Brain Damage first published by Film4 Synopsis: In Frank Henenlotter’s second comedy horror, a personable alien parasite named Elmer embodies the highs and lows of addiction in Reagan-era New York. Review: While so many other independent horror directors in the eighties were content just to churn out formulaic slasher flicks, Frank Henenlotter was staking out altogether…
First published by EyeforFilm Literature and cinema have long been filled with double-acts representing a personality’s repressed ego and monstrous id – think Jekyll and Hyde, Norman and Mrs Bates, Bruce Banner and the Hulk, ‘Jack’ and Tyler Durden, Mr Brooks and Marshall, Juzo Murasaki and No.13, to name but a few. Such odd couples, however,…
Basket Case 3: The Progeny first published by EyeforFilm From the instant that Frank Henenlotter’s feature debut Basket Case (1982) had become a Midnight Movie hit there was considerable pressure on the writer-director to come up with a sequel. But Henenlotter resisted for eight years, until he was finally persuaded by a two-for-one production deal that would also…
Basket Case 2 first published by EyeforFilm “I understand your pain, Belial, but ripping the faces off people may not be in your best interest.” So, in her hilariously understated way, says Granny Ruth (Annie Ross) to the murderous mutant that she has welcomed into her family home with a love, compassion and understanding that she…
Basket Case first published by EyeforFilm In the early 1980s, mainstream horror was dominated by repetitive slash and dash, with the likes of Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers and Freddie Krueger cornering (and strangling) the market as they sliced their way through leafy middle-class neighbourhoods – but as always, there was a counterculture available for those who…