Day 16 Basket Case and Basket Case 2

Oh we’re going there, YOUR DAMN RIGHT WE’RE GOING THERE!!!

Why? I’ll tell you why!!

Because we’ve got

5..6..7..8

Personality! Personality!

If you don’t get it, you soon will, I can’t wait to jump to the sequel.

So Basket Case, that wonderful gem of weirdness, humor, gore, and Claymation made during the gritty fun, you’ll die if you stop to enjoy the moment in New York time period.

If you aren’t familiar with the films of Frank Henenlotter, oooooh boy. You are in for a treat.

So the movie follows the merry fun time adventures in New York, of our brave hero Duane.

Duane is doing a bit of traveling with family as he tries reconnecting with some past faces. Past faces which need a friendly greeting, a gentle reminder of Duane and how they know him. Followed by a healthy dose of revenge.

But never from Duane, He just prefers to reintroduce himself to these people. His brother deals with the rest.

His brother is special you see. As is Duane. Special. Duane when he arrives in New York, and throughout his adventure is seen as being a little weird. Not just because he’s a farmboy in the city. But because he carries a large wicker basket everywhere he goes. Well 80% of the places he goes at least.

That’s because he always likes having his brother with him. His brother Belial. Belial is his misshapen, mutated Siamese twin brother. Whom he carries around in his wicker basket.

These brothers are on an adventure with a quest, a quest to find all those responsible for separating them. Whom they kill accordingly. Duane isn’t all that into it really. His brother Belial though, has a temper. Which leads him to fits of rage. Which he takes out on those responsible, as well as prostitutes, and anyone else he’s left alone with.

For a majority of the movie, Duane is talking to a basket. He is riding a subway with a basket, talking to it all the time. I say this so you know what a majority of the film will contain lol A man talking to his deformed brother, through a wicker basket, he carries around New York.

Do we actually get to see Belial? Oooooooooooooh yes.

Is he scary?! Belial looks like someone took chewed bubble gum, wrapped it around a GI Joe head, and jammed a He-Man arm to the side. I’m not joking. Or being rude. He really does look like someone in the art department saw a wad of bubble gum under a desk and got inspired.

Effects and money being what they were back in this time, Belial couldn’t be fully used to the level they wanted. So they opted to use Claymation instead. Which adds to the adorableness of Belial when he attacks.  But the whole movie isn’t just justified senseless homicidal rage revenge.  There’s romance too!

Not counting the dead hooker, there’s a very nice lady who finds that she enjoys the company of Duane. She enjoys it so much they even hold hands and go out.

Which upsets Belial. A lot.

Surely he won’t mind when Duane and his lady friend become intimate? He absolutely minds and flips his shit in fact. Literally. Well okay not literal shit. But he does flip out and rage all over their apartment like some guy that just lost his ship he’d spent 6 years building in EVE online.

So Duane tries to console his brother and try to get him to see reason. Which doesn’t go so well.

But damnit the brother is going to try and make things work! So he locks up his baby bro bro essentially kicking him to the curb, and decides to have his lady friend over. Naturally things can only go well.

They kind of do. For the most part. Duane is very sweet and attentive and she’s into him. Good times for all.

Until she wakes up to a large living wad of chewed up bubble gum wrapped around a GI Joe head with a He-Man arm sticking out its side trying to rape her, and being so frustrated he lacks the ability to do so he kills her instead.

Soo I said it kind of works out. Kind of, being used in the looses sense of the word.

I should get better about that.

So Duane not feeling so good about losing the one lady friend he had who was totes cool touching his dangus and making the milk come out. Has it out with his brother. Finally losing his nerve and flipping out.

The final shot of the movie leaves us with Duane fighting his brother and tumbling out the window of the hotel. To their DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

Of course yes until the sequel.

FINALLY THE SEQUEL OF SEQUELS!!!!!

I rented this as a kid, my sister and I watched it, we loved it.It was, as weird, as it was bat shit insane. But hysterical at the same time.

Get ready to bored the ‘Everything except the kitchen sink’ bus!

Why not the sink? Because, we’ll need it, ya filthy animal.

The sequel, also made by Frank, takes place immediately after the first film. This movie had an actual better, bigger budget. Of sorts. So better effects?

You better stop raising those expectations!!

Duane is picked up off the street and taken care of by an elderly caring woman, Granny Ruth. Granny Ruth knows all about Duane and Belials case, so she treats them respectfully and actually manages to get Belial to calm his bubble yum tits. Imagine that.

In fact Belial seems rather relaxed and happy for a change.

But Duane on the other hand. Is not. In fact it’s a huge shift from the original. This time Duane seems irritated and upset. But why? WHY YOU ASK?! I’LL TELL YOU WHY!

Duane and his brother were picked up by Granny Ruth and her home for wayward souls, or freaks.

Now I say freaks. What I should say out of respect is, holy jesus on a pogo stick cross eating ramen horrible oversized what were they thinking faces and freaks. Seriously google Basket Case 2 freaks, you’ll see what I mean.

So Granny Ruth and her effects shop rejects travel around in a school buss with the windows covered. They also enjoy a nice rousing musical number at times. Which leads us to the more memorable scene of the movie, a rousing musical number lead by Granny Ruth on the bus singing the song “Personality’.

A bus, of poorly done up and over exaggerated freaks, singing the song. “Personality”. This film deserved a Tony and an Oscar.

But even singing can’t seem to cheer up Duane. Well not too much anyway. He’s just kind of weirded out by everything. Until that is, he funds Granny Ruth’s most helpful granddaughter Susan. Who’s perfectly normal!!! So he found himself someone he can relate too, atleast physically.

So he begins to uncork his butthole and relax. Which gives him time to take in everything that’s happened. See after the events of the first film and news broke out about the demented, separated Siamese twins, the media immediately latched onto the story and made stars of grand infamy out of Duane and Belial. Which got the attention of his aunt, who…drum roll. Is Granny Ruth. That’s why she rescued him and mended him at her mansion, where she and the other freaks dance, sing and live life to it’s fullest.

A new life, away from the media spotlight, On the run from the law, a newly discovered aunt, a no longer really that homicidal brother AND a cute to boot lady friend his brother DOESN’T want to rape and kill! Hot Patooty bless my soul. Life is grand!!

Until it isn’t.

A snoopy no good, dirty sleazy photographer discovers the duo living in castle freak. They begin taking pictures. The damn media begins writing nasty stories!! Calling them freaks, little monsters. The audacity!!!

So they gotta die! Naturally. So, with the help of his well to do musical trope of freaks. They set out to put right the world for their kind and…kill a photographer, malform and freak-anize a lady. Seriously the twist her head like chewed bubble gum you hold between your teeth and fingers and twirl and twirl until it snaps. That’s what she looked like after.

So Duane is feeling pretty darn good. Aside from the freaks he lives with of course. He feels so good in fact. He makes some moves in his lady friend.

No I am not going to say of course things can only go well. They actually do for a change. No seriously they do! He gets a tender loving couple of smooches and intimacy time with his new best gal. He even gets a ticket to boob town! How about them apples!

Everything is coming up roses! Until she divulges to him that she has a mutant living inside her belly which she was planning on kind of birthing and then Duane loses his boner. She tries getting him to calm down but he just can’t deal. He flips out having a break down and……accidentally kills her.

But He isn’t done yet! Oh no. We gotta go full tilt on this. Because honestly when you decide to flip your shit, why half ass it? Full ass it, like an American, damnit!

He goes on a rampage freaking out the freaks who then begin hunting him down as Granny Rooth demands he be brought before her. So what does he do? Duane locates his brother and shares with him his new life plan for the pair. He’s discovered how to make things better for them. Make them closer like they were before.

With a needle and thread Duane sets out to re-attach his brother Belial to his side, and that is our final shot of the film. A smiling Duane bleeding out his side, with his brother attached to him once more, telling the group how they’re finally a family again, like real brothers.

There is a part 3

Is it horrible? Oh no. It is gloriously insane as well.

In part 3, Belial gets a girlfriend. She looks just like him. But with a breast. He and she also somehow developed reproductive organs because Belial gets her pregnant. They have a progeny. Little baby Belials.

Belial gets to fight a Sheriff

In a Mech suit

A wad of chewed bubble gum with arms….fights a grown man….with a mech suit, made by freaks.

These movies are a gift from above for all of us to witness and love. Just as Brain Damage and Frankenhooker were also gifts for us.

Having the director happily return to further his films story, create even weirder characters and story to match. Having the original actors for all three films. I mean. This is love.

Maybe not love as we all would know it. But its freak love and I enjoy it. The movies have hilarious insanity, lots of love for the story. A story that grows each film, expands the characters. Ups every part of it! The sequel is no where near attempting any level of seriousness the first one loosely held onto.

It embraces what it is and takes off running, which encourages the weirder of us to continue running right along side it.

Do find them and check it out.