WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Malignant, currently in theaters and on HBO Max.
Malignant is the new horror flick from acclaimed director James Wan, who has more than his fair share of horrifying history with the spooky genre. He’s a bit of a horror film buff, with his fondness for these types of movies blatantly manifesting in his latest one.
Basket Case was a cult classic horror b-movie series about sadistic conjoined twins, and the plot seems to have inspired the story of Malignant. Though the stories do have their own divergences, it’s pretty obvious that Wan looked to this less than politically correct slasher to inform his newest movie.
What’s the Plot of Basket Case?
Basket Case, directed by Frank Henenlotter, was released in 1982 and starred Kevin Van Hentenryck as protagonist Duane. Duane begins living in a cheap hotel along with the contents of a mysterious basket. This is in fact his brother Belial, his heavily deformed conjoined twin who was forcibly removed from him when they were young. They resent the world for what was done to them, with the two plotting revenge upon the doctors that separated them.
Unfortunately, Belial grows jealous of his brother’s growing relationship with a nurse named Sharon and he kills her. This causes Duane to try to do the same to Belial, but the action only results in both of them seemingly falling to their deaths from a window. Despite the apparent finality of this scene, the movie’s cult success spawned two sequels from Henenlotter. Since then, it’s been considered a classic of low-budget, not so tasteful horror of the 1980s, with its content arguably becoming even more grotesque in modern times.
Basket Case vs. Malignant
Malignant also has a plot concerning an evil twin, though its story is a bit more supernatural while also keeping its core premise mysterious for most of the movie. It follows a woman named Madison, who suddenly begins dreaming about the murders of strangers despite not being involved. It’s revealed that these are the actions of her parasitic twin, Gabriel, who wasn’t completely removed from her as a child and shares the same brain. Taking over her body, Gabriel enacts revenge on those who would harm “his” body as well as the doctors that tried to remove him from Madison in their youth.
The plot is itself a twin to that of Basket Case, but with some major differences. For one, the twins in Basket Case were both in on the plot to kill those who had separated them against their will. In Malignant, however, it’s merely Gabriel who tries to enact this homicidal plot, with Madison not even remembering her brother for much of the film. Likewise, the aforementioned supernatural elements, such as Gabriel being able to control electricity as well as his commandeering Madison’s body make him a lot more proactive than the diminutive Belial, who relies on his brother a lot. The conclusion of Wan’s film is also quite different than that of Basket Case.
Both films have received good reviews, though Malignant, despite its budget, is much more of a blockbuster type of horror film. Malignant is meant to be a one-time story, so those wanting more may have to seek out the movie that inspired it. It’s unknown if the film’s success so far will raise Basket Case‘s profile beyond a mere b-movie, but it definitely can’t excise the movie’s huge influence like a malignant tumor.
To see its similarities to Basket Case, Malignant is currently in theaters and on HBO Max.
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