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Release: August 8th, 1993
Rating: R
Run time: 91 min
Starring: John Carpenter, Mark Hamill
Director: John Carpenter, Tobe Hooper
Official Trailer: Body Bags
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This movie has been on my radar for a very, very long time and I somehow always managed to just push it to the side and let my expectations build and build. After finally settling down and giving it a watch, I’m came out thinking it’s pretty good, but flawed in several ways. Let’s see what makes this anthology movie, more middle of the road, than amazeballs.
Short nitty-gritty plot description from IMDb is as follows: Three short stories in the horror genre. The first about a serial
killer. The second about a hair transplant gone wrong. The third about a
baseball player.
Tatlock’s Quick ‘n Dirty Recap: Body Bags is presented by John Carpenter and even hosted by the man himself, albeit in heavy makeup (god, I hope it was makeup). While lounging around in a morgue, The Coroner (JC) tells us three tales of terror. The first is titled The Gas Station, directed by John Carpenter. It’s a quick story, about a girl working the cash counter at a late night gas bar, on the outskirts of Haddonfield (yay, Halloween reference!). A killer is on the loose and as the night wears on, it’s becoming more and more likely the killer is close at hand.
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| Wes Craven in a quick cameo during The Gas Station segment. |
The second story is titled Hair, directed once again by John Carpenter. This one is more lighthearted and has some humorous bits. It’s about a man, played by Stacy Keach, who is getting worried about going bald. He decides to get a hair transplant from this new age place and before you know it, the guy has more hair than he can handle.
The last story is about a baseball player (played by Mark Hamill), who gets in a car accident and loses his eye. He gets an eye transplant and starts seeing crazy things and feeling murderous rage. I think we all see where this one is headed. The story is called Eye and is directed by Tobe Hooper.
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| However, seeing Mark Hamill’s ass and balls was pretty terrifying. Fair warning! |
Tatlock’s Opinion: The best story by far is The Gas Station. It has a some pretty good gore and it doesn’t overstay it’s welcome. The segment has several different cameos, from the likes of Sam Raimi, Wes Craven and David Naughton. Also, with it being in the same world of Halloween, it just made it all the more special.
As for the other stories, they’re alright, but nothing special. I got a kick out of Hair and had a good laugh at Stacy Keach having super long, Fabio type hair, but besides that, the story was kinda just okay. It felt more like a quick 20 minute Twilight Zone episode and didn’t have any sort of scary bits, or gore. The same goes for Eye, which just reeked of been there, done that. We’ve seen this story several times before (Body Parts for example) and this time around it just felt boring and the ending didn’t make much sense. Still, seeing Luke Skywalker slowly go crazy is always a blast.
Verdict: I had an okay time with Body Bags, but two of the three stories felt watered down and tame. The third story had been done to death. It’s not all bad, as the cameos are lots of fun and the first story makes up for a some of the faults of the other stories. Also, it was lots of fun seeing John Carpenter ham it up.
Rating:
