October Edition #8: BASKET CASE 3

Director: Frank Henenlotter
Screenplay: Frank Henenlotter and Robert Martin
Starring: Kevin Van Hentenryck, Annie Ross, Gil Roper, Dan Biggers
Release Date: 1992



So I’ve finally come to the end of the trilogy, and thank God for that, because I don’t know if I could take another experience as frustrating as BASKET CASE and its sequels. I really like the concept behind these flicks, that being the bizarre relationship between a pair of Siamese twins separated against their will, one of whom is a vicious mutant who devours the faces of anyone who comes between the two of them. Unfortunately the stories built around this insane concept are total weak sauce, existing solely to parade a succession of surreal imagery with no rhyme or reason.

Constipation. Another of the many symptoms of watching BASKET CASE 3

It has become readily apparent at this point in the series that director Frank Henenlotter is running out of ideas, and probably money as well. The first ten minutes of this movie is literally the last ten minutes of BASKET CASE 2, probably extended to pad out this film’s running time. That film ended with Duane losing his mind and haphazardly stitching Belial to his side with a needle and sewing thread. By the time we finally get the footage that comprises part 3, all of that has been undone. Belial and Duane have been separated again, and Duane has been kept in a padded cell for the better part of a year. Contrary to his feelings in the previous film, he now desperately yearns to be reunited with his brother. Belial, however, has other plans. It turns out the hideous mutant sex with Eve, his female doppleganger, resulted in a pregnancy, and so Granny Ruth (Ross) loads up all of the freaks in her home onto a school bus for a cross-country road trip to the town of Peach Valley to see Doctor Hal, who specializes in unusual births.

I'd rather give birth than....oh, you know where I'm going with this.

The first half hour of the movie is devoted to the build-up of this birthing scene, and some of it is kind of funny. There is an epic water-breaking scene that completely floods the bus. And the actual birthing is goddamn ridiculous, with twelve baby Belial’s exiting Eve’s orifice one after the other in a ghastly umbilical chain that goes on for a good five minutes. The rest of the flick, unfortunately, is just Henenlotter spinning his wheels, forcing in another subplot wherein someone, in this case a group of cops, attempt to kidnap Belial and his vicious brood for monetary gain.

What I felt like doing to this movie.

All of the non-freak characters are absolutely despicable, but not in an interesting way. The acting in this one is about on par with the first BASKET CASE as far as sucking goat testicals goes. There is at least a good dose of gore this time around, though it doesn’t come until an hour into the movie and is all contained in one scene in which Belial infiltrates the police station to rescue his children and takes out several officers via an eye-popping asphyxiation, a face-eating, and a sweet 180 degree neck-breaking. Other than that, though, this flick just kinda sits there, wholly inert. It’s like Henenlotter threw whatever bizarre idea popped into his head at the screen to see what stuck, and none of it did. By the film’s climax Belial has been strapped into a clunky mechanical exoskeleton which he uses to dispatch the scheming cops, one of whom spends a good minute and a half prior to his death scene engaging in an absolutely cringe-inducing Elvis impersonation while decked out in nothing but a speedo. I wanted to shoot myself in the face at this point, and I haven’t even mentioned the totally random musical number that takes place on the school bus that really had me questioning my desire to see this thing through to the end.

Fuck this movie.

I like bizarre shit. I seek out movies that go out of their way to freak people out. BASKET CASE 3: THE PROGENY tries too hard. So hard, in fact, that it falls flat on its stupid fucking face and stews in a puddle of its own embarrassment.

My Rating:
4/10