Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Basket Case

     Duane Bradley is a meek and somewhat odd individual who carries a basket around with him wherever he goes. What's in the basket? Well, it grunts and groans eats hamburgers and hot dogs, and has a sort of telepathy with Duane. 

      Duane and his basket have rented a room at a seedy motel and have "as yet unknown" reasons to seek out two particular doctors. We soon learn that Bradley was born with a severe deformity where a not quite developed conjoined twin is attached to the left side of his body. They name it Belial (ironically after one of the fallen angels) and call in the docs to remove it. Duane and Belial are actually quite upset that they are going to be separated, especially since Belial is not much more than a blob of flesh with arms, eyes, and a drooling mouth. 

      Anyway, when Duane finally has the means, he tries to locate the doctors that separated him from his mutant twin and want them to reattach what should never have been removed in the first place. They're not entirely successful and Belial escapes, leaving an obvious and convenient opening to the sequel. 

      This has way more comedy than horror and I'm sure many people have trouble putting it in any one of those categories. It's a great film though, it's lots of fun, and has some really cheesy special effects, leaving us with the knowledge that this film was definitely made on a shoestring budget but despite this fact it actually made some unexpected profits, spawning two sequels. 

      Creepy as it is, this idea is based on an actual condition known as a "fetus in fetu", where during the development of twins in the womb, one fetus is stronger than the other and develops around the weaker fetus, essentially consuming it. Later in life, the weak inner fetus begins to develop much like a tumor, and is often discovered due to the assumption that a tumor is all it is. Then surprise, the tumor has arms, legs, hair, fingernails, etc. If left untreated, this parasitic twin starts to develop outside of the host twin's body, leaving a person with legs and arms growing out of their abdomen. Unlike the movie, 99.9999% of all parasitic twins are born with little or no brain at all.

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