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Post by stefancrosscoe on May 16, 2017 16:27:22 GMT
"What's in the basket?"A group of doctors living in the greater New York area is about to have the surprise of a lifetime, when an old "mistake" from their questionable past is getting ready to make a big and bloody comeback in The Big Apple. Basket Case is the first of Frank Henenlotter's cult-classic "splatter trilogy" that was to be followed by Brain Damage (1988) and Frankenhooker (1990). I first caught a glimpse of his great 80s late night b-movie at a norwegian/scandinavian TV channel called Showtime, back in 2005-06 and I fell immediately in love with Frank's sleazy but highly ejoyable splatter/horror tale of a couple of "freaks" who wants to settle a score with the people who have done them wrong, and where Frankenhooker was more of a slapstick comedy, I felt that Basket Case showed a more "tragic" or sad story, even though it sure does come with a lot of cheese and hilarious part. Still I think it is an impressive work from a man who along with his huge love and respect for the many cult-films shown at the infamous 42nd Street, would end up with a budget no bigger than 40,000 dollars (or less), to write himself into b-movie history, with a film that became legendary in certain circles, and even ended up getting several sequels, and also got itself spoofed (I think) in The Simpsons (one of their Halloween episodes). "This is the sickest movie ever made!" While the critics saw it as a piece of trash, Frank knew how to get his film promoted in the best of ways, as the legendary quote from movie critic Rex Reed sure helped people to realise that this was "the movie to see!". At the Cannes Festival of 1982, Rex Reed had grown tired of watching the same boring plot from the "deep" art movies by european directors, and he wanted to take a little break by watching some good ol' american fast-food garbage, and one day he stumbled upon Basket Case, (as he heard from friends about how awful it was supposed to be), and decided to give it a chance. The film did such an impression, that when Reed left the cinema, he got asked of what he thought of it, and his simple answer was: "This is the sickest movie ever made!". Little did he know, that the man who asked him, was actually none other than Frank Henenlotter, who ended up using Reed's own words to help promote the film.
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Post by Deleted on May 16, 2017 19:33:28 GMT
"This isn't a hotel, it's a NUTHOUSE!"
Love it.
One of my top cult film of the 1980s.
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Post by Deleted on May 16, 2017 22:44:10 GMT
Good movie. Think I might prefer Brain Damage though.
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Post by FridayOnElmStreet on May 17, 2017 8:23:22 GMT
7/10 Well done film for such a low budget.
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Post by stefancrosscoe on May 17, 2017 10:15:09 GMT
Yeah, I remember an small 50-60 minutes documentary with Frank and R.A. the Rugged Man, (I think) standing on a rooftop with the whole New York skyline in the background, talking about not only Basket Case, but of how bad things have changed dramatically, for a lot of b-movie/low budget movie makers, and that films like Basket Case would have very small chances of getting made today, (and this was 15-16 years ago) as rules and everything had become more strict, as people could not film in certain places anymore, without having the police becoming involved, and so on. It was real nice to see how much these people cared for not only their own work, but the love for indie/low budgets films, and I wished there where far more guys like that in todays movie business, not really caring all that much about the money, but instead to give people something else than the typical big budget Hollywood stuff.
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Post by stefancrosscoe on May 17, 2017 10:24:16 GMT
"This isn't a hotel, it's a NUTHOUSE!"
Love it.
One of my top cult film of the 1980s. Hilarious line. I loved seeing that hotel manager, and his angry act, which kind of reminded me of an old british sitcom or something, where a similar kind of figure would run upwards the stairs screaming his head off, everytime one of his guest did something strange or played loud music or whatever, but yeah, Basket Case is quite something else, even compared to what goes on today. What I also love is that a lot of the main characters were sometimes played by people who had never been in front of a movie camera before, and it payed off well, as Frank got the best out of them. Like that irish drunken guest, who says the line: "All alone in this cold, cruel world!". Good movie. Think I might prefer Brain Damage though. That is a great film, a bit more ehm, dramatic or sad than say Basket Case, but still it got all the classic Frank Henenlotter weirdness included, and seems to be the one that is hailed by most fans/critics as Frank's finest hour.
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Post by stefancrosscoe on May 17, 2017 10:31:06 GMT
Well, I just had to, didn't I. I always get a kick out of watchin' this scene, and when I first saw the film back in 2005-06 on TV, I thought that this one, they will probably never send again, in my whole life. Turned out, the very next day, it was back on, and so was I. Taping it, and finally later buying the uncut 20th anniversary DVD release. Anyway, this scene is a total riot, so packed with incredible special effects, that not even a 500 billion dollar budget of today's movie standards, could come even close of reproducing what the original one perfected back in 1982: "WHAAAAAAAH, HAAAAH, WHAAAAAAAAAH!"
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Post by lostinlimbo on Jun 1, 2017 7:55:01 GMT
Schlock of the highest order. Demented, smutty and creative with Frank Henenlotter using his directorial flair and authentic scummy locations to make it stand out, in spite of its crude low-budget origins. What really makes this one work for me is the special bond between Duane (as Kevin Van Hentenryck's persona was perfect) and Belial, making their relationship rather sympathetic. Leading to its very potent ending, which I somewhat think is lessened by the sequels.
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