Body Bags

Directed and starring John Carpenter and Tobe Hooper and written by Dan Angel and Billy Brown, Body Bags is an anthology film where a coroner and two morgue attendees tell three different stories relating to the bodies they’re analyzing. The first entitled The Gas Station is about a serial killer stalking a gas station attendee while the second entitled The Hair is about a botched hair transplant involving an alien parasite as both segments are directed by John Carpenter. The third entitled Eye is about a baseball player who receives an eye transplant unaware that it belonged to a killer that is trying to possess him as it is helmed by Tobe Hooper. Also starring Robert Carradine, Stacy Keach, David Warner, Twiggy, Sheena Easton, Mark Hamill, Tom Arnold, and Debbie Harry. Body Bags is a riveting and enjoyable film from John Carpenter and Tobe Hooper.

The film is essentially a trilogy of tales told by a coroner (John Carpenter) as it play to the bodies he is examining in one scary night. The first entitled The Gas Station is about a college student who works on her very first night as a gas station attendee as she deals with strange customers as well as the presence of a serial killer on the loose. The second story entitled The Hair is about a middle-aged man dealing with baldness as he goes to a mysterious doctor about a hair transplant where everything seems to go well until he discover alien parasites in his hair. The third and final story entitled Eye is about a baseball player who loses his right eye in a car accident where he goes into surgery to get a new one as he starts to see strange things involving dead bodies and such. All of it is told in different styles where screenwriters Dan Angel and Billy Brown play up some of the suspense where The Gas Station is about an unusual first day at work while Hair is about insecurities and vanities that eventually catches up to a man. Eye is about a man desperate to go back to baseball unaware of the horror he is seeing with his new eye.

Since the first two segments and inserts are directed by John Carpenter and Eye is helmed by Tobe Hooper with Larry Sulkin providing additional work on the insert scenes. Each segment is given a different feel as both Carpenter and Hooper both provide their own idea to their segments while the inserts where Carpenter plays the coroner are presented in a comedic manner. For The Gas Station, Carpenter creates something that is more of a suspense film as it is about a college student’s first day as a gas station attendant where there are bits of humor but also moments where Carpenter plays with the suspense. Much of his compositions in that segment and The Hair are quite simple where the latter is a bit more playful as Carpenter goes for something straightforward rather than make it a big-time horror piece. The scariest segment is definitely Eye where Hooper creates something that is more conventional in terms of the horror genre but prefers to play it out slowly as it also has some more stylistic compositions including surreal moments that play into the terror. Overall, Carpenter and Hooper create a fun and thrilling anthology film about terror.

Cinematographer Gary Kibbe does excellent work with the cinematography from the colorful look of the interiors at the morgue as well as the nighttime exterior scenes for The Gas Station and Eye. Editor Edward A. Warschilka does nice work with the editing as it is stylish with its rhythmic cuts to play into the suspense for all of the segments. Production designer Daniel A. Lomino and set decorator Cloudia Rebar do fantastic work with the look of the morgue as well as the gas station interiors for The Gas Station as well as the more straightforward look of the other segments.

The makeup work of Rick Baker and Greg LaCava, with hair stylist Carolyn Elias, do amazing work for the look of the mortician as well as the look of the new eye in Eye as well as the hair in The Hair. The special effects work of Howard Jensen is terrific as it play into the look of the parasites for The Hair. Sound editor Anthony Milch does superb work with the sound as it help create some of the chilling moments of suspense in The Gas Station and Eye. The film’s music by John Carpenter and Jim Lang is wonderful with Carpenter providing some unique electronic-based pieces for The Gas Station while going for kitsch-based jazz in The Hair while Lang provides a more symphonic score for Eye.

The film’s cast is great as it features an array of cameos from horror film icons as well as pop culture icons. For the scenes set in the morgue, John Carpenter is hilarious as the mortician while Tobe Hooper and Tom Arnold are terrific in their brief roles as the morgue attendees. In The Gas Station, the cameo appearances from Wes Craven as a customer, George Buck Flower as a homeless guy, and Sam Raimi as a dead guy are fun yet the short is largely focused on Robert Carradine in a superb role as the gas station attendant who shows the new girl what to do while Alex Datcher is wonderful as the new girl Anne who is stalked by a crazed serial killer. In The Hair, the appearances of model Kim Alexis and special makeup effects creator Gregory Nicotero as people with good hair are fun to watch while Debbie Harry is a hoot as a nurse trying to help the protagonist find the right look.

David Warner is excellent as Dr. Lock as the man who can help the character Richard find new hair while Sheena Easton is fantastic as Richard’s girlfriend Megan who tries to assure him that he looks fine. Stacy Keach is brilliant as Richard as a man who becomes insecure over his bald hair as he is eager to have a new look and feel happy only for things to go wrong. In Eye, the cameo appearances of Charles Napier as a baseball coach, Roger Corman as a doctor, and John Agar as the surgeon are just amazing to watch while Twiggy is terrific as Brent’s wife Cathy who becomes worried about her husband’s troubled behavior. Mark Hamill is marvelous as Brent Matthews as baseball player who loses his eye in a car accident as he gets a new eye but becomes unhinged by what he is seeing as Hamill definitely camps it up for the performance.

Body Bags is a remarkable film from John Carpenter and Tobe Hooper. It’s a fun anthology film that feature a trilogy of stories created by two masters of horror as it’s a film that is about terror at its most chilling. In the end, Body Bags is an exhilarating and fun film from John Carpenter and Tobe Hooper.

Tobe Hooper Films: (Eggshells) - The Texas Chainsaw Massacre - (Eaten Alive) - (Salem’s Lot) - (The Funhouse) - (Poltergeist) - Lifeforce - (Invaders from Mars) - (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2) - (Spontaneous Combustion) - (I’m Dangerous Tonight) - (Night Terrors) - (The Mangler) - (The Apartment Complex) - (Crocodile (2000 film)) - (Toolbox Murders) - (Mortuary) - (Djinn)

John Carpenter Films: Dark Star - Assault on Precinct 13 - Someone's Watching Me! - Halloween - Elvis - The Fog - Escape from New York - The Thing - Christine - Starman - Big Trouble in Little China - Prince of Darkness - They Live - Memoirs of an Invisible Man - In the Mouth of Madness - Village of the Damned - Escape from L.A. - Vampires - Ghosts of Mars - The Ward

The Auteurs #60: John Carpenter Part 1 - Part 2

© thevoid99 2016

Videodrome

Originally Written and Posted at Epinions.com on 9/11/07 w/ Additional Edits.

One of cinema's most eccentric and dark visionaries, Canadian David Cronenberg has been known to scare audiences with his fetishistic tone and themes of conflict that often involves man versus nature in some aspects or man versus machine. Following a career that began in the 70s with films like Shivers, Rabid (with 70s porn actress Marilyn Chambers), The Brood, Fast Company, and Scanners. Then in 1983, Cronenberg released a film that would not only expand his already devoted cult following but also would raise his profile as an auteur with a film that blurred reality and fiction entitled Videodrome.

Written and directed by David Cronenberg, Videodrome tells the story of a local UHF TV station president whose desire to get controversial material for his channel gets the best of him when he meets a radio therapist while discovering a new underworld of snuff films. Immediately, his life changes as he encounters hallucinations while changes to his bodies emerge. A mix of horror, shock, and sci-fi, this film is considered one of Cronenberg's quintessential films. Starring James Woods, Deborah Harry, Sonja Smits, Peter Dvorsky, Leslie Carlson, and Jack Creley. Videodrome is a surreal yet fascinating film from David Cronenberg.

In his continuing search to find new material for his UHF TV channel, Max Renn (James Woods) seeks to find anything that is extreme in both sex and violence. Despite a following that is growing, so is his detractors where one day, he is a guest at TV talk show by host Rena King (Lally Cadeau). Also in the show is a radio therapist named Nicki Brand (Deborah Harry) and a TV professor named Brian O'Blivion (Jack Creley) who appears via TV. During the discussion, Renn asks Brand if she wants to go out on a date. During his work for new material, he turns to his technician Harlan (Peter Dvorsky) where he shows him a dark, snuff-like program known as Videodrome.

Introducing Brand to a bootleg tape of the program, she is impressed since she has a love for sexual mutilation. Wanting to learn more about the show, it's based on Pittsburgh as he turns to his colleague Masha (Lynne Gorman) for information that leads him to O'Blivion. Visiting a mission center run by O'Blivion, he meets O'Blivion's daughter Bianca (Sonja Smits) who tells him more about Videodrome. Nicki decides to leave for Pittsburgh to audition for the show where suddenly, things get strange after watching another tape that was sent by O'Blivion to Renn's secretary Bridey (Julie Khaner). Suddenly, O'Blivion is on the tape telling him about Videodrome and its dark forces as the hallucinations Renn sees start to emerge.

With Bianca telling him that her father is already dead, she sends him more tapes about the dark phenomenon as it leads to the show's producer Barry Convex (Leslie Carlson). Convex contacts Renn through his optical services where he helps him get more in touch with his hallucinations. The world of reality and fiction is blurred as he turns to Harlan for help after seeing a dead body. When he suddenly learns what Convex wanted, Renn starts to lose control of his self turning to Bianca for help. Realizing what he must do, he knows that he has to destroy Videodrome and all of its sources.

Given Cronenberg's strange, creepy vision, the film is about extremes in many forms whether it's entertainment or technology. Yet, the film is really about a man's desire for extremes and how he enters an underworld that becomes too much for him. The script that Cronenberg creates is filled with suspense and horror where he introduces his audience to the world that is Videodrome. For the second act, the film becomes a continuing exploration with a twist concerning Convex as it leads to a horrifying third act that involves a open-like slit on Max Renn's stomach that looks like a female genital. Yet, it's Cronenberg's direction that is the highlight for all of its depiction of extreme sex and violence though the violence isn't like extreme action films. Instead, it's shown to disturb audience given Nicki Brand's love for sexual, self-mutilation.

With the help of special effects master and make-up artist Rick Baker, the film is definitely like no other with video tapes moving, TVs acting as if they're more than machines. Cronenberg makes sure the audience is either uncomfortable or excited depending on their tastes. At the same time, he goes further into the concept of man versus machine and how in the third act, Max Renn loses control and has become controlled by the machine. The result of all of these ideas that comes from Cronenberg's head proves to be a film that is truly from the mind of an original.

Cronenberg's then-longtime cinematographer Mark Irwin brings a wonderful look with his camera, notably the exterior scenes with shadows in Renn's room as well as the exteriors shot in Toronto. Irwin's work is brilliant to convey the film's eerie tone while longtime art director Carol Spier creates a unique look to the film. The Videodrome set with red walls and such are very lively while the mission is unique for its look of cubicles and such. Costume designer Delphine White creates a more casual look to the film with the exception of the red dress that Debbie Harry wears along with a showgirls clothing for one of the film's sequences that featured additional work from Cronenberg's sister Denise.

Editor Ronald Sanders, another key Cronenberg collaborator, creates a pacing, cutting style that plays to the film's suspense and tone that is superb. Even in how it plays to the hallucinations of Renn. The contribution of Rick Baker's work in make-up and such is a highlight from the way it plays like a horror film while creating wonderful production designs for a TV set, a videotape, and the genital-stomach slits. Sound editor Peter Burgess helps with the film's suspense by creating sounds that would scare an audience. Longtime composer Howard Shore brings an ominous score led by synthesizers to convey the film's creepy tone and suspense.

The casting is wonderfully superb and memorable with performances from Lynne Gorman, Julie Khaner, and Lally Cadeau as the different colleagues of Renn with Cadeau as a TV talk show host. Peter Dvorsky is excellent as the laid-back technician Harlan who always call Max "padrone" while revealing him secrets that involved Videodrome. Jack Creley is excellent in the role of Brian O'Blivion who helps Renn in unveiling the Videodrome phenomenon with Sonja Smits in a very memorable supporting role as O'Blivion's daughter. Leslie Carlson is great as the shady Barry Convex who reveals to be the man behind Videodrome with his intentions of hoping to take over the world.

New wave singer Deborah Harry of the band Blondie gives a wonderful, creepy performance as therapist Nicki Brand. Known for her unique sex appeal, Harry uses it to convey the dark nature of her character as well as her love for self-mutilation. The presence she brings is terrifying while proving to be a capable actress in playing a complex role that is small but worth remembering. In one of his early leading roles, James Woods is brilliant as the extreme-loving Max Renn. Woods manages to bring an intensity to his performance that is part of his trademark as well as what makes audience enjoy him so much. He definitely carries the film while proving his range whether he's being quiet or being a bit humorous. There's never a dull or bad moment he gives in the film's performance proving that he's one of those can't-suck actors.

When the film was released in early 1983, it proved to be a cult hit as since its release more than 20 years, the film has proven to be a touchstone for David Cronenberg. Even in the industrial music scene, the film had been sampled by many acts including Skinny Puppy while its dark imagery and extreme, sexual content has also brought inspiration. In 2004, the film was re-released by Criterion with new features and extras including the video clip Samurai Dreams in all of its glory that was shown briefly in the film.

Videodrome is truly one of the strangest films ever made in the 1980s and it couldn't have come from a mind as stranger than David Cronenberg. Those new to the director will no doubt find this as a great place to start, even as his work is becoming more mainstream. Still, Videodrome has something to offer for fans of dark themes and shock while fans of actor James Woods will no doubt consider this one of his best films. In the end, Videodrome is a provocative yet eerie film from David Cronenberg.

David Cronenberg Films: Stereo - Crimes of the Future - Shivers - Rabid - Fast Company - The Brood - Scanners - The Dead Zone - The Fly (1986 film) - Dead Ringers - Naked Lunch - M. Butterfly - Crash - eXistenZ - Spider - A History of Violence - Eastern Promises - A Dangerous Method - Cosmopolis - Maps to the Stars - Crimes of the Future (2022 film)

The Auteurs #26: David Cronenberg: Pt 1 - Pt. 2

© thevoid99 2011