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I didn't know about the Taxi Driver connection but it makes a lot of sense. The sleazy bar scenes also seem quite similar to those in Mean Streets. What I also like about stuff like Basket Case, Nightmares, Maniac, etc, is the way they seemed really close to porn - without the sex. There are scenes in Basket Case that seem more like the dialogue build up you'd find in a Jaimie Gillis film (who crossed the boundary from the other direction, with films like Water Power). And Cronenberg employing Marilyn Chambers for Rabid speaks volumes. That whole horror/porn thing didn't disappear; some of the Troma stuff gets there but in a more cartoon-like way and there's a lot of stuff now that's tied in with the whole goth/fetish thing, but I'll always have a soft spot for the sleazier Times Square atmosphere that marked films like Basket Case.
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