Basket Case 3 Movie Review from The Massie Twins
Added 4/2/2009
It helps to have seen Basket Case and Basket Case 2 before viewing the final entry of the trilogy, but it's definitely not necessary. As with most of these incredibly silly, monstrously cheesy gory 90's B-movies, the plot is of marginal importance. The inventive and bizarre character designs are at their most appealing in this final chapter, the script is at its most ridiculous, and the ideas are crazier and make much less sense. The acting is expectedly pitiful and the plot is pointless at best, but the increasingly more self-aware accidental humor is generous enough to warrant seeing this utter schlock for yourself. It's difficult not to laugh at filmmaking this absurd.
Susan and her alien-like hand-puppet child Bernard are dead (in the second film she is the daughter of long-lost Aunt Ruth) and Duane (Kevin Van Hentenryck) has been locked up in a straight jacket and padded cell by freak caretaker Granny Ruth (Annie Ross). Despite her literal bus load of deformed underlings, she remains one of the most abnormal of the bunch. Duane plots an escape to reunite with his once-conjoined twin Belial, a disfigured fleshy blob who communicates telepathically. Belial's equally deformed girlfriend Eve is now pregnant (it happens during the opening scene and their coupling is a cinematic horror that must be seen to be believed), causing Ruth to pack up the crew and leave New York for the pleasantly rural Peachtree Valley to meet her husband Uncle Hal Rockwell (Dan Biggers), the doctor who can help with the delivery.
When Belial witnesses the birth of his twelve mutant babies, a dredged-up recurring vision of his original surgical separation from Duane maddens him to the point of murder. Meanwhile, Duane gets himself imprisoned in the local jail where the cops get wind of a comically sizable reward for capturing the "Times Square" killers and journey to the Rockwell's mansion to kill Belial. Once there, the sight of so many freaks turns them hysterical, and they make off with the basket of one dozen growling ghastly babies, leading to an all-out war between the police and the army of miscreations.
The bizarre mutants are the highlight of the film, showcasing a creative knack for oddities and outlandish blood effects. Belial always ends up being little more than a puppet with the occasional animatronic expressions, but Eve and every other monster adorns massive and elaborate prosthetics and makeup reminiscent of grotesquely metamorphosed Star Wars inhabitants. "That's not a pet, goddammit! That's my nephew!" screams Duane, who was thankfully portrayed in all three films by the same actor (an appropriately demented performance).
In the same way that Sam Raimi embraced a comedic approach by the time he reached his third Evil Dead film, returning director Frank Henenlotter seems to have fully accepted taking Belial and his family of grotesqueries with only a grain of seriousness. There's still gruesome makeup effects, violent bloodshed and gratuitous nudity, but all of it is over-the-top and humorous. The character of Opal (Tina Louise Hilbert) adopts some disturbingly erotic fetishes as she toys with Duane in jail, Belial dreams of being fondled by busty naked girls (Playboy's Morrell Twins, in one of their only feature film roles) and Eve's malformed children are tossed around like jelly-filled donuts. At least everything in Basket Case 3 goes beyond the first two in extremes, even if it's all nonsensical; hilarity proceeds every line of dialogue, the plot becomes exponentially weirder by the minute, and no signs of a fourth film are anywhere on the horizon.
- Mike Massie
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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Mistake on my part
Added 11/27/2008
The DVD I bought was not for my region, so I could not even watch the movie. :(
0 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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Out With A Bang
Added 6/16/2008
Frank Henenlotter's wacky formula still works, and he ends his Basket Case trilogy on a high note. This film has Granny Ruth taking her family of freaks on a road trip to Georgia where Belial's "wife", Eve, can give birth to their children(12 in all!) in the safety of Granny Ruth's brother's home. Granny Ruth also has a reunion with her son, a freak himself, who becomes one of the clan. Duane's along for the ride too, but at this point he's more or less a prisoner and tries to escape from the group for about half the movie. All's not well once the children are born though. The local police become aware of the Bradley twins residing in their town and are looking to cash in on that million dollar reward. They kidnap the newborns in the hope of luring Belial into a trap. Duane, now excited about being an uncle, steps in to help his brother once again. More fun and craziness, everything you'd pretty much expect from a Basket Case movie. It's a fitting end to the series, though I'd personally welcome a fourth. Not much else to say, you know what you're getting into!
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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IF YOUR A FAN OF THE SERIES LIKE ME YOU'LL LIKE IT! WHERE IS PART 2 ON DVD?
Added 4/9/2007
I am a fan of this director's work. This film is way over the top, but if you are a fan you'll enjoy this movie. I do not understand why there isn't a DVD release for the Basket Case 2 in the U.S.? They released Basket Case 3 why not complete the trilogy? Look for more of this director's films( Frank Henenlotter )if you like something different.
1 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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Basket case 3 :- The progeny.
Added 4/16/2005
What can I say about Basket case 3 well it was definently an improvement from the second film in the series but thats not saying much I still perfer the first film. The whole reason to watch this is that Bilial finally gets to show us what he's realy made of in one of the better scenes in the film, when two cops kidnapp his small freakish children and accidently kill his freak like girlfriend he soon gets his revenge on the whole police station in a hilarious and very gory sequence. Frank Henenlotter definently adds alot of humor in his film so I suggest nobody should take this seriously just like Peter Jakson's earlier films like Bad taste.
4 out of 6 people found this helpful.
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Basket Case 3 Movie Review from The Massie Twins
Added 4/2/2009
It helps to have seen Basket Case and Basket Case 2 before viewing the final entry of the trilogy, but it's definitely not necessary. As with most of these incredibly silly, monstrously cheesy gory 90's B-movies, the plot is of marginal importance. The inventive and bizarre character designs are at their most appealing in this final chapter, the script is at its most ridiculous, and the ideas are crazier and make much less sense. The acting is expectedly pitiful and the plot is pointless at best, but the increasingly more self-aware accidental humor is generous enough to warrant seeing this utter schlock for yourself. It's difficult not to laugh at filmmaking this absurd.
Susan and her alien-like hand-puppet child Bernard are dead (in the second film she is the daughter of long-lost Aunt Ruth) and Duane (Kevin Van Hentenryck) has been locked up in a straight jacket and padded cell by freak caretaker Granny Ruth (Annie Ross). Despite her literal bus load of deformed underlings, she remains one of the most abnormal of the bunch. Duane plots an escape to reunite with his once-conjoined twin Belial, a disfigured fleshy blob who communicates telepathically. Belial's equally deformed girlfriend Eve is now pregnant (it happens during the opening scene and their coupling is a cinematic horror that must be seen to be believed), causing Ruth to pack up the crew and leave New York for the pleasantly rural Peachtree Valley to meet her husband Uncle Hal Rockwell (Dan Biggers), the doctor who can help with the delivery.
When Belial witnesses the birth of his twelve mutant babies, a dredged-up recurring vision of his original surgical separation from Duane maddens him to the point of murder. Meanwhile, Duane gets himself imprisoned in the local jail where the cops get wind of a comically sizable reward for capturing the "Times Square" killers and journey to the Rockwell's mansion to kill Belial. Once there, the sight of so many freaks turns them hysterical, and they make off with the basket of one dozen growling ghastly babies, leading to an all-out war between the police and the army of miscreations.
The bizarre mutants are the highlight of the film, showcasing a creative knack for oddities and outlandish blood effects. Belial always ends up being little more than a puppet with the occasional animatronic expressions, but Eve and every other monster adorns massive and elaborate prosthetics and makeup reminiscent of grotesquely metamorphosed Star Wars inhabitants. "That's not a pet, goddammit! That's my nephew!" screams Duane, who was thankfully portrayed in all three films by the same actor (an appropriately demented performance).
In the same way that Sam Raimi embraced a comedic approach by the time he reached his third Evil Dead film, returning director Frank Henenlotter seems to have fully accepted taking Belial and his family of grotesqueries with only a grain of seriousness. There's still gruesome makeup effects, violent bloodshed and gratuitous nudity, but all of it is over-the-top and humorous. The character of Opal (Tina Louise Hilbert) adopts some disturbingly erotic fetishes as she toys with Duane in jail, Belial dreams of being fondled by busty naked girls (Playboy's Morrell Twins, in one of their only feature film roles) and Eve's malformed children are tossed around like jelly-filled donuts. At least everything in Basket Case 3 goes beyond the first two in extremes, even if it's all nonsensical; hilarity proceeds every line of dialogue, the plot becomes exponentially weirder by the minute, and no signs of a fourth film are anywhere on the horizon.
- Mike Massie
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
|
Mistake on my part
Added 11/27/2008
The DVD I bought was not for my region, so I could not even watch the movie. :(
0 out of 2 people found this helpful.
|
Out With A Bang
Added 6/16/2008
Frank Henenlotter's wacky formula still works, and he ends his Basket Case trilogy on a high note. This film has Granny Ruth taking her family of freaks on a road trip to Georgia where Belial's "wife", Eve, can give birth to their children(12 in all!) in the safety of Granny Ruth's brother's home. Granny Ruth also has a reunion with her son, a freak himself, who becomes one of the clan. Duane's along for the ride too, but at this point he's more or less a prisoner and tries to escape from the group for about half the movie. All's not well once the children are born though. The local police become aware of the Bradley twins residing in their town and are looking to cash in on that million dollar reward. They kidnap the newborns in the hope of luring Belial into a trap. Duane, now excited about being an uncle, steps in to help his brother once again. More fun and craziness, everything you'd pretty much expect from a Basket Case movie. It's a fitting end to the series, though I'd personally welcome a fourth. Not much else to say, you know what you're getting into!
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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