Two Cents is an original column akin to a book club for films. The Cinapse team will program films and contribute our best, most insightful, or most creative thoughts on each film using a maximum of 200 words each. Guest writers and fan comments are encouraged, as are suggestions for future entries to the column. Join us as we share our two cents on films we love, films we are curious about, and films we believe merit some discussion.
The Pick
Cinema has a long and glorious history of anthology films, with varying degrees of success from film-to-film and installment to installment. The only consistency in anthology films is inconsistency, with stories varying wildly in content and quality.
Still, it’s always an exciting prospect when any collection of horror filmmakers decide to put their heads together and assemble some bite-sized bits of mayhem and terror.
Body Bags began life as an anthology series for Showtime, intended to capitalize on the sudden popularity of the format that HBO was enjoying with Tales from the Crypt. Showtime ultimately decided not to move forward with the project, so the three episodes completed by John Carpenter and Tobe Hooper were bundled together into a trilogy of terror.
Carpenter himself serves as the host, introducing the audience to a cadre of cadavers and the creepy stories that accompany said corpses. In “The Gas Station”, directed by Carpenter, a young woman is on edge working the night shift at, you guessed it, the gas station, because the radio is filled with warnings about an escaped maniac. In “Hair”, (Carpenter again) Stacy Keach gets hair plugs, with disastrous consequences. And finally, in “The Eye”, Mark Hamill is a pro-baseball player who loses an eye in an automobile accident. Desperate to keep his career going, he agrees to a transplant, only to suddenly begin seeing things he really, really shouldn’t.
Along with the people mentioned above, Body Bags clocks numerous enjoyable cameos or supporting roles including Wes Craven, Sam Raimi, David Naughton, Twiggy, David Warner, Greg Nicotero, Roger Corman, Debbie Harry, and even some face-time for Mr. Hooper. — Brendan
Did you get a chance to watch along with us this week? Want to recommend a great (or not so great) film for the whole gang to cover? Comment below or post on our Facebook or hit us up on Twitter!
Next Week’s Pick:
TRICK OR TREAT!! It’s that time of the year when we roll out a veritable smörgåsbord of spooky Two Cents picks for YOU, dear reader, to feast upon during the month of October.
In 1988, legendary effects pioneer Stan Winston (known for the Terminator, Aliens, Jurassic Park, and Predator franchises, The Thing, and many more) and stepped into the director’s chair to deliver his own unique creature feature. Sadly, Pumpkinhead fizzled upon release and Winston only directed one more feature film (the forgotten A Gnome Named Gnorm). But this monster movie had legs, becoming a cult favorite and even sprouting a minor franchise with multiple sequels. Neither Brendan nor I have actually seen it before, so this will be an especially fun one for us to cover. Join us! Pumpkinhead can be found streaming on Amazon Prime. — Austin
Would you like to be a guest in next week’s Two Cents column? Simply watch and send your under-200-word review to twocents(at)cinapse.co anytime before midnight Thursday!
Our Guests
I have to admit, I’d avoided Body Bags for years — mostly because all I knew was that it was cobbled together from an aborted TV series. Now I think it might become part of my annual Halloween season marathon. I’ve long had a soft spot for horror anthologies — whether it’s the old Amicus portmanteaus of the 1960s and 70s, the King/Romero Creepshow collaborations, or TV anthologies like Tales from the Crypt.
In tone Body Bags definitely skews toward horror/comedy, but with the emphasis more on horror. Co-director John Carpenter, while not a professional actor, clearly has fun as the morgue attendant who hosts the film’s proceedings. None of the three segments is groundbreaking in terms of content — they run the gamut from slasher tropes to alien invasion paranoia to a riff on the Hands of Orlac formula. What stands out is that, despite the presumably limited resources of a TV budget, the production values are fairly high. It also goes without saying that even a lesser effort from directors like Carpenter and Tobe Hooper will still be entertaining.
But what I enjoy most about Body Bags is the casting. The first segment, “The Gas Station,” features no less than Robert Carradine, Wes Craven, Sam Raimi, and David Naughton. “Hair” offers Stacy Keach giving a delightfully insecure performance along with Sheena Easton, Debbie Harry, and David Warner. The final segment, directed by Tobe Hooper, stars Mark Hamill, Twiggy, and even finds room for a Roger Corman cameo. Body Bags isn’t the best work from either director, but the sense of fun suggested by the cast and creators is pervasive and more than makes up for its shortcomings. (@T_Lawson)
The Team
Anthology horror has become a favorite sub genre for me and my current period of infatuation with these films started around the time I discovered this gem and wrote about it as a “Pick of the Week” (a column that eventually morphed into what we now call “Cinapse Selects”).
My favorite segment is the final one, though I do enjoy them all and have a fondness for the wraparound. “Eye” features an increasingly insane Mark Hamill and a good sci-fi/horror premise. It’s probably among my favorite anthologies segments period.
Rather than go any further, I’ll simply let you you check out my full review HERE. And, with that, I wish you a very happy and very spooky Friday the 13th! (@ThePaintedMan)
When a bunch of cool directors get together for a shared project, it can often feel like the behind the scenes documentary will be more entertaining the finished product. Like, I’m sure the dinners that resulted in the existence of Masters of Horror were insanely fun to attend, but the actual Masters of Horror show was a chore, a bore, and a snore, and other non-rhyming descriptors. So while the prospect of John Carpenter and Tobe Hooper and their various famous and semi-famous friends doing a Tales from the Crypt riff (with Carpenter as the Cryptkeeper?!?!?) sure sounded appealing, it also could have easily become an indulgent slog.
Nah. Body Bags is, if nothing else, a whole lot of fun. Carpenter and Hooper are both clearly having lots of fun as directors, and their various casts are all game to go as wild as possible, especially a truly lunatic turn by Luke Skywalker himself, Mark Hamill. At this late date, it really should not come as a surprise that Mark Hamill is up for basically anything, but his feverish descent into insanity is still a wild display of fearless commitment.
Body Bags is not a lost classic, but it’s a remarkably consistent and well-done bit of gory fun, very well-suited for this time of year. (@TheTrueBrendanF)
Horror anthologies are great in theory but their very nature, especially when different creatives are involved on the segments, invites a hit-and-miss quality that’s difficult to avoid. Usually in this situation there are some top highlights as well as missed beats.
Incredibly, Body Bags manages to avoid that particular pitfall. Instead of offering a dart-board of mixed shots, what we have here is a trio of solid and fun B-grade horror episodes with a helping of dark comedy. Boosted by fun casting including a ton of cameos from horror and screen legends and John Carpenter himself as our ghoulishly unhinged, undead emcee, the final product is an underrated gem that, perhaps because of its TV origins, has managed to slip under the radar of many horror fans despite the incredible creative powers behind it. (@VforVashaw)
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