Basket Case

Released in 1982, Basket Case, an ultra-low-budget “exploitation” film according to director Henenlotter who wasn’t worried about the look of the film because he knew “no one would see it!”  Tells the story of Duane and Belial a set of conjoined twins who are separated against their will by a trio of shady doctors.  When their care-taker aunt passes on they decide to look up the three doctors who cut them in half.  When initially released in a cut version Basket Case did not do well.  However, when legendary film personality Joe Bob Briggs insisted on showing an uncut version of the film, to the delight of fans, the distributer quietly started switching the failing cut version, for the uncut version, and the film took off!  “I never thought of Basket Case as a horror film-I thought of it as a monster movie.” Says VanHentenryck .  Basket Case has been re-released numerous times world-wide in a variety of formats, most recently in Blu-ray.  In 2018 the film was given a 4K restoration by The Museum of Modern Art (MoMa) in NYC, and is now part of MoMa’s permeant collection.