Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.0

Body Bags Blu-ray Movie Review

Tales from the Morgue.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 26, 2013

Maybe it’s a good thing that Body Bags never went to series. In 1993 Showtime was looking for an answer to HBO’s Tales from the Crypt, and when John Carpenter ultimately agreed to not just direct the pilot but to also host as a morgue attendant called The Coroner, this series’ version of the “Crypt Keeper”, it looked like a fantastic new horror franchise might have been born. But a lesson from a couple of decades earlier might have proven to be a kind of warning shot across the bow of these initial high hopes. Rod Serling had made television history with his iconic Twilight Zone, which ran from 1959-1964. Years later, Serling himself wrote and hosted an anthology film for NBC’s “World Premiere” outings called Night Gallery which included a trio of well done and rather brilliantly written stories (including one helmed by a young newbie to Hollywood named Steven Spielberg, directing Joan Crawford no less). When NBC greenlit Night Gallery as a series, many Serling fans were beyond excited that their favorite writer-host was returning to weekly television, but despite some admittedly well done segments, Serling’s second turn at bat turned out to be a decidedly less satisfying affair than The Twilight Zone had been. One has to wonder if Carpenter and his cronies could have kept up the quality—not to mention the ubiquitous star cameos—that highlight Body Bags, a fun triptych of tales (two directed by Carpenter, the third helmed by Tobe Hooper). There’s nothing overly remarkable about any of these stories, but they’re fun and in at least one case funny, and they have their fare share of little scares scattered throughout them.

The three segments of Body Bags are:

The Gas Station. This is a riff on the time honored “isolated woman in dangerous circumstances” trope that has been a hoary horror cliché since the advent of film (or at least it feels like it has been). Anne (Alex Datcher) is a pretty young college girl who has just gotten a job at a rural gas station, working the graveyard shift. As she is dropped off at the station by her girlfriend, she overhears a radio news report talking about an escaped serial killer on the loose. She is let into the cashier’s booth by her co-worker Bill (Robert Carradine), who reiterates the unsettling information that the serial killer is on the prowl, intimating that Anne needs to be especially careful overnight. One might therefore assume Anne would make sure never to leave the locked cashier’s booth, no matter what happens, but of course then we wouldn't have a horror film. Affable Bill then takes off, leaving Anne all by her lonesome to deal with a revolving gas nozzle of bizarre customers (including Wes Craven, who I have to say looks pretty much exactly like Louis C.K. in this film). Anne of course is certain that one of these weird folks traipsing through the gas station (including nice guy David Naughton from An American Werewolf in London) has to be the escaped madman, and tension slowly builds, especially once Anne (in a moment anyone could have seen coming) leaves the booth and of course finds herself locked out. While Anne’s presence of mind allows her to get back into the booth in short order, the pieces have been set for a Grand Guignol finale which sees a fairly predictable reveal followed by lots of fighting, screaming and copious amount of blood letting (and spurting, it should be stated). The Gas Station is the most rote of the three entries in Body Bags, but it’s exciting and has a couple of genuine scares to liven the proceedings.

Hair. No, this is not “the American Tribal Love-Rock Musical”, but the most whimsical of the three entries in Body Bags. Stacy Keach plays Richard Coberts, an aging businessman suffering a mid-life crisis which is being exacerbated by his rapid hair loss. (Keach mentions in the commentary how liberating it was for him to appear semi-bald, since his father had been bald and always considered that “problem” to be a major factor in his not being able to find work as an actor. The younger Keach, who also was going bald, had been repeatedly admonished by his Dad to always wear his hairpiece.) Richard is in the throes of a fairly rocky relationship with his girlfriend Megan (singing star Sheena Easton), something else that’s being exacerbated by his hair loss. A smarmy sounding doctor appropriately named Lock (David Warner) keeps showing up on infomercials on television declaiming the benefits of his new miracle hair growing technique, and finally Robert can stand it no more, going in for what turns out to be a very expensive treatment. Robert’s fondest dreams seem to be realized when he awakens the next morning with a head full of tresses that would have made Samson himself jealous. Unfortunately that dream soon turns into a nightmare when Richard’s health declines precipitously and his hair (which is now sprouting over his entire body, Wolf Man style), seems to have a life of its own. Hair once again follows a fairly predictable course of a hapless guy getting what seems to be a long sought after goal, only to find out every so-called “miracle” has its price. (This very same storyline—more or less—just popped up in Smell, one of the shorts in the new horror anthology Chilling Visions: 5 Senses of Fear.) The denouement, however, features a nice, unexpected twist. Keach is fantastic in this piece, and the tone is pretty much pitch perfect, segueing nicely (if uncomfortably) between black humor and horror.

Eye, like Hair, involves a transplanted body part, but the tone of this Tobe Hooper directed piece is decidedly more sinister and disturbing. Remember how your parents or driving instructor told you never to take your eyes off the road? Well Major League baseball star Brent Matthews (Mark Hamill) doesn’t heed that very good advice one dark and stormy night as he drives down a rural highway. Trying for all his life to retrieve a cassette tape (remember those?) to stick in his car’s audio system, he actually unbuckles his seat belt (mistake number two) to lean over and get the tape, glancing up at the highway just in time to spot a deer standing in the middle of the road. A horrifying accident ensues, resulting in a shard of windshield glass penetrating Brent’s right eye. Brent and his wife Cathy (Twiggy—yes, Twiggy) are of course devastated, but soon hope appears in the form of some high tech doctors (including Roger Corman in a cameo) who tell Brent he can benefit from a newly developed eye transplant technique they’ve been working on. Brent of course readily agrees, and a new eye is implanted in his body. Things take an unsettling turn for the worse when the eye starts delivering visions to Brent of its last “owner”’s activities, which include a number of gruesome murders (and post-murder “activities”, if you catch my drift). Brent feels his own control over his soul slipping away under the onslaught of the eye’s influence, but he’s surrounded by people, including Cathy, who aren’t prone to believe him. Again, while there’s nothing especially new about this set up (how many old horror films featured “transplants” of body parts that belonged to killers or madmen, which then proceeded to take over their new host’s mind?), Eye is very well done and ultimately easily the most unsettling of the three shorts in Body Bags.

Note: While I have never seen the unrated DVD version of Body Bags, it does appear that this is the complete unedited version of the film, replete with the Coroner slicing into a body and a rather spectacular spew of blood in The Gas Station, among other moments which were evidently excised for an edited version.

Body Bags Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Body Bags is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Scream Factory, an imprint of Shout! Factory, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1 (more about that in a moment). The elements used for this transfer are in really good shape, with only a few very minor (almost imperceptible) specks showing up occasionally. Colors are beautifully saturated and there is a natural, though largely unobtrusive, layer of grain in evidence. Fine detail is exceptional in close-ups (see screenshots 1, 4 and 18 for good examples). While things generally look quite sharp and well detailed throughout the three films, some of the interstitial elements starring Carpenter as the Coroner are just a tad on the soft side, a situation exacerbated somewhat by the cool blue light bathing the morgue (see screenshot 19). Black levels are extremely solid, especially in The Gas Station, where the jet black night sky makes for an effectively creepy backdrop. On the whole, this is yet another great looking Carpenter outing from Scream, and fans should be very well pleased.

In terms of the aspect ratio, fans of Body Bags will know that the television version of course aired in a 1.33:1 aspect ratio. There has sometimes been confusion about the morphing of 1.33:1 to 1.78:1 (and vice versa) and there is a passing reference to the framing issues during one portion of the commentary. Though the comments are somewhat ambiguous, it sounded to me like this was filmed with both aspect ratios being kept in mind (it's mentioned that they were trying to keep especially gruesome information out of the frame no matter which aspect ratio was utilized, which is kind of funny, considering what's left) in the so-called open matte technique which was popular before the advent of flatscreen televisions and the popularization of the 1.78:1 aspect ratio. While that obviously means there will still be less information at the top and bottom of the frame and more at the sides than in the original television version, it doesn't necessarily mean that the 1.78:1 aspect ratio is "wrong", and there are certainly no framing issue problems per se here to report.

Body Bags Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Body Bags features both a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 and DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix. The 5.1 mix isn't really overly showy in terms of its surround activity, limiting immersion mostly to the sometimes creepy score (co-written of course by Carpenter) and some good foley effects. There is significant boost in the low end on the 5.1 mix, which really helps some of the "startle" effects like the great cue that accompanies Craven's sudden entrance in The Gas Station. Dialogue is very cleanly presented and both tracks offer excellent fidelity, though the 2.0 track is mixed at a noticeably less aggressive overall amplitude than the 5.1 track.

Body Bags Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Unzipping Body Bags: Featurette with Cast and Crew Interviews (1080p; 20:08) is a fun and informative piece with Carpenter and his wife Sandy King (who co-produced), as well as some cast members like Carradine and Keach, discussing the genesis, shoot and legacy of Body Bags.


• Trailer (1080p; 1:20)


• Audio Commentary with Director John Carpenter, Producer Sandy King, and Actors Stacy Keach and Robert Carradine. These commentaries were evidently recorded separately, since Carpenter mentions having already done the Keach segment during the Carradine segment. Carpenter hosts the first two segments, getting some good reminiscences out of his two stars (the banter between Carradine and Carpenter is especially enjoyable). Justin Beahm hosts producer Sandy King on the third segment.

Body Bags Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Body Bags isn't especially innovative, and in fact the interstitials featuring Carpenter, while a lot of fun, are obviously extremely derivative of Tales from the Crypt. But all three of these segments have something to offer, and all three feature some nice creepy moments. It's also fun to play "spot the star", as there a number of nice cameos sprinkled throughout the three segments (not all of which have been mentioned above). This Blu-ray may not have the overwhelming number of fantastic supplements that Shout! has included on some other releases, but both video and audio quality are excellent, and this release comes Recommended.