DVD review (region 2)
Directed by Frank Henenlotter
Starring Kevin Van Hentenryck, Terri Susan Smith, Beverly Bonner (Basket Case); Rick Hearst, Gordon MacDonald, Jennifer Lowry (Brain Damage)
Release date Out now

In Basket Case, Dwayne Bradley checks into a hotel along with his basket-dwelling mutant twin. And in Brain Damage, Brian comes into contact with a strange creature that offers him euphoria in exchange for human brains…

Frank Henenlotter is something of the forgotten genius of 1980s American horror. While not exactly a prolific director, Henenlotter’s Basket Case and Brain Damage are two of the best micro-budget horrors of the decade. Both movies draw heavily from the weird and wonderful tradition of 1960s and 1970s exploitation cinema, but Henenlotter has an offbeat style all of his own. These lo-fi flicks are much smarter than they first appear, and the unique combination of deadpan humour and unrelenting gore is quite unlike anything else in splatter cinema.

It’s difficult not to warm to Basket Case’s Dwayne Bradley (played by the excellent Kevin Van Hentenryck). He’s an endearing loser wrestling with his obligations to his mutant formerly-conjoined twin Belial (who we eventually see outside of his basket via a cool combo of puppet work and stop motion animation) and his growing affections for the clearly bonkers receptionist Shirley (Teri Susan Smith). The relationship between Dwayne and Belial feels genuine and strangely touching, and they are never simply reduced to figures of fun.

Basket Case is as much a quirky indie comedy as it is a splatter pic, and the array of off-the-wall supporting characters wouldn’t be out of place in a Wes Anderson movie. From a larger-than-life tenant to a man-eating doctor, the film is populated by characters slowly going crazy in a big bad city. The sleazy underbelly of early-80s NYC is brought to life through Henenlotter’s documentary-style location filming, which lends the film a stamp of authenticity. Two sequels followed in 1990 and 1992, but Henenlotter has since admitted that they probably shouldn’t have been made.

The director recycled many of the same ideas for 1988’s Brain Damage, but if anything it’s even better. The story sees another young man (Rick Hearst) paired with a ravenous mutant creature – and this time the creature is a jovial, penis-shaped organism by the name of Aylmer (voiced by creature feature host John Zacherle). Whenever Brian plugs Aylmer into his neck he receives trippy, LSD-style effects, but it also allows Aylmer to take over and gorily suck the brains out of anyone he comes into contact with. In search for fresh meat, the pair amble around New York, hanging out in punk-populated nightclubs and fleapit hotels. At times it almost feels like After Hours with added brain-sucking, and it’s a demented masterpiece in its own special way.

The Basket Case DVD comes with minimal extras (but a budget price tag), while Brain Damage features a revealing commentary from the motor-mouthed Henenlotter who occasionally has to be reigned in by author Bob Martin and filmmaker Scooter McRae. Matt McAllister

VERDICT
Basket Case: 8/10
Brain Damage: 9/10
Two wonderfully barmy splatterfests.