Rating: 3/5
Hooptober 3.0 | 22/31 | Frank Henenlotter
At the end of Basket Case, formerly conjoined twins Duane and Belial fell from a window of the Broslin Hotel. The two fell onto the pavement.
A Channel 8 news reporter is on location in Times Square, exposing Duane and Belial. Granny Ruth and her granddaughter, Susan, catch the news report.
An ambulance takes Duane and Belial to the hospital with a security detail outside their door. The guard flirts with a passing nurse, missing Duane waking up and hiding. When he enters to check on them, Belial chokes the guard out.
The press is barred from entering the hospital, but that doesn’t stop reporter Marcie from sneaking in and lying about having permission. She attempts to pay off the police while the brothers sneak out of the hospital. Outside, Granny Ruth and Susan pull up in a blue van to rescue and bring them into hiding.
Duane wakes up at Granny Ruth’s surrounded by folks with similar genetic deformities to Belial — people the outside world would call monsters. The film calls them “freaks” to further emphasize the homage to the 1932 film.
For Belial, they bring him a large wicker basket and take him to the attic, where Granny Ruth introduces him to the other “freaks,” including Eve, who is similar to Belial in appearance.
The film follows them as they adjust to their new life, with Duane carrying resentments toward Belial for him killing Sharon in the first movie and Marcie doing everything in her power to expose them and their doctor murder spree to the world.
Eight years is a long time between movies. They had to rebuild Belial, so he looks pretty different — altogether better but still not the same. They do an okay job of disguising how much Kevin Van Hentenryck has aged with the head bandages, but once they come off.
I love the character designs for the “freaks.”
The movie is so dependent on the first movie, repeatedly recapping stuff. We even rewatch flashbacks from the first movie. As a result, the movie has almost no momentum.
The movie has recurring moments where men catcall and act sleazy around women. It compares this form of exploitation with that the freaks face — people reduced to objects for consumption or scorn.
Annie Ross hams it up and is visibly having the most fun of anyone onscreen.
Overall, this film is a delightful creature feature, even if it doesn’t have much else to offer. The last 15 minutes, however, are pretty outrageous.
* Stray Thoughts * The subtitle for the word shit bleeped out on TV is “sh♪t”