"Basket Case 3," with 100% more PERSONALITY!!

Way back in the glory days of VHS, Frank Henenlotter's movie Brain Damage was one of the first horror movies I ever saw. Since I was something like nine at the time, I thought it was awesome. Weird and occasionally disgusting, but awesome nonetheless. Imagine my surprise when I grow up to find out that the guy actually has an entire filmography (well, if you want to call six movies a "filmography") of equally as weird, equally as unique blood-soaked epics.

Since they make up a full-blown movie SERIES, the Basket Case movies have to be the guy's crowning achievement. Whatever some snobby English major wants to say about them as "artistic endeavors" or what have you, they're completely unlike anything you've ever seen. The first is the freakin' Taxi Driver of the slasher era, in tone if not in quality, while the second is a freak show masquerading as a horror flick. Still, even though I'd watched three hours of the sad, unintentionally hilarious tales of former Siamese twins who occasionally go on murderous rampages, nothing could have prepared me for the true levels of bizarrity that Basket Case 3: The Progeny manages to achieve. Unleashed on video store shelves (no theatrical release this time) a scant year after its predecessor, I fully expected a half-hearted effort. What I got was...just wow. It's just too goofy, even for me.

The cool thing about the BC series is that they're all very much direct sequels, picking right up where the previous one left off, and this one is no different. For those keeping score, the second movie ended with Belial giving it to "Eve," a similar deformed human being, and Duane going crazy and sewing his brother back on to his body. Well, the movie then warps forward in time, as Granny Ruth (once again played by Annie Ross), the lord and master of a safe haven for special individuals, has locked Duane in a padded room after his temporary bout of insanity. Oh, and the crude re-attaching thing didn't take, giving us one of the better retcons in horrordom.

We're also blessed with Kevin Van Hentenryck again for the duration of the movie, although this flick doesn't seem to have much to do with him. He's basically window dressing, as Henenlotter seemed to be actively trying to make this movie as holy-fuck weird as possible. The first movie was essentially all his, as the central conflict was Duane's quest for personal happiness and Belial's jealousy of him leading to their downfall. The second had Duane debating with himself whether or not he was a normal human being, ultimately realizing that he was completely alone. In this one, he spends 90 minutes begging his brother to talk to him again. To be sure, it's a little weak, and the story behind the scenes that Henenlotter really didn't want to make this movie seems to carry some credence.

ANYHOO...Duane is able to convince Granny Ruth that he is all sane and able, and it just so happens that Ruth is about to take the entire caravan of freaks on a road trip to the home of Doctor Hal (Dan Biggers), her ex-husband and also the father of the not-so-aptly named Little Hal (Jim O'Doherty), a prodigious inventor who also just so happens to have a massive glob for his lower half complete with about seventeen arms.

There's also something very important to mention about this section of the movie - while en route to Hal's residence (on a SCHOOL BUS), Ruth channels her vaudeville showbiz roots and unleashes...one of the most wonderful things I've ever seen.

It's almost as if Henenlotter said, "well, we've got a classically trained singer in this godforsaken movie...might as well use it."

Also while en route to the Hal family farm, some other crap that I wouldn't even bother recapping unless it had a bearing on future events takes place. The caravan stops at a gas station, where Ruth meets the friendly local Sheriff (Gil Roper) and Duane (still in a strait jacket, as Ruth still doesn't firmly trust him) attempts to convince the Sheriff's daughter Opal (Tina Louise Hilbert) to set him free. And it's all just as riveting as it sounds.

After what seems like forever, the group finally gets to Hal's residence, where the glorious birth sequence begins. Belial is, of course, present for this, but during the birth his 46K cache memory pulls up a little video for the audience to watch (the unintentionally hilarious "separation" scenes from the original film, marking the third time this has been shown in the series). The idea is that this prompts his rage against all doctors, and he throws himself at Hal, severely mauling him and impairing the oncoming birth operation. But not enough, I guess.

Now, the movie had been decidedly slow and boring up until this point, but this birth scene changes it up in a big way. Maybe too much. Little Hal takes over his father's position as the chief birth-giver, and spends a legit five minutes of screen time watching these mini-Belials pop out of Eve while screaming like a cheerleader. There's weird. There's abstract. And then there's just annoying as shit.

It's also worth noting that while this is going on, Belial has been drugged and locked in his basket by Ruth after the whole attempted murder incident, and spends this valuable time daydreaming. And we even get the video representation of just what he's thinking about. Yes, sir, this movie proudly features Belial Bradley sexual fantasies.

So, all of the little bastards are born now. End Movie A, commence Movie B.

Movie B of Basket Case 3: The Progeny is our proverbial "shit hits the fan" segment that pretty much every gore flick prides itself on, and thankfully it's a bit more tolerable than the opening segments of the film. Earlier in the movie, Duane had escaped from Hal's house only to be promptly captured by Opal (in a Hulk Hogan Bash at the Beach '96 esque heel turn) and several officers. While in jail, there's this whole fascinating scene where Opal even clues us in that she's an extreme sexual deviant of sorts, stripping down to practically nothing and attempting to whip him dominatrix style. Don't believe me?

A couple of the dumber town deputies make their way to Hal's, eager for the million dollar reward on the infamous "Times Square twins," as they're known in the confines of this movie's universe. They break in and promptly mistake a groggy Eve for Belial, killing her in the process and stealing the litter of babies before the celebrating freaks can get them. By the way, these two bozos (I didn't even bother to learn their names) have LONG sequences of dialogue together, and they make very good endurance tests. They make James Karen and Thom Mathews in Return of the Living Dead look super-dignified.

I think you all know where the movie was going from here - Belial is outraged at the death of his lady-friend, Ruth gives another Vince Lombardi rally the troops speech (although it's not quite as awesome as the one in the previous movie), followed by Belial singlehandedly decimating the officers on staff in the police station. During the course of this scene, Opal eats a shotgun blast from one of the hick policemen, ending her reign as the best damn dominatrix semi love-interest...there ever was. To give the movie some credit, it also has its fair share of gory, over-the-top murders, most of which happen in this sequence. If you like your Belial Bradley to be as sadistic as possible, this is your scene, baby.

Anyway, pretty much all of our principal opposition characters are dead now except for Sheriff My Daughter is Dead, leading to a final showdown between himself and Belial. Only there's a slight wrinkle thrown into the formula in the form of the robotic body that Little Hal has built for him. Yeah. Believe it. And there's also a little stinger at the end of the movie involving a stand-in for Geraldo Rivera eating it for his exploitation of freaks.

Having seen this entire series now, I'm going to revise my ratings somewhat and say that the first movie is definitely my favorite. The sleaze factor alone makes it - the graininess and the location filming gives it this undefinable quality, almost as if Frank Henenlotter just showed up in the slummiest section of New York and grabbed whoever was in eyesight for cast members. The second movie has an infinitely higher budget and way more intricate makeup effects sequences, removing some of the soul from the experience, but it's also such a polar opposite from the first movie in terms of tone that it still felt like a necessary movie.

This one, though, basically felt like a repeat of the second movie, only one that cranks up the goofy factor even more. It contains almost all of the same cast, and all of the freaks that seemed novel in that movie elicited nothing more than "eh" reactions from me this time around. The supporting cast definitely isn't as strong - Judy Grafe's dirtbag reporter character in the second movie was hateful to the core, which the army of dumb and/or greedy cops in this movie just can't compare with. Overall, the entire movie just had a very "been there, done that" feel to it, especially after watching its predecessor just a few days earlier, as there really isn't any tonal shift from that movie to this one. Most importantly, it just doesn't have the emotional kick that the first two movies did, mainly due to its relegating of Kevin Van Hentenryck to afterthought status. The dude had really grown on me.

Having said all that, I've walked away from this series with nothing but the utmost respect for Frank Henenlotter as a writer and director. As AFOREMENTIONED, it's widely speculated that he really didn't want to do this movie, and was generally sick of the whole Basket Case saga. Even with that handicap, he still managed to craft some unforgettable sequences ("Personality" anyone?) just as he has with all of his films. These movies are exploitation cinema crossed with schlock crossed with horror, and it's a shame that he took a 17-year break from making movies after the release of this particular flick. I can report firsthand, however, that it was well worth the wait, as his 2008 comeback film Bad Biology was 100% pure awesomeness.

One final word - I watched this movie on VHS just like the last one, and if you're going to check this one out, that's the route that I would suggest taking. There's just something so much more awesome about watching long-just-for-the-sake-of-long birth scenes and police officers' heads being twisted off in low-resolution VHS.

** out of ****. Recommended only for hardcore Frank Henenlotter fans, not recommended for horror fans at large.