10 Best B-Movie Horrors From The '80s

Telling the story of Duane Bradley, Basket Case details his search through seedy New York to find the doctors who forcibly separated him from his deformed twin. His twin Belial enacts the revenge as Duane helpfully carries him around in a wicker basket.

To say Basket Case is grimy is... an understatement. The movie is permeated with a seediness throughout that one could only find in Grindhouse cinema during the late 70s and early 80s. Basket Case captures New York at its lowest economical point and it can at times make for uncomfortable viewing.

That being said, Basket Case is also a movie very hard to take seriously. The often dreadful performances, the schlocky stop-motion effects and the confusing tone mean the movie often illicit more laughs than screams when trying to be scary.

Basket Case does feature some quite impressive and gruesome gore effects, if only the performances surrounding them were quite as impressive. Despite its shortcomings, the movie would go on to become an exploitation classic, doing quite well on a minuscule budget.

With more money and more time, the filmmakers veered more directly into comedy and parody with the Basket Case sequels, leading to more tonally consistent but less interesting films. This bleak, confused, grimy original is the one you'll remember.