Basket Case

By Jeff Shannon

Here's a sick little movie for you--a creepy-funny shocker that's become a semi-cult classic since its release in 1982. It's a cheesy, low-budget horror flick about a small-town geek who arrives in New York City's Times Square carrying his mutant, telepathic twin brother in a big basket (hence the movie's title, get it?). They were once Siamese twins, and now they're seeking gory revenge against the doctors who surgically separated them against their will! Talk about brotherly love! The "normal" sibling has to keep his brother well- fed, and the basket-dweller's appetite runs the gamut from hamburgers to hookers. There's plenty of lowlife "meat" to be found in the seedy motel where the brothers live. Not exactly mainstream fare, as you might already have guessed, but director Frank Henenlotter handles the gruesomeness with resourceful ingenuity. The movie even gathered enough horror-buff momentum to spawn two lesser sequels in 1990 and 1992, which is all the proof you need to add this dubious trilogy to the gross-out hall of fame.

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