Body Bags (1993)

Better Late Then Never

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Blistering performances.

A cadaverous coroner (John Carpenter having a maniacal field day in grotesque make-up) at a hospital morgue relates three tales of terror.First and most suspenseful segment, "The Gas Station" - Anne (a solid and sympathetic performance by Alex Datcher) finds herself being terrorized by an escaped killer while working the late shift. Carpenter builds plenty of nerve-wracking tension and makes supremely claustrophobic use of the isolated central location. Robert Carradine has a ball portraying a relentless psycho.Second, most quirky, and amusing yarn, "Hair" - Balding Richard Coberts (a terrific Stacy Keach) seeks an unusual treatment for his hair loss problem which has unpleasant side effects. Done with a winningly dry sense of humor by Carpenter, this one has a nice message about the price of man's vanity. Keach deserves a lot of praise for being such a good sport, David Warner excels as the sinister Dr. Lock, Sheena Easton contributes an appealing turn as Robert's long-suffering girlfriend Megan, and Deborah Harry vamps it up with saucy aplomb as a nurse.Third and most gruesome vignette, "Eye" - Baseball player Brent Matthews (a sturdy performance by Mark Hamill) receives an eye transplant which has lethal repercussions. Director Tobe Hooper really piles on the gore and does an able job of crafting a spooky atmosphere. Twiggy does well as Brent's concerned wife Cathy. While the punchline is predictable, it nonetheless still delivers a seriously nasty punch.The enjoyable assortment of cool cameos by such familiar faces as Roger Corman, David Naughton, Wes Craven (who's a hoot as a slimy creep), Charles Napier, John Agar, George "Buck" Flower (cast to type as a grubby bum), Sam Raimi, and Peter Jason adds immensely to the overall entertainment value. Both Gary Kibbe's fluid cinematography and the moody score by Carpenter and Jim Lang are up to snuff. A neat omnibus opus.

In this early-90s, Tales From The Crypt-style, made-for-TV anthology from masters of horror John Carpenter and Tobe Hooper, creepy morgue attendee The Coroner (played by Carpenter, whose acting is nowhere near as good as his directing) unzips three tales of the macabre…Tale number one, The Gas Station, is directed by Carpenter, and stars Alex Datcher as Anne, whose first night as a gas station attendant doesn't go quite as planned when she is targeted by a serial killer. Operating well within his comfort zone, Carpenter returns to the same bag of tricks he used years earlier for his seminal blockbuster Halloween, delivering a tense, atmospheric piece that, while not exactly groundbreaking thematically or visually (one shot, in particular, is lifted directly from Halloween), still proves to be a lot of fun. Datcher makes for a likable scream queen, there's quite a bit of enjoyment to be had from guessing which of the station's patrons might be the killer, and we get a few welcome cameos from some well-known horror luminaries.Hair, Carpenter's second offering, also sees the director visiting familiar territory: a They Live-style story of aliens operating undercover on Earth, it sees desperate, balding, middle-aged man Richard Coberts (Stacy Keach) visiting an experimental hair clinic that guarantees overnight results. Unfortunately for Richard, his new lustrous locks are actually minute parasitic extraterrestrials that intend to feed on his brain!!! With such a patently silly concept, Carpenter has no option but to play this one for laughs, and amazingly, it works, with the balding Keach proving that he has quite the sense of humour. Hair also features decent turns from David Warner as sinister Dr. Lock, Debbie Harry as his kooky nurse, and Sheena Easton as Cobert's sexy girlfriend Megan.In contrast to the light-hearted nature of Hair, the third and final segment, Eye, is a much darker affair. Directed by Tobe Hooper, it tells of up and coming baseball player Brent Matthews (Mark Hamill), whose career looks to be over when he crashes his car, losing his right eye as a result (a shard of glass piercing the organ). However, thanks to a revolutionary eye-transplant procedure, he regains full vision, but at a cost: his new eyeball causes him to have horrific visions and gradually alters his personality. Yet another scary story to borrow heavily from horror classic The Hands of Orlac, this is extremely derivative stuff, but thanks to solid direction from Hooper, some cool gore, a surprisingly strong central performance from Hamill, and a neat downbeat ending, Eye proves to be a delightfully twisted and thoroughly enjoyable way to wrap up this fun little flick.

Darkly comic anthology from John Carpenter.This is three short stories, interlinked by a scene in a mortuary, where the mortician is actually played by Carpenter himself. Other than that it is notable for a string of cameo appearances from people in the horror world including Tobe Hooper, Wes Craven and the mighty Sam Raimi.And, my God, it's actually very good.First up we have the slasher story, parodying Carpenter's own Halloween. Next is a ball burstingly funny tale about a guy obsessed about his recent hair loss, and finally Mark 'Skywalker' Hamill plays a baseball player given a new implanted eye after a car accident.It's all played for black laughs, and is very successful.Highly enjoyable.

There isn't much to say about this film, if you are horror movies fan, you gonna like it. This film is made in a same style as Creepshow and many other horror flicks. There is nothing special about it, but it does what it promises - to tell three great horror stories. All three stories were good. After i've watched Creepshow 2, I thought I would newer watch these kind of movies again, but this movie was much better than Creepshow 2. The first story was the best. It was made in Alfred Hitchcock's style when waiting of whats coming to you is the scariest part. The second story was more comical but still great. Deborah Harry had a small role in it. The third one was also good and I liked an idea of it very much.