the best cult classic ever: basket case

[Pablo]

When talking about Basket Case, Im referring not only to a movie but also to all the environment that surrounded it. Im talking about the New York of the late 70s, early 80s. Im talking about the end of a way of making b - horror movies, as I consider Basket Case as the last example of real "credible" low-budget cinema making. After this movie, it came all the Nightmares and Fridays you can imagine, rushing into a degradation that produced such crap as Scream or I Know What...
Therefore, I want to share, with people that really love b-horror movies, some comments on this really marvelous movie.

[StatCat]

I wouldn't consider it the last example of "credible"  low budget horror film making (there are tons that pop into my head that came in the 80s and somewhat in the 90s) I don't think you could really compare basket case to a friday or nightmare film as they weren't for the most part low budget and really can't relate to basket case at all. I have the basket case dvd (SWV) and it is definitely worth it. It's oe of my favorites and I do like the sequel slightly (doesn't even compete with the original though), but the 3rd film is where it went to hell.

[Trevor the Rat]

basket case was made too early in the decade to be one of the best of it's kind. i suggest you go beyond blockbust and check out some of the really good underated stuff that popped out of the 80s. basket case was great. the musical score, the setting, atmosphere, and belial himself were seriously eerie. thoughout the movie you went back in forth from seeing belial as a monster and as a person. one minute you see his hand reaching out of a grabage can for his brother which is pretty damn sad to him raping dwayne bradley's first love AFTER killing her. followed by two incredablly unfunny and s**tty sequals that were pretty much made for the sake of getting money for frankennhooker, another kick ass movie

[Pablo]

First, thanks for replying. What I meant with credible low budget horro movie, was that Basket Case was the last movie to bring one an atmosphere and a culture of its own. This in the sense that Basket Case was not as obvious and predictible as the rest of the horror movies we saw in the 80s, when the subject of the super evil serial killer monster (Freddy, Jason) was overused. Basket Case also embraced the environment it was set on and used it the same way Taxi Driver did (although different genre, another late 70s NY movie). You had the feeling you were there, in that cheap hotel, surrounded by all those bumps and loosers. That just enhaced the beauty of the whole picture and propelled the feeling of deepness that Basket Case had. In my personal opinion, never before a movie did so much in such a wide spectrum (regarding culture and atmosphere) as the first Basket Case. The sequels sucked like hell, but it was because they wanted to catch-up with the way horror movies were in the mid and late 80s. Thats a probe of the greatness of the original movie.