surgeons who, in effect, save and normalize Duane but “kill” (metaphorically) Belial, confining him to a life as a social outcast.

Thus, it is a body horror film with a strong social critique component that does not shy away from pushing hard on the accelerator when it comes to blood and violence.

The deformed Belial will kill anyone who crosses his path and threatens his relationship with his brother: from the doctors who separated them to the girlfriends who want to take him away.

Despite the ironic tone of numerous gags and dialogues, the sense of dread, pain, and “decay” that permeates the entire film and screenplay remains. These feelings reach their peak in the heart-wrenching but beautiful finale.

An old film (with evident use of stop-motion technique to animate the monster at some points) but it has not lost any of its macabre charm and “heavy” message.

PANDEMONIC MOMENT

When Belial kills the brother’s girlfriend in a bloody and distressing sexual act.

A film that leaves a mark


Subscribe to our YouTube channel

Similar Posts

  • Raw

    Justine is a vegetarian teenager who enrolls in veterinary school, the same one her older sister Alexia attends. As part of the traditional hazing rituals for freshmen, she is forced to eat raw rabbit meat. For Justine, this will mark the beginning of a profound change, both personally and within her family.

  • The Sadness

    Taipei, an ordinary morning. A couple is getting ready to start their day and go about their usual tasks, unaware of what’s unfolding around them. Soon, however, they realize that everything is gradually changing: a mysterious and deadly virus is turning the country’s population into insane killers.

  • The Bay

    On July 4, 2009, in the town of Claridge, on the Chesapeake Bay, the residents celebrate Independence Day on the beaches and at the harbor.
    In the following days, hospitals and medical facilities begin to fill with people covered in blisters and boils all over their bodies.

  • Found

    Marty and Steve are two brothers living with their parents in a rather troubled situation: Marty, the younger one, is bullied at school by his classmates, and Steve, the older brother, displays an unruly teenage character. One day, Marty, secretly rummaging through his brother’s room, finds a severed head inside a bowling bag in the closet. This will be the first clue that leads the young boy to discover the terrible secret Steve is hiding.

  • The Golden Glove

    Hamburg, early 70s Fritz Honka is an alcoholic laborer who frequently visits Der Goldenen Handschuh, the pub in his neighborhood. Here, besides getting heavily drunk almost every night, he approaches women and prostitutes, whom he takes back to his home with the intention of having sexual relations. However, due to impotence caused by his alcoholism and the man’s repressed anger, these seduction attempts often end in tragedy.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *