Basket Case 2

Frank Henenlotter’s sequel picks up exactly where the original left off. Duane and his deformed conjoined twin Belial escape from the hospital and find refuge with Granny Ruth, who runs a Staten Island home for “unique individuals.” Duane falls for Ruth’s granddaughter Susan. Belial finds romance with Eve, another ambulatory torso. Then a nosy reporter shows up to ruin everything.

The bigger budget shows. Better film stock. Better Belial effects. But something’s been lost in the upgrade.

Kevin VanHentenryck has aged eight years between films, which the movie tries to hide with bandages at first. When he emerges, haircut and all, the time gap is impossible to ignore. Distracting, but not fatal.

Here’s what’s fascinating: This came out the same year as Clive Barker’s Nightbreed. Both films tell nearly identical stories about fugitives finding sanctuary among monsters, only to endanger the very haven protecting them. Did Henenlotter know Barker was adapting his own novella? The timing suggests parallel evolution rather than plagiarism, but the similarities are striking.

What’s really puzzling is how tame this feels. Henenlotter released Frankenhooker the same year, a gleefully transgressive gore-fest that’s far superior to this. The first half-hour of Basket Case 2 is almost bloodless. The goriest moments are flashbacks to the first film.

When it finally kicks in during the third act, it shows promise. Duane transforms from whiny victim to Norman Bates-style maniac. Henenlotter’s black comedy instincts kick in. Granny Ruth warns Belial that “ripping the faces off people may not be in your best interest.” When they track the reporter to Flushing, Ruth deadpans: “It figures.”

Some scenes genuinely work. The attic attack on the photographer, lit only by strobe flashes from his own camera, masks the Belial puppet brilliantly. And the finale delivers a surprise creature that looks like the Tremors worm mated with Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors.

But these moments can’t elevate the whole. Basket Case 2 is competent, occasionally inventive, ultimately underwhelming. It lacks the manic energy of Henenlotter’s best work. The Nightbreed comparison doesn’t help. Barker’s film, for all its flaws, commits more fully to its premise.

This is Henenlotter on cruise control. Not bad. Just not enough.