Body Bags is a film released by Showtime in the fall of 1993. I assume it was an attempt to cash in on (their rival HBO's)
Tales from the Crypt series.
And it works...
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Don't think it took a lot of makeup for
John Carpenter to pull this off... |
It's a horror anthology delivered by John Carpenter, Tobe Hooper and Larry Sulkis. It includes three different segments masterfully woven together by John Carpenter himself. Seeing this performance made me wonder why he doesn't take more acting roles in his films. He is that good... His portrayal of the "storyteller" rivals that of the Crypt Keeper. The same cannot be said about Tobe Hooper's performance...
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| Is Booger there? |
The first segment involves a new gas station attendant that scares easier than a coulrophobic at a circus. She makes all the usual cliche mistakes of a female horror character in distress. But it all results in a satisfying climax. One that includes copious amounts of paint-like blood. I find this to be the weakest among the three segments.
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| You want me to wear that wig? |
The second segment features Stacey Keach and a ridiculous hair transplant that goes awry. Keach plays a man that is so infatuated with the strands of keritan sticking out of his skull, that he probably cause his own hair to fall out by all the calories burned on worrying about it. Clearly this segment has Carpenter's spin on male pattern baldness... A condition that he is quite familiar with. But it it seems as though he satirizes the subject and pokes fun at the ridiculous lengths some men go to cover up the inevitable.
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So when exactly did my career
fall in the shitter? |
The third features Mark Hamill, another character subjected to (another?) botched transplant. This time he receives the eye of a killer. And somehow the organ poisons the host's mind and takes over. Yup its just good science folks. Roger Corman makes a brief cameo here, as does Mark Hamill's back sack...
I love the twisted, and often times campy humor in this film. I've always been a fan of the comedy-horror genre and this is a great example of how to do it right. It's a complete throwback to the EC comics of yore. This has been done
multiple times (
Tales From the Crypt, Tales from the Darkside, Creepshow) but somehow it still remains fresh.
+ Cameos (Wes Craven, Sam Raimi, Tobe Hooper, Roger Corman)
+ Great Humor
+ Some great practical effects
- Some poor performances
- Only three segments (And one is really weak)
Overall : B+
