In the Mouth of Madness (1995) Analysis and Review

 “Do you read Sutter Cane?”

    Most great directors tend to go down that path towards that one film that defines who they are. A film that summarizes everything that makes them great. For example, Alfred Hitchcock merged all his talent to give us his masterpiece ‘North by Northwest’ (1959), Akira Kurosawa was destined to make ‘Seven Samurai’ (1954), and ‘Barry Lyndon’ (1975) can be seen as Stanley Kubrick’s manifesto. This is the case with John Carpenter’s 1994 tour de force ‘In the Mouth of Madness’. This film is the climax extravaganza of his career before eventually phasing out of film in the early 2000s. The film was panned by critics, performed poorly at the box office, but has nonetheless grown a considerable cult following. So why is it so beloved now? Well I’ll answer that later in the review.

Spoilers down below

Proceed at your own risk

THE STORY

    Sutter Cane is one of the world’s most renowned horror authors. His books have sold over a billion copies, translated into eighteen languages, and have outsold Stephen King and even the Bible. Just as he’s due to turn over his latest and final manuscript to his publisher, he disappears without a trace. The publishing company hires freelance insurance investigator John Trent to track down Cane and his manuscript. Earlier before he was hired, Trent came into contact with Cane’s ax-wielding agent who was shot dead by the police. Linda, Cane’s editor, explains that Cane’s novels tend to cause disorientation, paranoia, and memory loss among his fanbase. The deeper he gets into his investigation the more he unearths that Cane’s work affects people in alarming ways.

    While Trent is studying Cane’s novels he uncovers a hidden red shape on all of the novel’s covers. He then proceeds to rip out all the front covers of the books, oh my bibliophile heart, then cuts out and rearrange the shapes to reveal a map to the fictional town of Hobb’s End. He brings his findings to the publishing director Jackson Harglow. Harglow assigns Linda to accompany John to help recover the manuscript. John believes that this is an extravagant publicity stunt for the new book, but he goes along with it since he’s curious how it plays out.

     Linda not only being Cane’s editor is a huge fan of his work. John views Cane’s work as garbage. As they try to find a town that doesn’t exist, they begin to experience an abnormal phenomenon. At night, she drives past a boy on a bike with playing cards in the spokes. The sounds are overpowering. She looks in her rearview mirror and watches him vanish into the darkness. Then she drives past an elderly man on the same bike. Are they hallucinations? She brushes it off and checks the map. While she’s trying to figure out where they are, she accidentally runs into the same elderly man on the bike. She and John get out to check on the man. He may look old, but he has a voice of a young man. He tells her, “I can’t get out. He won’t let me out.” He then gets up and peddles off into the night.

    With even more strange occurrences they astonishingly find the town of Hobb’s End. It’s your usual picturesque New England town, but it’s abandoned. Doesn’t look like it’s been abandoned for a long time since it’s well kept. The streets and shops are completely empty, until there are children chasing a dog through the streets. They check into a hotel owned by the sweet looking, yet sinister, Mrs. Pickman. Nobody in the town has heard of Sutter Cane even though the whole town seems to be straight out of one of his novels. Even Mrs. Pickman is a character in his novel, yet she ever heard of the man. Something is wrong with Hobb’s End and this become apparent once they arrive at the church.

    When they arrive at the church all the locals start to appear with shotguns. The church door is locked so they yell out demands that Cane return their children. The door of the church open and in the doorway is one of the children. The door proceeds to open and close until Sutter Cane appears in the boy’s place. Then he sends the hounds to take care of the locals. John still believes that it was all staged. Linda admits that was it was originally going to be publicity stunt, but they weren’t supposed to find anything. After their argument she runs off to confront Cane, where she exposed to his final answer, which drives her insane. 

    John goes into the bar in town to discover Simon, the bartender, walking around with a shotgun. Simon tells John to get out of Hobb’s End while he still can. John still believes that he’s a paid actor for this publicity stunt. He then goes to the hotel to find Linda there acting weirder than usual. So what does he do? The only rational thing to me, he returns to the bar for a drink. He sees a bloodied Simon sitting down with the shotgun this time. Simon believes that the town and its citizens, including himself, are just characters in Sutter Cane’s book. He then points the shotgun in his mouth. John tries to stop him. His response is “I have to! He wrote me this way.” Then pulls the trigger. I’ll come back to this scene later. John then tries to drive off from Hobb’s End, but keeps teleporting back into town. Unable to leave like the boy on the bike. He ends up crashing the car knocking him out.

    John wakes up in a confessional and a bright light comes from the other stall. Sutter Cane begins to speak to John from the other side of the confessional about belief. Talking about how he is now God and then they appear in his study. Cane hands him the novel ‘In the Mouth of Madness’ to bring to the world, since that’s what he wrote him to do. So John is simply a character made up by Sutter Cane. Cane then tells him to leave his realm since the Old Ones are about to come and he won’t stop them. John runs as fast as he can away from the monsters. Then John appears in the real world as if nothing has happened. He’s still holding onto the book, which he quickly drops to the ground. Trent only had to deliver ‘In the Mouth of Madness’ to reality. So in dropping it on the ground, his mission was complete and reality was infected.

    John goes to see Harglow to warn him not to publish the book, but Harglow points out that John gave him the book months ago and it has been out for weeks now. And of course the movie will be out within the next month. John goes to a bookstore to kill whoever reads ‘In the Mouth of Madness’ hence why he is in the asylum. 

    

LOVECRAFTIAN INFLUENCE

     I’ve been a fan of H.P. Lovecraft since I was a boy and it’s always been difficult to find a good Lovecraftian horror film aside for a select few. If you’re a fan of his work you can definitely see the influence that Lovecraft had on the film. First off are the titles of Sutter Cane’s novels are copied of those of Lovecrafts. ‘The Whisperer of the Dark’ from ‘The Whisperer in Darkness’, ‘The Thing in the Basement’ from ‘The Thing on the Door-Step’, ‘Hobb’s End Horror’ from ‘The Dunwich Horror’, ‘Haunter Out of Time’ from both ‘The Haunter of the Dark’ and ‘The Shadow Out of Time’, and lastly the title of the film itself based on ‘At the Mountains of Madness’. An insane narrator, a trope commonly used by Lovecraft, tells the film’s story in flashbacks. The surname of one of the characters Mrs. Pickman comes from Lovecraft’s story ‘Pickman’s Model’. Sutter Cane’s writing even contains direct passages from Lovecraft’s work. For example, when John is reading aloud from one of Cane’s book while they are walking to the church at Hobb’s End. The passage was “the seat of an evil older than mankind and wider than the known universe”. That was a direct passage from Lovecraft’s ‘The Haunter of the Dark’. Then there’s the references to the ‘Old Ones” by Sutter Cane. The monsters that eventually come to life in the end are references to the Cthulhu Mythos. ‘In the Mouth of Madness’ is hands down the best Lovecraftian horror film to date.

FREE WILL

   Do we have free will or is everything predetermined for us? This is the age old question in both psychology and philosophy. In ‘The Matrix’, Morpheus asks Neo if he believes in fate and Neo responds with no. Morpheus questions why he chose that answer and Neo responds, “ because I don’t like the idea that I’m not in control of my life.” As a psychology major I was always fascinated by this question of if free will was real or if it was just an illusion. ‘In the Mouth of Madness’ in a way brings up the question free will throughout the film.

   John believes no one pulls his strings, that he’s independent, and that he has free will. Near the end John discovers the ultimate truth that he is simply living a life of a book character that is at the beckon call of Cane. Cane sees himself as a god. He develops characters and plays their every action in advance. He writes their eventual ends in his infallible Word. His creations can refer to his Word to see how it turns out, but they have no free will to change the outcome. He was cruel to give his many creations consciousness and allowing them to believe in the illusion that they are real people.

Sutter Cane: You are what I write, like this town. It wasn’t here before I wrote it and neither were you.

John Trent: No, I know what’s real. I know what I am. And nobody pulls my strings.

Sutter Cane: You think my agent attacked you by accident? He read about you in there. He knew you’d bring it back and start the change. Make what’s happened here happen everywhere. He tried to stop you.

John Trent: I’m not a piece of fiction!

Sutter Cane: I think, therefore you are.

     The town of Hobb’s End didn’t exist till Cane wrote it. John was reading the books within the book to find its location. The church at Hobb’s End was the bridge between fiction and reality. Only two people read the first couple of chapters of the manuscript though: Cane’s agent and Julie. The agent saw what Cane was trying to do so he tried to prevent it by killing John, but if he read it wouldn’t he know that he couldn’t prevent it? That Cane already predetermined his end and John was going to get the book to the public anyways. That he too does not have free will. His decision has already been made. Much like a chess game played on the computer. It calculates for hours trying to compute the best move. It may be evaluating millions of positions. The end decision is ultimately fixed by the input state. It’s a choice, but its not free. The agent’s end decision was fixed by Cane, the writer. It was just a process that guided to a conclusion and that conclusion was forced by prior causes. So not free. Julie was just an instrument to get John to Hobb’s End and once she did that she was written out of the book. When John tries to prevent Simon (a resident of Hobb’s End) from committing suicide he tells John, “I have to! He wrote me this way.” This brings me to another thing that peaked my interest.

LAST TUESDAYISM

     The plot twist that John was created by Cane is intriguing. The concept is pretty disturbing. It’s like the idea of Last Tuesdayism. It’s the idea that the universe was created last Tuesday, but with the appearance of it being over a billions years old. That all the books, films, galaxies, and your memories were all formed at the time of creation, which was last Tuesday. So all our memories of what happened before that are false, which is a scary thought. That means history was a lie: the holocaust never happened, there was never an Abraham Lincoln or JFK, and no atom bomb was ever dropped. People would be able to get out of jail because the crime that happened before last Tuesday didn’t even happen. So how would John know if his memories are real or false. 

REALITY

Simon: The thing I can’t remember is what came first… us or the book.

John: We are not living in a Sutter Cane story! This is not reality!

Simon: Reality is not what it used to be.

        Reality is brought up a lot throughout the film. Up until this point John keeps saying, “this is reality.” In this scene though he says, “this is not reality!” Earlier Linda told John, “ A reality is just what we tell each other it is. Sane and insane could easily switch places, if the insane were to become the majority. You would find yourself locked in a padded cell, wondering what happened to the world.” This of course was foretelling what would happen to him. One person’s perception of reality is wholly different from another persons. Reality is based on conjecture. The film explores the idea that reality is a delicate thing, that if the “sane” would suddenly become “insane” all would be lost. Cane has such a power that his magnum opus makes everyone insane and he throws reality in the blender.

THE COLOR BLUE

   Sutter Cane tells John that his favorite color is blue. As his influence grows you see more and more of the color blue from blue houses, blue shirts, to close ups of people’s eyes are blue. Even the opening credits are all in blue. Seeing the color blue everywhere proves Sutter Cane’s power.

FINAL THOUGHTS

    Sam Neil is truly superb as the practical, jaded, and chain-smoking insurance investigator with is Humphrey Bogart detective persona. He is constantly questioning everything that is thrown at him. It may be a Lovecraftian horror film, but it does pull from some of the classic noirs. When he says, “Lady, nothing surprises me. We’ve fucked up the air, the water, we’ve fucked up each other. Why don’t we finish the job by just flushing our brains down the toilet?” Now that’s a chain-smoking detective line from a noir film if I ever heard one.

   Just as impressive is Jurgen Prochnow as Sutter Cane. From his grand entrance that looks like it came from a Classic Universal Monster film you just know that he’ll steal every scene that he is in. He brings that depravity to the character. Frances Bay plays the horrifyingly sweet, but deadly Mrs. Pickman. There’s a nice brief appearance of Charlton Heston as Harglow. Lastly, there’s the film debut of Anakin Skywalker himself Hayden Christensen. 

   The practical effects were quite well done. It’s what one would expect from John Carpenter. The effects have actually haven’t really aged due to the practical effects, miniatures, animatronics, and some good ole rubber suits. When the “Old Ones” were released by Cane, those monsters alone required over thirty puppeteers to operate. I loved that grotesque horror imagery.

   The film is criminally underrated and for a long while was widely overlooked and misunderstood, but has since gained a cult following. So at the beginning of this review, I asked the question why is this film so loved by many now? Not only is it a tremendously well-written and paced Lovecraftian story with great performances and effects, but its depth. Not many horror films have meaningful depth. There’s narrative depth between its layered cerebral, philosophical, psychological, and physical horror. ‘In the Mouth of Madness’ really rewards the viewer with multiple viewings, which is a rare testament to the film. It’s one of the boldest, unique, and most memorable films in the horror genre.

5 out of 5

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) Review

“He was growing into middle age, and was living then in a bungalow on Woodland Avenue. He installed himself in a rocking chair and smoked a cigar down in the evenings as his wife wiped her pink hands on an apron and reported happily on their two children. His children knew his legs, the sting of his mustache against their cheeks. They didn’t know how their father made his living, or why they so often moved. They didn’t even know their father’s name. He was listed in the city directory as Thomas Howard. And he went everywhere unrecognized and lunched with Kansas City shopkeepers and merchants, calling himself a cattleman or a commodities investor, someone rich and leisured who had the common touch. He had two incompletely healed bullet holes in his chest and another in his thigh. He was missing the nub of his left middle finger and was cautious, lest that mutilation be seen. He also had a condition that was referred to as “granulated eyelids” and it caused him to blink more than usual as if he found creation slightly more than he could accept. Rooms seemed hotter when he was in them. Rains fell straighter. Clocks slowed. Sounds were amplified. He considered himself a Southern loyalist and guerrilla in a Civil War that never ended. He regretted neither his robberies, nor the seventeen murders that he laid claim to. He had seen another summer under in Kansas City, Missouri and on September 5th in the year 1881, he was thirty-four-years-old.”

   I’ve often thought about ‘The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford’. The film is about the infamous outlaw and the man who took his life. It’s the best examination of Jesse James ever committed on film and not only that, but one of the best character studies as well. Director Andrew Dominik examines every fine detail about who the man was. The title ‘The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford’ doesn’t focus on Jesse James, but instead on the man who would become his killer. This is because the film isn’t told from the perspective of Jesse James, but by Robert Ford’s perspective.

   

   We first meet Robert outside of Jesse’s camp out in the woods. They’re preparing for what is meant to be the James gang’s last robbery before they break up. Robert Ford is a hired gun of minor importance tries to get in the favor of Jesse James himself. Robert grew up idolizing Jesse and always put him up on a pedestal. He believed all the stories and myths he heard about Jesse. He collected books and memorabilia that dealt with Jesse James. Robert is ultimately accepted into the gang and strikes up a relationship with Jesse. Robert lives to please Jesse and Jesse seems satisfied to obtain such dedication and respect. After getting to know Jesse James, Robert comes to understand that the famous outlaw is simply just a man. He’s not a god. He is not exceptionally clever or special. Over time, the two become locked into a love hate relationship. Robert needs Jesse’s approval and it’s hard to see why Jesse needs Ford, but the need is there nonetheless. That’s what makes Robert’s ultimate betrayal so powerful. After a series of mishaps, misunderstandings, and decline of trust Robert expects that Jesse James will eventually kill him.

    “Can’t figure it out. Do you want to be like me or do you want to be me?” Jesse asks Ford. Throughout the rest of the film, Robert starts to dress more like Jesse. When he kills for the first time, he leans up against the wall grinning. He wants to become the new Jesse James almost. He wants Robert Ford to become a household name. As the film progresses, Ford’s love and obsession for Jesse slowly turns into bitterness. He realizes that he’s nothing and will never be an equal to the famous Jesse James. He just has anger built up against Jesse. First he had a desire to be Jesse, but then he wants to replace him and Jesse James is the only obstacle in his way of fame.

   Before Robert Ford’s betrayal, he walks around Jesse’s home. He sits in his bed, drinks his water, envisioning him missing a fingertip. Ford seems almost possessed that he’ll be the next Jesse James. Then it happens… the betrayal. 

   This scene is the perfect example of all the elements giving the film a somber, autumnal, and melancholic feel. James deliberately removes his gun holster and places it out of reach, while he stands staring out his window with his back to Charlie and Robert Ford. These actions suggest that Jesse knows what is about to happen. He’s ready for it. Jesse looking out the window has an almost spiritual sense to it.  The cross-shaped grille he stands behind. Even his black vest gives him the appearance of a minister. 

    The room they are in is lightly furnished with dark brown furniture and the beige walls. There’s a dark brown wall shelf and a portrait on one side. Then there’s a simple drawing of a brown horse on the other side of the room. Jesse turns around and comments, “Don’t that picture look dusty,” in regards to that drawing, which is strangely located high up near the ceiling. Seems unlikely that anyone can see dust that far away. Jesse sets a chair in front of the wall so he can properly reach the drawing. His back is once again to Charlie and Robert. Robert aims his gun at Jesse, who can see it happening through the reflection of the glass pane. He knows he’s about to die, but does nothing to avoid it. Ford at long last pulls the trigger ending Jesse James’ life. It’s a suitably dramatic and stylized end to a figure whose immorality and mercilessness did nothing to stop Robert Ford from worshiping him nor murdering him.

    Robert Ford is so blinded by his mission for fame that eventually his desires two-timed him. He’s famous for murdering Jesse, but he’s famously hated. Robert is neither loved, respected, nor feared… just hated. He’s called a coward, receives death threats, and is driven to alcoholism. It seems bizarre that so many people would jump to the defense of one of the most important criminals in the West, but legend had taken hold. He deals with public hate and regret. Then the cruelest blow is dealt to Robert Ford.

“Edward O’Kelly came up from Bachelor at one P.M. on the 8th. He had no grand scheme. No strategy. No agreement with higher authorities. Nothing but a vague longing for glory, and a generalized wish for revenge against Robert Ford. Edward O’Kelly would be ordered to serve a life sentence in the Colorado Penitentiary for second degree murder. Over seven thousand signatures would eventually be gathered in a petition asking for O’Kelly’s release, and in 1902, Governor James B. Ullman would pardon the man. There would be no eulogies for Bob, no photographs of his body would be sold in sundries stores, no people would crowd the streets in the rain to see his funeral cortege, no biographies would be written about him, no children named after him, no one would ever pay twenty-five cents to stand in the rooms he grew up in. The shotgun would ignite, and Ella Mae would scream, but Robert Ford would only lay on the floor and look at the ceiling, the light going out of his eyes before he could find the right words.”

  In other words, Robert Ford dies hated and is forgotten. Jesse James dies a hero of the people. A symbol. His longing of fame is unproductive and destructive.

   ‘The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford’ is melancholic, slow, atmospheric, and haunting. It’s possibly one of the saddest westerns I’ve ever seen. It’s not your typical western film, if anything, it’s an anti-Western, which is rare. The film clocks in at about two and a half hours. I found it to be thoroughly appealing and unbelievably striking. It’s as if Terence Malik directed a western.

  The score to the film is amazing. Nick Cave and his pianist Warren Ellis composed it. Nick Cave, of course, is one of my favorite artists. ‘Into my Arms’ and ‘Where the Wild Roses Grow’ are some of my favorite songs. The score adds a lot to the atmosphere to the film. Nick Cave also has a nice little cameo as a minstrel. 

   Then there’s the cinematography done by the one and only Roger Deakins (Blade Runner 2049). Deakins brings the most noble contribution to the film. His cinematography in this film is so astonishing, evocative, and magnificent. The visual style adds remarkably to the feel of sadness over its characters. The film is a must see for the cinematography alone. The film as a whole feels like old photographs come to life.

    Last but not least, there are the performances. It feels like Brad Pitt’s entire career lead him to this role. Most of Brad Pitt’s performances are good, but his depiction of Jesse James is truly his best. Pitt perfectly encapsulates the character’s simmering anger, paranoia, and charisma. He plays a great disturbed, unstable, unpredictable, sad, and troubled figure. It seems like he was born to lay the role. Then there’s Casey Affleck as the complexly disturbed Robert Ford. He’s socially awkward and whimpering brownnoser at times. He’s constantly shifting, fidgeting, avoiding eye contacts, and having nervous ticks. He’s a better actor than his brother in my opinion. The rest of the cast includes Sam Rockwell, Jeremy Renner, Garret Dillahunt, Ted Levine, Mary Louise Parker, and Sam Shepard.

     Lots of people haven’t heard of this film, but why is that? Well it was released the same year as ‘There Will Be Blood’ and ‘No Country for Old Men’. Poor distribution from Warner Bros. and little to no advertising probably killed the film at the box office. I’m glad that among my fellow cinephiles that it’s gaining popularity.

5 out of 5

Meet Joe Black (1998) Review

“Love is passion, obsession, someone you can't live without. I say, fall head over heels. Find someone you can love like crazy and who will love you the same way back. How do you find him? Well, you forget your head, and you listen to your heart. And I'm not hearing any heart. Cause the truth is, honey, there's no sense living your life without this. To make the journey and not fall deeply in love, well, you haven't lived a life at all. But you have to try, cause if you haven't tried, you haven't lived.”

   Life and death are two of the universal constants that all of the world is aware of. Children are born every day and people die every day. What if people on earth didn’t die today? Or tomorrow? Maybe even for seven days. Earth’s death rate is at a complete halt. This is the idea of what Martin Brest brings to his 1998 film Meet Joe Black.

   The film is a thought-provoking romantic drama with a supernatural twist. You can tell that the 1934 film ‘Death Takes a Holiday’ inspired this film. This was Martin Brest’s follow up after ‘Scent of a Woman’. 

   ‘Meet Joe Black’ is about Bill Parrish who is almost 65 years old. He’s an intelligent capitalist and also a loving father who wants the best for his family. However, his health is declining and his company is under attack from its competitors. By his side are his two loving daughters, Susan and Allison. Susan is engaged to his business associate that Bill doesn’t want as a son-in-law. Instead, he encourages Susan to, “find someone you can love like crazy, and who’ll love you the same way back.” He wants her to have the best love she can have. 

   Prophetic words indeed for Susan meets a stranger in a café and they almost instantaneously connect. They part ways without exchanging names (this is before cell phones and being attached to our screens). The two of them infatuated and enthusiastic for the future. Unbeknownst to Susan, the young man is soon killed after their meeting and his body is taken by Death. Death visits Bill and tells him that his time is up. Bill just isn’t ready to go yet. So Death strikes up a bargain with Bill, Death will delay Bill’s death if he teaches him what life is all about. Death is then named Joe Black. In the process of learning about life, he falls in love with Susan. So when Susan final finds someone she wants to be with, unintentionally Death, Bill is conflicted.

    The performances in the film are great. Anthony Hopkins effortlessly runs circles around his fellow actors. He is on fine form here with his portrayal of a business tycoon coming to terms with his mortality. Claire Forlani has a special kind of gentleness in her performance, which makes it believable that if Death walked the earth that he would fall in love with her. It’s a shame that most of her films now are straight to DVD releases. Then there’s Brad Pitt who plays both the charismatic guy in the café and Death. Pitt has one of his finest performances as Death in his mostly impressive career. He grounds the film and is a delight to watch.

   Meet Joe Black is a magnificent mixture of comedy, drama, and romance. Although, it’s romantic at its core. It’s poignant and succeeds to tug quite effectively at the heartstrings with those moments of real tender beauty. Thomas Newman’s truly stunningly beautiful score truly adds to the film. My only complaint about the film is that is sometimes has some uneven pacing that could have been cut out to help the film with its runtime.

  Life is a gift. Many of us tend to forget that. We are so obsessed with things that seem vital at the time, but looking back seems so trivial.  It’s the little things in our life that brings us joy such as eating peanut butter or sitting outside soaking in the sun while petting your cat or dog. Death sees what we take from granted as pure and magical. He’s innocent in a way. When he tastes peanut butter for the first time he says that it’s the most amazing food he’s ever had. When he’s with Bill’s family for an extravagant dinner he rather just eat peanut butter. The point is that life can be difficult enough, but it isn’t until others are no longer with us that we fully comprehend it. Another takeaway from the film is that you don’t need to be rich to leave your mark on the world because you’ll leave your mark on the hearts of the people you love.

5 out of 5

BODY BAGS (1993) Review

    When someone brings up John Carpenter the first film someone usually thinks of is either 'Halloween', 'The Thing', the Escape films, 'They Live', 'The Fog', or 'Big Trouble in Little China'. I usually think of one of my favorite horror films 'In the Mouth of Madness'. Hardly anyone brings up his film ‘Body Bags’. Many people haven’t even seen the film, which is a shame since it’s a fun film to watch. Body Bags is a TV horror anthology film directed by both John Carpenter and Tobe Hooper (Texas Chainsaw Massacre).

    It was Showtime’s answer to HBO’s anthology series 'Tales from the Crypt'. Instead of the Crypt Keeper we get John Carpenter as the creepy coroner. Much like the Crypt Keeper he introduces each segment with one-liners and has a very cornball sense of macabre. Actually after the commercial and critical flop of Carpenter’s ‘Memoirs of an Invisible Man’ in 1992 he signed on with Showtime to produce a horror anthology series. During shooting Showtime got cold feet in making a commitment to a series. So what did they do? They recovered it and edited it into a TV movie called ‘Body Bags’.

  It’s always hard to review an anthology film because you’re almost always going to get fluctuating quality between all the segments. Even one of the best anthology films like Creepshow has its weak parts. It’s not in the favor of ‘Body Bags’ that it falls in between being a TV series and a film. If it was a television series it would be slightly above average, but as a film it would be fairly cheap looking and slightly under average. 

   There are three segments in the film. Carpenter directed the first two segments: ‘The Gas Station’ and ‘Hair’. Tobe Hooper directed the final segment “The Eye”. The first segment is probably the most suspenseful. It’s about Anne on her first night of the job looking over an isolated 24-7 gas station in a rural area just outside of Haddonfield, Illinois (horror fans without a doubt will identify that Haddonfield is the home of Michael Myers from the Halloween series). Her departing co-worker warns her that there’s an escaped murderous satanic serial killer out on the loose in the area. This makes her even more distrustful as the night continues on. She encounters a lot of late night patrons, but she feels moderately safe until she unintentionally locks herself out of the booth. There’s a lot of intriguing cameos in this segment including Wes Craven (A Nightmare on Elm Street) and Sam Raimi (Evil Dead). Wes Craven played a pretty good stalker. Once the killer is discovered the tension is escalated. Carpenter really makes this simple story work with the unnervingly abandoned backdrop, the red herrings, and misdirection to keep the viewers attention. 

   The second segment is the quirkiest out of the three. It’s about an aging businessman who is fanatically self conscious about his receding hairline. He tries everything to find a cure for getting his hair back. He tries everything from those late night television advertisements promising that your hair will grow back to those ridiculous spray on hair items. Then he stumbles across an advertisement for a miracle cure for hair. So he goes to the specialist who promises him hair with his new experimental treatment. And just like that his hair grows overnight… a ridiculous amount of hair. What first seems like a success soon becomes deadly. It’s a very light-hearted and goofy segment.

    The third and final segments is directed by Tobe Hooper and features Luke Skywalker himself. It’s about a Major League Baseball player who gets into a horrific car accident who loses his eye because of it. Once he awakens from a coma he realizes that he’s lost his eye. With his career being threatened he is offered a chance to get his sight back with a revolutionary new eye transplant, but with no promises that’ll work. However, it does work, but soon he’s overwhelmed with headaches and disturbing visions of assaulting and murdering young women. He’s forced to look into who the eye originally belonged to. It’s a pretty gruesome yet highly predictable segment. Some ghastly shock moments. There’s a nice little Roger Corman (Attack of the Crab Monsters/ House of Usher) cameo. I’m surprised that Mark Hamill agreed to do this segment since in 1977 Hamill crashed his car and had to have seven hours of reconstructive surgery to his face. Leaving his appearance distinctively altered in Episode V. 

   As much as I love the first segment it felt out of place since the other two dealt with the medical side of things. Body Bags isn’t the best Television movie, but it is a fun way of wasting an hour and a half. It seems like it’s too focused on the twists and turns that it actually forgets to be scary. Carpenter as the coroner is the best part about this film. He kind of reminded me of Beetlejuice. There’s plenty of macabre, tons of cameos, and overall a very entertaining watch.

3.4 OUT OF 5