A HIERONYMUS BOSCH BUDDY COMEDY
★★★★☆ (Worth the Watch)
Director: Frank Henenlotter
1982
New York City has always been like a Walmart. You can walk around in a bikini or Burberry coat or wear a racoon tail and no one is going to say a God damn thing to you about it. There’s a level of acceptance that is refreshing and disturbing, depending on whether you’re a New Yorker or outsider. Even in the 1970s/1980s, when the Taxi Driver days of NYC resembled a sexed-up apocalypse, no one batted an eye at anything, which is how our protagonist in Basket Case, Duane Bradley, can tote a picnic basket around with him and still seem normal. After he arrives in the city to take care of some mysterious business, the young man is pelted with questions about what’s inside, but after he answers that it’s just clothes, everyone accepts it. Of course it’s normal in the Big Apple for a socially awkward man to walk around the sex district carrying a locked, wicker basket full of clothes.
Duane (Kevin Van Hentenryck ) arrives in the seedy part of New York City on a mission. We don’t know what that mission is, only that it involves paying a visit to random doctors. Our hero is a babe in the woods, he has no idea that everyone around him is salivating, wondering how to steal his belongings. In one moment of stupidity, he pulls out a large wad of money in front of a crowd while paying for his cheap motel room. That’s the subplot of Basket Case: Who is going to take advantage of the sweet, innocent Duane first? Luckily, someone is looking out for him, his neighbor Casey (Beverly Bonner), an independent dame, a hooker with a heart of gold. She’s not the only woman to come across his path during his first time in NYC. While in a doctor’s waiting room, he meets Sharon, a secretary who may or may not have multiple personalities. She’s angry at him and then she’s lovingly telling him that although they’ve only known one another for a few hours, he’s the one to go to if she needs help. This is the charm of Basket Case—the inability to see what is coming. Though you understand the general Frankenstein revenge premise, every scene is a surprise.
Speaking of performance, Kevin Van Hentenryck gives a solid one as Duane, and I really believe Basket Case would have fallen apart without him. The actor has a vulnerability and openness that invites you to care about his unusual problem. When he’s up to no good, you still believe in his goodness. You understand his struggle with a co-dependent relationship that is familiar even when it’s between a monster and its caretaker. Duane is a tragic figure and his story is bleak. Circled by New York City’s wolves, he has something scarier, and he’s having second thoughts about using it.
Basket Case is a strange combination of good directing and low budget ($35,000). Henenlotter does what he can with the little he has and the results are creative stop-motion attacks and Hitchcockian “what you don’t see is what is scary”. Some horror viewers might find the rudimentary filmmaking off-putting, but the story makes up for all of it. What is in Duane’s basket? We have an idea that it’s something dangerous, and it’s us getting to see it and us wondering what will happen to it that makes the movie move so quickly. For $35,000, Henenlotter breaks your heart.
GENRES: Body Horror, Diverse Characters, Funny, Monster/Creature
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