Basket Case (1982)
This week, The B-Movie Boys crack open Basket Case (1982), Frank Henenlotter’s gloriously sleazy tale of a man, his wicker basket, and the deformed telepathic twin brother living inside it. What starts as a grimy revenge story set in the worst hotel New York City has ever produced quickly mutates into something way stranger, funnier, and honestly kind of brilliant.
We dive deep into the movie’s legendary $35,000 budget, guerrilla filmmaking tactics, aggressively janky stop-motion effects, and the bizarre emotional core hiding underneath all the melting puppet chaos. Along the way, we discuss psychic basket etiquette, mutant sibling dependency, horny monster logic, Times Square exploitation cinema, and whether Belial is secretly one of the great tragic monsters in cult film history.
There are riffs about kung fu movies, New Hampshire landmarks, Tom Green, Nathan’s hot dogs, and the logistics of securing a wicker basket containing a murder creature with what appears to be the world’s least effective padlock. Somewhere inside all the chaos, the Schlockometer starts having an existential crisis over whether Basket Case is actually… a genuinely good movie.
Mention in this Episode:
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
Watchmen (2009)
Pink Flamingos (1972)
Judy Garland
Lindsay Lohan
Michael B. Jordan
Tom Green
John Waters
Joe Bob Briggs
Nathan’s Hot Dogs
Longaberger
YouPorn
“Pinball Wizard” by The Who
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