Basket Case 2

(1990) dir. Frank Henenlotter
viewed: 10/31/08

Last year, I ended up watching Frank Henenlotter’s 1982 film Basket Case.  I was totally impressed and entertained by its low-rent production, early 1980′s Times Square location shooting, and goofy and strange special effects.  So, married with some additional entertainment value attributed to Mr. Henenlotter, including Frankenhooker (1990), I was definitely holding out for the sequels.

Well, I don’t know what happened to Henenlotter in the 1980′s, but by the time he got back to his Basket Case series of films, the novelties has worn off, though the demented world perspective was still intact.  However, for the quality of experience, things were significantly diminished.

Though produced 8 years after the original, Basket Case 2 picks up exactly where Basket Case left off, with Dwayne Bradley and his tumoresque twin brother Belial, having fallen from the Times Square hotel window to their would-be deaths.  Only, 8 years later, or hours depending on your sense of reality, they awaken to escape to a home for “those who are different”.  A doctor, nicknamed “Dr. Freak” by the tabloids that follow and exploit her, has created a home on Long Island for the deformed beings who formerly wound up in sideshows, now tabloids, and administers psychological therapy and politically correct care to these beings.

This is almost progressive in and of itself.  But then you get into the costume designs.  The “freaks” are FREAKS.  Lots of rubber and artistic embellishment makes all of these oddities far more than anything even nature coughs up.  They are more comical and perhaps influenced even by other films and cultural artifacts than I can even try to put down.  It’s comic book.

It’s not that the film is either horrible or unwatchable.  It’s decent.  Not great, but amusing.  I think it’s only the disappointment I had following the original that made me less pleased with it than I could have been.

Henenlotter still throws in a couple of interesting character performances of a bar owner and particularly of a side-show operator who gets his comeuppance…these are performances in some ways that outshine the rest of the film.  Strange, ideosynchratic, and funny.  All good, in my opinion.