Body Bags (1993)

Directed by John Carpenter & Tobe Hooper. Starring Mark Hamill, Stacy Keach, Alex Datcher, Robert Carradine, Twiggy, John Carpenter, David Warner, David Naughton, Sheena Easton, Peter Jason, John Agar. [R]

A trio of horror shorts “hosted” by Carpenter as a coroner with a grisly sense of humor (and a penchant for self-satisfied puns straight out of the playbook of HBO’s “Tales from the Crypt” Cryptkeeper…or slaybook!). First is a rather ordinary college-girl-versus-serial-killer tale set at a gas station during the graveyard shift; then there’s Keach seeking out a miracle hair-growth cure with a sci-fi twist; finally, a ballplayer gets an eye transplant from an executed murderer that turns him into a raving lunatic. Mostly predictable stuff given routine treatment by two famous horror directors—Carpenter helmed the first two; Hooper the last one, which ends up being the best by sheer virtue of Hamill’s effectual performance as the transplant patient who has horrifying visions (with his bulging eyes and moustache, he’s highly reminiscent of Michael Biehn’s screw-loose SEAL team leader from The Abyss). Lots of cameos, including a few titans of the genre (Wes Craven, Roger Corman, Sam Raimi, and Hooper). First aired on Showtime with plans for a spin-off series that never materialized.

51/100