Basket Case

Duane Bradley arrives in New York City carrying a large wicker basket wherever he goes. What the basket holds is Belial, his formerly conjoined twin, a small and severely deformed creature that most people believe to be dead. The brothers were separated by surgeons against their will, and together they have come to the city to track down the doctors responsible and take revenge.

Frank Henenlotter wrote and directed Basket Case, his first feature, released in 1982. The film mixes horror and comedy, and its cast includes Kevin Van Hentenryck as Duane, Terri Susan Smith as Sharon, the young woman whose relationship with Duane becomes a point of tension, along with Beverly Bonner, Robert Vogel, Diana Browne and Lloyd Pace among 34 credited performers. Edgar Ievins produced it for Basket Case Productions.

The film was followed by Brain Damage, Frankenhooker, Basket Case 2 and Bad Biology, all directed by Henenlotter across the decades that followed. On IMDb it holds a rating of 6.2 from around 24,000 votes, while on TMDB it also stands at 6.2 from a much smaller pool of 482 votes. A critics' rating of 6.3 from 27 reviews places critical opinion close to the audience response, suggesting a modest but durable reception for a low-budget debut that has held the attention of horror viewers for decades.