Basket Case

--Reviewed by Lindy Loo

When I sent out a request for horror movie recommendations a while back, Platyjoe recommended this bizarre little gem. I'd seen the box before, but never watched it. Thankfully, the library had it, and thankfully he was kind enough to extend the recommendation, because man was this a fun little horror movie romp.

Plotline: A young man arrives in the city, carrying a big wad of cash and a very large basket which he takes with him almost everywhere. Everyone is just dying to know what's inside that basket--literally. Soon we come to see what he keeps in there, and why it is that a certain few doctors he once knew are beginning to show up dead.

Scariness factor: Hee hee. Not so much scary, though occasionally bizarre and mildy-creepy at times.

Gross-Out Factor: Mostly just lots of choking that somehow leads to massive blood-loss and gashes on people.

Complaints: There is no fricking way that the thing that lives in the basket would EVER fricking be able to fit in there. It's like managing to fit an elephant into a mini-Cooper--not happening.

High Points: This movie was fantastically campy and bizarre and one of the more fun and entertaining horror flicks I've seen in a while. Definitely don't expect scares, but despite that fact, you WILL be entertained. The acting is very wooden, the reactions always over-dramatic, there is stop-animation used at least a few times throughout, you get to see both male and female nudity, a really lame romantic interlude, and the special effects fluctuate between cool and creepy and just plain terrible--all the characteristics of a damn good campy horror flick. And it has a bizarre and disturbing ending that rides the line between laughable and just plain disturbing.



Overall: Seriously, if you haven't seen this, pick it up and watch it with some friends. You will laugh your ass off, you will find yourself bizarrely disturbed, and you *WILL* be entertained.

Grade: A-