Basket Case 3: The Progeny (1992)

Cult director Frank Henenlotter does the seemingly impossible by breathing new life into this horror-comedy series about the twisted escapades of the Bradley Brothers: the deranged but sensitive Duane (Kevin Van Hentenryck) and his monstrously-deformed former Siamese twin Belial. The previous installment had the siblings settling a nasty dispute in a particularly grisly manner... but appearances can deceive, as the original Basket Case proved with its similar denouement, which the director casually ignored in order to move things along. This time, Duane and Belial are still a bit miffed at each other but eventually make cute when it's learned that Belial is going to be a daddy -- thanks to a stomach-churning tryst with the similarly-shaped mutant Eve in the previous chapter. Things seem to be returning to relative normalcy in their newfound home -- considering that said home is Granny Ruth's sanctuary for "Unique Individuals" whose curator (Annie Ross, reprising her role) offers bed and board to an ensemble of freaks with cartoonishly-large deformities. It is only when the entire group sets out for the Georgia clinic of Uncle Hal -- a specialist who is capable of delivering Eve's plentiful offspring -- that their revels come to an end, thanks to a redneck sheriff and his thick-headed deputies, who don't exactly take a shine to their kind. It's up to Belial to save the day, which he does with bloody gusto thanks to a mechanical exoskeleton built by Uncle Hal's ingenious multi-armed son. Despite falling into some of the same pitfalls as the previous film (namely the slightly-too-outrageous mutant makeup), this is a stylish coda to the series, with strong and very funny performances from the leads and some memorably grotesque moments -- especially a bizarre road-trip sing-along by the freaks and the jarring air of "cuteness" in the disgusting birth scene. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi