Alright, fellow tapeheads, let’s rewind to a truly bizarre corner of the video store shelf, a place where the neon glow seemed to flicker a little strangely. Remember the Basket Case saga? It started as pure, gritty 42nd Street grime back in ’82, a wonderfully sleazy tale of brotherly… well, attachment. Then came the sequel, broadening the world. But tonight, we’re cracking open the well-worn clamshell of 1992’s Basket Case 3: The Progeny, a film that took the established weirdness and cranked the dial way past eleven, landing somewhere gloriously absurd. This wasn't just a sequel; it felt like the original concept got mainlined with sugary cereal and Saturday morning cartoons, albeit ones involving goo and dismemberment.
### From Grindhouse Grit to Goofy Getaway
Picking up after the slightly more expansive Basket Case 2, we find poor Duane Bradley (Kevin Van Hentenryck, forever etched in our minds as the human half of this equation) and his lumpy, murderous brother Belial settling into a kind of domestic bliss. They’re under the wing of the formidable Granny Ruth (Annie Ross, stealing every scene she’s in with magnificent camp energy), who runs a veritable sanctuary for "unique individuals" – think the X-Mansion by way of a carnival sideshow. It’s a far cry from the seedy Times Square hotels of the original, feeling brighter, broader, almost… wholesome? Well, apart from the simmering rage monster in the basket. Frank Henenlotter, who returned to direct and co-write after largely sitting out the second film's script, clearly decided to lean hard into the inherent comedy of the situation. It’s a tonal shift that some fans found jarring back in the day, but honestly, where else could this story possibly go?
### Oh Brother, Where Art Thou... Babies?!
The central hook this time? Belial finds love (with a similarly shaped unique individual named Eve) and, against all biological odds, becomes a father. Yes, you read that right. Suddenly, Granny Ruth’s house is filled with the pitter-patter of twelve little… Belials? The practical effects work here is pure early 90s creature feature joy. These squealing, toothy offspring are brought to life with puppetry that’s both endearingly rubbery and genuinely creepy. Forget pristine CGI – this is the era of tangible monsters, of operators likely sweating buckets just off-camera to make those little horrors wriggle and bite. I distinctly remember pausing the tape just to get a better look at the sheer audacity of these puppet creations. Reportedly, the production, largely filmed down in Georgia rather than the series' original NYC stomping grounds, embraced its B-movie roots, stretching its modest budget to deliver maximum monster mayhem.
Annie Ross, by the way, wasn't just some character actress; she was a world-renowned jazz singer! Hearing her belt out the bizarrely catchy "Personality" song with her extended family of freaks is one of the film's many wonderfully strange highlights, adding a layer of surreal showbiz flair to the proceedings. It’s moments like these where Basket Case 3 fully embraces its identity as a horror-comedy leaning heavily on the latter.
### Road Trip Rampage
Naturally, things go sideways. When the local small-minded Sheriff (played with sneering relish by Gil Roper) gets wind of the monstrous birth and kidnaps the babies, Granny Ruth and her entire entourage load up a comically conspicuous bus for a rescue mission. This sets the stage for the film's climax, a chaotic assault on the police station that throws subtlety completely out the window. The practical gore effects, while perhaps less shocking than the original's raw unpleasantness, are plentiful and delivered with a certain slapstick glee. Remember how real those bullet hits looked back then, even when they were clearly squibs taped under a shirt? There’s a tactile quality to the mayhem here that modern blockbusters often smooth away.
And then there’s the pièce de résistance: Duane, finally snapping after years of Belial-related trauma, dons a jury-rigged mechanical walker suit built for his brother, effectively becoming a 'Mecha-Belial'. It's ludicrous, it's clunky, and it's absolutely unforgettable. Seeing Kevin Van Hentenryck stomp around in that contraption, complete with giant foam claws, is peak Henenlotter – pushing a bizarre concept to its absolute limit with gleeful abandon. Was it the most sophisticated effect ever committed to film? Absolutely not. But was it a moment that made you grin like an idiot when you first saw it on that fuzzy CRT? You betcha.
### The End of the Line?
Basket Case 3 wasn't exactly a critical darling upon release, and even among fans of the original, its sharp turn towards outright comedy was divisive. It lacked the grimy heart of the first film and the slightly more balanced tone of the second. Yet, viewed through the lens of VHS nostalgia, it holds a special charm. It’s a film unashamedly weird, made with practical ingenuity and a clear love for its monstrous misfits. It represents a certain flavour of early 90s direct-to-video oddity – slightly slicker than its 80s predecessors but still retaining that handmade, anything-goes spirit before CGI homogenized so much of the genre landscape.
Rating: 6/10
Justification: While undeniably the weakest and silliest of the trilogy, Basket Case 3 earns points for sheer audacity, Annie Ross's fantastic performance, and some memorably goofy practical creature/gore effects. It loses marks for ditching the original's atmosphere almost entirely and for a plot that feels more like an excuse for episodic weirdness than a compelling narrative. It’s uneven, often nonsensical, but rarely boring.
Final Word: A bizarre, rubbery, strangely endearing coda to a unique horror trilogy, Basket Case 3 is the cinematic equivalent of finding a weird novelty toy at the bottom of a cereal box – maybe not what you expected, but you can't help but play with it.