Basket Case (1982)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1982
	Director: Frank Henenlotter (Frankenhooker)
	Actors: Kevin Van Hentenryck, Terri Susan Smith, Beverly Bonner
	Country: USA
	Genre: Horror
	Conditions of visioning: 30.10.2014, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: 20-years old Duane Bradley settles in a hotel downtown New-York, always carrying a large basket. In it, his monstrous Siamese brother from which he was separated at the age of 12.
Review: This is the kind of movie I was watching in VHS when I was a big Horror fan 15-20 years ago. When I found out about this Steelbook limited edition (distributed by Second Sight, cover displayed at the end of this review), I bought it more for collection than for the will to watch the trilogy again. I have now watched the first of the three, the more cult one. The first third of an excellent 1h20 documentary confirmed what I suspected after watching the movie: the director Frank Henenlotter was young and very enthusiastic about making movies for the thrill of making them, not thinking that anybody would ever see them. Basket Case was shot in 8 mm film during a year for a  cost 35000 dollars, a very modest sum even at that time. You can see it in the quality of the settings, lighting, actors, special effects... The director, who supervised the Blu-ray edition, said the renovation was not supposed to make the movie look much better, but to make it look like it was on the first copy they printed back in 1982, and he says he succeeded. Indeed the images are not beautiful but quite sharp anyway, and I think true to the original film. The HD format reveals even more the "amateur" quality of the project. But this is one thing I like about the Blu-ray format: directors take it seriously and use it to release versions of their movies that look like they did when originally released. Then when you watch a movie like Basket Case, you have to be able to set aside the cheap aspects (the stop-motion animated sequences for example), project yourself into a cinema room of 1982 and appreciate the movie for what it was then: a gore comedy, as the director likes to present it. There are indeed splatter moments but they are never to be taken seriously. Also take the name of the doctors: Kutter, Needleman! One thing I didn't like on this Blu-ray is the sound mixing. OK the recording methods used at the time were likely poor (few bass, saturated screams), but what bothered me is that I had to continuously increase the volume to hear the dialogs, and decrease it when there were screams so as not to awake the whole neighbourhood! I found the balance not well done, and it is also the case in the documentary: the movie excerpts are much louder than the interviews. Following this good experience, I have ordered the "ultimate" Blu-ray edition of other classics of that period: Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988, Arrow Entertainment), The Blob (1988, Twilight Time) and Street Trash (1987, Synapse Films).
Rating: 6 /10