Basket Case 3 (1991) Revisited – Horror Movie Review

The Basket Case 3 episode of The Black Sheep was Written and Narrated by Andrew Hatfield, Edited by Brandon Nally, Produced by Lance Vlcek and John Fallon, and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.

One of the quintessential drive in kinda guys to me is Frank Henenlotter. Not only because of the anointing from the patron saint of Drive-ins himself, Joe Bob Briggs, but also just from a horror core memory. Long before I knew about the fabled 42nd Street in New York and all the magical movies that were shown there, I was introduced to Belial and his brother Duane on grainy VHS from Video Unlimited. That’s the magical part about being a horror fan. My brothers weren’t even particularly fond of the first movie, but knew it was an important piece of independent horror cinema. Shot for 35,000 and released in April of 1982, Basket Case is now enshrined in MOMA, that’s the Museum of Modern Art, and has been released on Blu-ray so that everyone can see it in high-def glory. I think that movie is made for grimy VHS or 35mm distribution in a seedy theater but to each their own. That wasn’t the last we heard from the two conjoined siblings though, as Basket Case 2 and Basket Case 3 (watch it HERE) were released in 1990 and 1991.

While these two movies fit together better with each other than the first movie in tone, effects, and even story, you can watch them separately. Similar to how part two seems to retcon the ending of part 1, the beginning of part 3 just recaps the ending of part 2. I like to think that the two brothers actually die at the end of the first movie when they fall off the building and the next two movies are a sort of “what if?” in their dying thoughts. Henenlotter isn’t for everyone, that’s for sure, but he has a fun catalogue especially considering how small it is. He started with the short film Slash of the Knife in 1972 which is also the first on screen appearance of Keven Van Hentenryck who plays Duane in more things than you would expect. It would be that short that would get interest in Frank, and he was able to make Basket Case. From there we would see the two Basket Case sequels, Frankenhooker, Brain Damage, and Bad Biology. The one I would recommend to any horror fan, however, is his documentary on Herschell Gordon Lewis, another director who is a bit of an acquired taste.

The movie recaps the end of part two with Duane and Belial staying with Granny Ruth and her other societal outcasts. Duane has again thought he found love but snaps when the girl he likes turns out to also be like the rest. He pushes her out a window to her death and re-attaches his brother to his side. That movie has a fun motif with Tod Browning’s Freaks. There is a reporter and her cameraman who want to expose and make money off Granny’s friends, but the group turns on her and tricks her into a fake interview with Belial. He scratches her face off to make her one of them and also kills the cameraman. Much of the rest of that movie is just ok and while Belial does find his love, its part 3: The Progeny that I think needs a second look. Both of these are horror comedies, but I think part 3 skates the line better and makes you care about these people more.

With death comes life as Belial has impregnated his girlfriend and she is ready to give birth. Duane has been locked in a padded cell and Belial isn’t speaking to him telepathically anymore, so he feels very trapped. So trapped, in fact, that he spends much of the remainder of the movie trying to run away before eventually just wanting his brother back again. Everyone piles on the bus to head over to a doctor’s house that Granny knows and almost all of the group is the same from the first one but the special effects team as able to sneak in a few new ones too. Some of the effects and make-up may look a bit too rubbery but it mostly works. The whole movie feels like a fever dream inside David Cronenberg’s Nightbreed. Duane tries to convince everyone on the bus that he’s back to normal, or at least his normal, but they leave him in a straight jacket for a while. Keven Van Hentenryck does a great job here and even Henenlotter says he plays it straight in a crazy world. Kevin didn’t do a ton in his career, in fact he plays Duane in over half of his feature film roles, but he does great here. While I prefer him in the first movie and all its grit, he is the closest thing we have to an avatar for the audience here.

We are introduced to the doctor before the rest of the group as the town sheriff comes to drop off a toy for the docs gifted son. We don’t get a great look at the kid but get the feeling that he belongs on the bus more so than his father does. The gang stops at a store and Granny has a confrontation with the sheriff as she is double parked while Duane tries to get help from a seemingly kind pedestrian. Of course, this girl isn’t kind, and she isn’t just a citizen either, she’s the daughter of the sheriff. They get to the doc’s house, and it turns out that the son of the doctor is also the son of Granny. We also get a good look at him this time and he is a blobby mass with multiple appendages. Granny lets Duane out of his straight jacket, and he bails immediately in one of the funnier moments of the film. Unfortunately for the kind doctor, Belial has a flashback of the doctors that treated him wrong in separating him from his brother and he mortally wounds the kindly town physician. They still get the babies, all 12 of them, as Granny and Hal’s son is able to help with the delivery. As an aside, I thought little Hal was probably the worst actor in the movie and it turns out he is mostly a behind the camera guy. He executive produced some pretty big shows like 3rd Rock from the Sun and Grounded for Life. 3rd Rock from the Sun is weird enough to fit right in with today’s movie.

Duane finds the sheriff’s daughter again, Opal, and to the surprise of no one really, she has him locked up and turns out to be pretty awful. Lost in this is Belial locked in his titular Basket having a weird fantasy, something of a metaphor for the finality of having children. The rest of the group starts celebrating while the deputies go after Belial to get their reward. They show up to the house and tragically kill Belials mate and steal all the babies. Duane realizes that he screwed up and just wants his brother back. Opal has a kink for bad boys and tries to get with Duane, but he just uses it as a distraction to escape. The movie really does subvert your expectations. Opal being not only a scumbag but also a sex fiend, Hal dying, and what happens near the end all come out of left field in a movie that is about as far into left as you can get. The deputies bring the babies back to the jail and I’ll be damned if they aren’t kind of cute. The effects here work and they don’t. When it was just Belial in the first movie, it was frightening and kept hidden. When he is just one of many, he admittedly looks kind of goofy as does his mate. The rest of the family looks incredible and out of a nightmare in terms of design.

The sheriff goes to confront the doctor when he learns of everything that’s gone down and Belial has come to, he jail to get all his babies. Duane realizes what’s going on and tries to warn them all but it’s too late. Belial and his basket have been brought in. What happens next is one of the strangest bits of gore I’ve ever seen. I’m not even entirely sure we can show you any of it but look it up, even if you don’t watch the movie because it is wild and worth it. Interestingly, they actually decided to cut a ton of script pages out, 11 in fact, as producers wanted the movie to be less gory. I think this was a mistake because the fans that want to watch this movie want as much gore as possible. You aren’t going to get people that weren’t originally going to see Basket Case 3 by removing some of the gore. This movie leans heavily into the comedy aspect so why not make the gore, which is already cartoonish in its execution, more prevalent?

Opal ends up getting shot and dying in the scuffle and also squishes one of the babies. Duane gets Belial out, but he has been shot and needs medical attention fast. Duane tries to undo everything he’s done the first two movies and part of this movie by taking him and Belial back to little Hal for help. The last 20 minutes of the movie become a nice call back to the first film where the brothers go after and kill all the doctors involved in their separation. Here, they decide to go after the remaining deputies and Sheriff. But of course, being in the third film in the franchise with a bigger budget, we need to go big. Hal makes Belial his own Aliens inspired mech suit that he uses to get his revenge. He kills the last two deputies, although disappointingly mostly offscreen, before having a final confrontation with the Sheriff who had planned to kill him all along.

The exoskeleton is equal parts glorious and ridiculous, and the last fight does it’s best to deliver. Belial looks like he may end up losing but his children attack and kill the sheriff before he can finish the job. The group appears on a talk show that aims to expose supposed freaks and they take out the host and destroy the set while Granny sends a warning to society that they will no longer run, no longer hide, and that the world is now theirs. It’s a final metaphor, if one that beats you over the head, and ends the trilogy well. No more hiding for Duane and Belial. Sadly this was Henenlotters final film for 17 years! He never would make a major film of impact as anyone willing to back him just wanted more Basket Case, something that Frank had zero interest in. He says this is his most disappointing movie and regrets making it so soon after the relative success of Brain Damage, Frankenhooker, and Basket Case 2 in a span of just 2 years. It’s not his best but it deserves a look. Well timed comedy mixed with really fun makeup and effects all while making yourself comfortable being uncomfortable. It’s available on Tubi often and Synapse Films even made it one of their special Blu-ray releases. Open the basket and accept what you find inside.

A couple of the previous episodes of The Black Sheep can be seen below. To see more, head over to the JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel – and subscribe while you’re there!