The perfect midnight movie—a cult classic ripe with sleaze, a basket dwelling maniac, and Frank Hennenlotter’s magic touch of low budget cult craft mixed with dark humor draped in a crusty layer of scuzz. Basket Case made its way from the grime crime streets of 1980’s New York City to the box on the video store shelf that I was more curious about than any other, with Belial peeking out at me while I wondered what exactly was in that basket.

When I’m in a shitty mood worrying about things like nuclear war and my teeth rotting out while bleeding out of my ass as a result of nuclear fallout, one of the movies I try to change my terribly realistic…

Basket Case and I go way back to the days of VHS, so watching this on blu-ray is nothing short of amazing. It makes me fondly reminisce about the days of complaining about DVDs, until I started actually buying them and realizing they looked a hell of a lot better than VHS and feeling like a bit of an idiot for trying to hold on to the old format (and, not to mention that a lot of the VHS releases of Basket Case were cut).

Who knows, maybe the next time I watch Basket Case it will be inserted directly into my retinas while simultaneously inserting large doses of nostalgic euphoria.

What I love most about Frank Henenlotter's film is…

Damn y'all Arrow Video sure made me hella sexy in 4k! I'm feeling pretehhhh pretehhhh pretehhh good about myself right about now. belial rockin that 4k on fleek... ok for reals though this restoration is one of the best I've seen from Arrow so far.

This film has always been a favourite horror film of mine. I remember blind buying the Something Weird DVD back in the mid 2000's when I worked at a music/DVD store. I was riding that 50% discount and buying horror DVDs like crazy back then. This film though... This one was different. Ultra bizarre, extra absurd and insanely wacky. This was the film that began my journey into the more unconventional and obscure horror realm.…

This beautifully odd sleazefest is always a fun one to revisit. I don’t know why but I suddenly got the urge to watch it again tonight and, to absolutely no surprise, it’s just as good as it’s always been.

Siamese twins, one normal and one deformed, seek revenge against the doctors who separated them. I think this is one where the less you know going in the better so that’s all the plot detail I’ll give. This movie sjust gets so many things right. It’s gory, funny, violent, dark, and well-paced. The effects range from good to cheesy but they are all enjoyable as long as you are willing and able to suspend belief for the duration of the running…

2019 Cult Movie Challenge 

Week 1: Jan. 1-Jan. 7
Frank Henenlotter Week

A truly iconic exploitation sleazefest that introduced our favorite deformed siamese-twin killer, Belial, to the unsuspecting public.

Low-budget and proud of it, this unique splatter film launched Frank Henenlotter’s career, gifting us with more weirdness as the years came. With a budget small enough that the main character Duane actually carried it in his pocket as a movie prop, Henenlotter still was able to fill the movie with some very enjoyable gore effects and of course, Belial himself.

Belial is such a unique monster in both story and design. He’s a freak that was literally tossed into the garbage 🗑, that can’t do or experience the same things…

This was my first time viewing of this cult classic and to be honest I'm not sure why it's taken me so long. A real imaginative oddity of a horror movie, from the creepy credits sequence it set's a more serious tone than I was expecting.
Kevin Van Hentenryck plays Duane, a mulleted young man who checks into a seedy Manhattan hotel carrying a wicker basket which he is very protective over. The locals who live in the hotel take an instant interest in this quiet stranger but their real curiosity lies with what's in the basket? Is it a cat or some other pet? No, it's Duane's twin brother Belial, a stop motion monstrosity, formerly conjoined, the brothers were…

This is the difference between an incredible idea with no budget and no idea and an incredible budget.

The incredible idea is a man carries around his twin brother, who he was separated at birth from, in a basket hoping to seek revenge on the doctors who forcibly separated them. On top of that we have the normal brother being able to live a normal life and the basket brother is full of hate. But he's also kind of sad looking so you can't help but love him.

This is a film that can get away with relying heavily on a concept. While it has a lot more to offer it doesn't even necessarily need any of it to get…

HOOB-TOBER 👻 2020/#17:

Joe Bob would call this a typical "4 Stars" Film and who da Hell am I to disagree with the Master!

This could also called "The Elephant-Twin" and had such a great Social Criticism about handicapped People, gave me strong "Freaks" Feelings.
The Tale about two Brothers, born together and seperated by 3 Doctors against their Will was very well done.
The Plot and the Characters were so simple and flat, I loved it, a very enjoyable Horror-Flick.
And when it comes to the Revenge of our little Belial, oh Man, than the Gore-Man comes around and leave us some Presents!

"Basket Case" worked on every Front for me.
The Monster Part got me with an awesome…

Basket Case is a whole lot of things at once. It is a pitch-perfect example of a cult classic. It deftly strides the line between "so bad it's good" and just genuinely good. But, above all, this movie is authentic. In the post-Troma/Asylum world where films get made solely off of a bonkers and/or patently plagiarized concept, it's hard to find a movie with a weird name and not dismiss it as a feeble attempt to grab your attention and abscond with your Blockbuster gift card. Basket Case, however, is impossible to dismiss. It is one of the few times where you can, and should, judge a book by its cover, and I judge this cover and its contents to…

there's a ton to love about this movie-- amazing stop-motion puppetry, scummier than your roommate's disgusting bong, doesn't overstay its welcome-- but I think what I love the most is how it does deep world-building for even its minor characters and then tries as hard as it can to distract you from that

it's got that Hey Arnold! sort of class-consciousness where it's clear that the world's made up of more people than you can conceive of and everyone's got their own little story going on, but all you ever really get is a passing glimpse into it. sometimes it's clear that things have been fucked up for that person, but that never really reflects on the character of that…