Basket Case (1982) from Tuna
Tuna's comments in white 

Basket Case (1982) is a classic gore-fest with a huge cult following - another excellent release from Something Weird Video. Kevin VanHentenryck is half of a Siamese twin, with his brother being the monster. They are separated against his will by two doctors, a woman, and with his father's approval. They leave the monster to die, but Duane Bradley (VanHentenryck) has other ideas. He saves his money and takes his brother to New York to seek revenge. They check into a sleazy hotel, and seek out the people who did this to them. Along the way, Duane meets Sharon (Terri Susan Smith) who becomes his love interest and shows her breasts near the end of the film.

Strengths include a lot of humor, a charismatic monster, good pace, good performances, and lots of camp.  

NUDITY REPORT
see the main commentary

DVD info from Amazon.

  • no widescreen version, but 

  • Full-length director and cast commentary

  • all kinds of outtakes and extra footage from the director's personal collection

  • exploitation art gallery, a humorous cable TV review, and a radio interview with one of the stars
Scoopy's comments in yellow 

I suppose the man who founded our kind of movie reviewing is the noted drive-in critic, Joe Bob Briggs. If we had a statue in our lobby, he'd be the one immortalized. Two decades ago, his hilarious reviews included important information ignored by other critics, like the breast count and the body count. 

Basket Case was Joe Bob's choice as the best Drive In movie of all time.

Joe Bob's home page

 

 

The Critics Vote

The People Vote ...

  • With their votes ... IMDB summary: IMDb voters score it 5.6 
IMDb guideline: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence, about like three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, about like two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, about like two stars from the critics. Films under five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film, equivalent to about one and a half stars from the critics - or less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

My own guideline: A means the movie is so good it will appeal to you even if you hate the genre. B means the movie is not good enough to win you over if you hate the genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an open mind about this type of film. C means it will only appeal to genre addicts, and has no crossover appeal. D means you'll hate it even if you like the genre. E means that you'll hate it even if you love the genre. F means that the film is not only unappealing across-the-board, but technically inept as well.

Based on this description, Tuna awards C+ for a strong genre flick (gore) with comedy and camp crossover appeal. Scoopy agrees.

Return to the Movie House home page