Body Bags (1993) – Hooptober Challenge #4
Requirements:
- Decades (4/8) – 1990s
- Tobe Hooper Films (1/1)
An odd thing happens when you start filling in the gaps with a director’s oeuvre. As the titles you’re watching become less and less regarded as classics, they tend to grow more uneven – and explosive. Like mining for precious materials, there is a lot of dirt and refuse that you need to wade through to find something worthwhile. But those worthwhile moments seem to hit harder. A great director, or a great horror mind, rarely has a complete miss. Even in a movie that has little to offer, there are moments that remind you of why that horror mind is highly regarded.
Hooptober has really helped me hone in on this idea. Many times, a director is highlighted, or several are. There’s nothing in the rules that states a movie has to be a first-time watch. I could comfortably sit down and go through and revisit the classics. It’d be a cozy Halloween season, and many of the best movies from notable horror directors merit multiple watches. But in the spirit of Hooptober, which aims in its rules to expand one’s horror repertoire, it makes sense to tally new films where possible (for me, anyway).
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I’ve fallen in love with lesser films from big directors thanks to the challenge: Murder Rock: Dancing Death by Fulci and The Funhouse by Hooper are the ones that come to mind. But I’ve also watched some real clunkers (again, with moments of greatness), like Eaten Alive by Hooper and The Nude Vampire by Jean Rollin. I challenge you to reach further into a director’s catalog. You might just find something that really resonates.
Hooptober, every year, requires watching one Tobe Hooper film. I went with Body Bags because it was the most popular (according to Letterboxd) Hooper film I hadn’t seen yet. More than that, I watched it because I also want to watch all the John Carpenter films (this is Hooper #10 and Carpenter #14 for me). I’m not entirely sure of its backstory, but it is an anthology film where Carpenter did 2 of the 3 stories, and Hooper did the 3rd… and I believe it was shown on Showtime.
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The wraparound features Carpenter as a crass morgue attendant with Tales From The Crypt-esque gallows humor. Each story is prompted by Carpenter’s character uncovering another dead body or body part. Carpenter’s delivery as an actor feels a little abrupt and stilted, but in a way that absolutely works for the character and the era. Several gags are used in these segues, and even though some are dumb, they still got a chuckle out of me.
The first story, “The Gas Station,” is the weakest of the bunch. The story revolves around a psychology student who moonlights as a nightshift gas station attendant. As she reports for her first night on the job at a new station, we find out that a lunatic murderer has escaped and is on the loose. We see the night through the eyes of Anne, the student/attendant… and frankly, it’s a bit obnoxious.
Much of horror hinges on a character’s judgment being flawed or misinformed. We see a character doing something understandable-but-stupid, and it puts them in a vulnerable position. It tightens our chest and shortens our breath, and we sweat out the results of their actions and reactions. But Anne, despite being a real go-getter and seemingly intelligent, seems awfully shortsighted. This isn’t supposed to be her first rodeo with the graveyard shift crowd at a filling station – but she treats everyone with a suspicion outsized of their actual threat level. I understand that I can’t fully grasp what it’s like to be a woman in her position and that they are far more likely to be victimized in every sort of way. But Anne’s intuitions seem abundantly off. She is afraid of all the wrong things and all the wrong people.
What people, you ask? Well, a veritable who’s who of horror! Director Wes Craven pops up as a lecherous old drunk who invites Anne to his car for some boozing and some hanky-panky (he’s terrific in his limited role, by the way). Peter Jason, who you’d recognize from virtually half of the big movies of the ’80s and from popping up in an astounding number of other John Carpenter flicks, plays a rowdy drunk passing through with a ladyfriend. David Naughton, best known for his lead role in An American Werewolf in London, plays a charming professor who flirts with Anne. And legendary character actor George Buck Flower (who always seemed to play a homeless man or a drunk and appeared in a number of Carpenter films himself) is the guy who finally freaks Anne out to the point of doing something about it.
There are a ton of busses (fakeout jump scares) in the movie, but for some reason – even with the film steeped in homage to horror and the setting of a remote gas station – the movie never used a bus for a bus (like the gag’s namesake from Jacque Tourneur’s Cat People). The segment devolves into a mediocre slasher final girl segment without enough of a body count in the beginning to make it fun. Director Sam Raimi also makes a cameo in this story.
The second story, “Hair,” is the clear winner of the three in my book. Stacy Keach, who is absolutely wonderful in this movie, plays a middle-aged man who cannot reconcile the fact that he is losing his hair. As with the other segments, this one is chock full of horror icons. Debbie Harry plays an overly flirty nurse. David Warner portrays the doctor/president of a hair treatment facility. My favorite cameo of the whole film comes in a genuinely funny montage of Stacy Keach watching people walking by with luscious, long hair – where effects legend and sometime-director Greg Nicotero proudly displays his locks. The montage is set to a good Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young song I wasn’t familiar with (and I always love finding new songs to add to playlists).
The story is a really fun body horror one with some unexpected stop motion and a disturbing end. It also leans heavily into the smutty and overly extra early ’90s aesthetic that always sat poorly with me – even as I was living through it.
The final story, “The Eye,” stars Mark Hamill as a wholesome minor league ballplayer with a chance at the big show. It is derailed when he gets mangled in a car accident. The story, directed by Hooper, feels awfully close in tone and story to an episode of Tales From The Crypt (that’s a good thing). Twiggy plays Hamill’s wife – marking the third singer/model in the film (along with Debbie Harry and Stacy Keach’s love interest, played by Sheena Easton).
The story hinges on where Hamill’s eye transplant came from and what it does to him. Hamill is terrifically convincing throughout, but the segment feels a bit hollow. It does, however, include more cameos – Roger Corman (the worst actor in the movie of all the directors) and the underappreciated John Agar.
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So, what did I think of this one? Well, I’d peg this as a slightly above-average horror anthology. As I wrote about in my review of 1972’s Tales From The Crypt movie, anthologies are notoriously difficult to pull off right. It doesn’t damage either director’s legacy, but it doesn’t add much to them.
All told, it’s a relatively fun flick that doesn’t feel ever really feel like a slog in its 94 minutes. Surprisingly, I’d say the best thing about it is John Carpenter’s Cryptkeeper-esque character segments in the wraparound. He makes for a good horror host, given the tone of the stories, and it’s a shame he hasn’t revisited the concept since. There are many gems you should watch first from Carpenter and Hooper, but I wouldn’t sleep on this one as a deep cut. It’s not going to change your life, but it will scratch that horror itch when you get it and need something new.
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