James Rolfe: It's Cinemassacre's "Monster Madness"! There's a certain kind of joy that one gets when they discover the movie "Basket Case". Finding this movie is like finding a dead frog stuck to the tire of a car; it's putrid and disgusting but it's such an amazingly spectacular mess that you can't look away.
The plot centers around a sociopath named Duane. At first he comes off as innocent and humble but you can just tell that there's something really weird about this guy.
(Duane struggles to keep the basket under control)
James: For one thing he always carries around a picnic basket and everybody wants to know what's inside, but that's his dark secret. He won't tell anybody unless he's a little drunk…
Casey: There's something else I've been dying to ask you… What's in the basket?
Duane Bradley: My brother.
Casey: Your brother!? (they both laugh hysterically)
James: That's a good bar-conversation. Well, just to clarify, inside the basket is his siamese brother and they're on a revenge mission to kill all the doctors responsible for separating them.
(The brother kills one of the doctors)
How does that thing even kill people?! It's nothing more than a twisted lump of flesh. Looks like a glob of silly putty with a flatten piranha-face.
Duane (drunk): He looks like a squashed octopus!
James: Or that, yeah… Well, eventually he gets a girlfriend and his brother doesn't like that one bit. In fact, it pisses him off.
Josephine: Take me, Duane…
(The brother emerges from the basket and violently roars as Duane holds Josephine locked in place on the bed)
Josephine: Oh, God! What is that? Duane, let me out… let me out! Duane, let me out!
James: Oh man, he really takes the whole 'bros before hoes'-business real seriously. The puppet and stop-motion effects are great in a cheesy way. That's what it is; just a cheesy monster movie, but it almost becomes something more. It's shows the loving relationship between two brothers, the times they have together, the arguments and trials they go through.
If you cut out the horror scenes it can almost be a heartwarming comedy. It just so happens the brother is a melting rubber-head with arms and it kills people. What an awkward piece of cinematic history. There are two sequels, but that's too much for my mind to handle.