Funny Parts of the Movie When His Arm Starts With the Letter a
Unusual horror film nicely blends with thriller and science fiction
hu675 24 November 2007
Criminal psychologist Bill Chrushank (Jeff Fahey) survived from an horrible car accident but he loses his arm. But when a gifted mysterious Dr. Agatha Webb (Lindsay Duncan) manages to find a donor to have a new arm for Bill. When his wife Karen (Kim Delaney) agrees with the doctor for the operation. When the operation is a success and then its takes weeks for Bill's new arm to be working. In fact, he finds his new arm to be much better than his old one. But then, it's starts doing things that he doesn't want to do and being having vivid nightmares. He finds out that his arm belongs to Charley Fletcher (John Walsh). A violent serial killer, who got executed on the operation table. When Bill got his new arm from. But Bill finds out that he's not the only one, who got spear parts from the infamous murderer. Then after meeting two people (Brad Dourif and Peter Murnik), who got spear body parts from Charley. But when Bill wants his arm off, the Dr. Webb refused to do it. Bill has a feeling or two that Dr. Webb is not what she seems to be and he feels, there's something out there is coming for him.
Directed by Eric Red (Bad Moon, Cohen and Tate, Undertow) made an intriguing horror film with some effective moments of suspense and thrills. This was an box office disappointment, when it was released in the summer of 1991. The critics were not kind to this movie as well. Sure, the premise isn't original anymore. But director Red tries to make something different here by adding some neat ideals to the already often filmed premise of the picture. The underrated Fahey gives an strong performance. Dourif gives an memorable small role as the artist, who finds sudden success with his paintings. Red does his best work so far as a filmmaker here. Red wasn't made a movie or wrote a script in years but it seems, he trying to make a comeback with his latest work "100 Feet". That film will be released sometime in 2008. Like most of Red's works, "Body Parts" has become a cult classic. It's certainly one of the most underrated horror movies of the 1990's. Effective music score by Loek Dikker. Insipred from the novel "Choice Cuts" by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac (Which they wrote the classic book together "Diabolique"). Co-scripted by the director and Norman Snider (Dead Ringers, Rated X). Screen-story by Patricia Herskovic (Producer of cult classics like "Deadly Blessing", "Mother's Boys" and "Toy Soldiers") and Joyce Taylor. Don't miss it. Panavision. (****/*****).
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This Frankenstein revisited picture, is a B+++ movie!!!
rbrb 24 March 2010
The film is enjoyable and is good fun.
The main character loses his arm in an accident, and gets a replacement from a dubious source leading to all sorts of macabre events, and the play includes having a mad scientist/doctor.
What I like about this picture is that even though the story spirals into absurdity and is preposterous, all the lead actors take themselves and the story very seriously making the movie even more hilarious.
Everyone gives full throttle performances which keeps the viewer nicely entertained!
I wonder if we have or will get a body Parts II?!
Worthy of a solid:
7/10
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Don't stick your arm out the window...
When I first heard about this movie, I read about the story: Guys gets a killers body-parts, and now "someone" wants them back. Then I studied the cast: the main character was played by Jeff Fahey (who I knew from "The Lawnmower Man" and "Silverado"), and then I saw Brad Dourif (from the "Child's Play"-movies amongst other spooky flicks, like "Alien 4" and "Nightwatch" ). I thought that it would be watchable only because they were in it, but it actually had a quite interesting story, which raised a couple of questions, such as the mysterious nature of body-part-transplanting, and how bad it could go!
I think there was some spectacular stunts in this movie, and many original ideas (especially when Fahey gets in a driving vehicle!), and it never really stops being exciting! - The final scenes are pretty gross, but generally I thought that the movie was okay! My rating is 7/10
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Not as bad as I thought.
Body Parts wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It turned out to be pretty entertaining and had a few moments that made me jump out of my seat. I believe the director, Eric Red, will one day be a more popular film-maker. He does a good job and creates some genuine tension.
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Armed and dangerous.
Warning: Spoilers
The somewhat ludicrous idea of a transplant patient being controlled by their new limb dates back as far as F.W. Murnau's 1924 expressionist classic The Hands of Orlac, in which a pianist who loses his hands in an accident is given transplants from the body of a recently executed murderer with disastrous results.
In Body Parts, Eric Red's 1991 take on this macabre tale, several people receive replacement limbs from convicted killer Charley Fletcher, but it is prison psychologist Bill Chrushank (Jeff Fahey) who first begins to suspect that there is something not quite right when his new right arm exhibits uncharacteristic behaviour, hitting his son and throttling his wife (Kim Delaney) while she sleeps.
Bill is understandably shocked when he eventually discovers the identity of his arm's original owner, and demands that his surgeon Dr. Agatha Webb (Lindsay Duncan) remove the troublesome appendage, but she refuses, unwilling to undo her groundbreaking work. Meanwhile, Fletcher, whose head has been attached to a new body by the clearly deranged Webb, is running around savagely tearing his transplanted extremities from their new owners.
The concept might be extremely well worn, providing the basis for more than a handful of horrors over the years, but Eric Red manages to bring new life to the 'evil transplanted limb' idea by acknowledging its sheer silliness and simply running with it. It takes a while to get into the swing of things, but once Fletcher starts to reclaim his lost body parts, the fun really begins, with Red serving up some great gore and outlandish plot developments.
The film's most preposterous moment comes as Bill is sitting in a police car: Fletcher drives alongside, slaps handcuffs on Bill's wrist and tries to pull his arm off by quickly accelerating away. Fortunately, Detective Sawchuck (Zakes Mokae) is in the driving seat and miraculously keeps up with Fletcher's vehicle as it careens headlong through oncoming traffic while Bill desperately tries to remove the cuffs. It's an extremely dumb sequence, but well executed and hugely entertaining.
In a glorious Grand Guignol-style finale, Bill confronts the mad doctor and Fletcher in a laboratory where the convict's reclaimed severed limbs and bloody torso are now suspended in a tank of liquid. In a marvellously splattery and absurdly grotesque finish, a desperate battle breaks out, during which Bill wrests a shotgun from Fletcher and proceeds to blow the crap out of anything that twitches, finally destroying the killer's connection with his arm in the process.
7.5 out of 10, rounded up to 8 for IMDb.
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Gruesome, low-budget film that works
Now I must admit I really didn't think I was going to like this one! This terrible judgement was down to its corny title, obviously low budget, and that awful actor Jeff Fahey! I have never seen a movie with this actor that I have truly been impressed with, due to his wooden acting and bland expression. Sadly this movie was no different, but it was saved by some very neat performances.
The story is simply a re-hash of a tried and tested idea - some guy (in this case a criminal psychologist) loses a limb, and a replacement is sewn on - subsequently it comes to light that the limb is of a dead psychopath. The question is, who does the arm now really belong to? There are some nice treats given to those who pay attention to the script ("I have the blood of a murderer running through my body" is a chilling line, even by the dismal Fahey!). There are some good performances too, most notably from the two female leads. Kim Delaney plays the wife very well, and her panic at the apparently unexplainable situation feels very real. Lindsay Duncan turns in a fine performance as the doctor who's surgical efforts bring more than GBH to the picture! Loek Dikker (!) has composed an interestingly dissonant score, that unfortunately goes a little too over the top in places, but is good nonetheless. The gore is plentiful, and well done. I cannot often stomach realistic surgical drama, and I did have to turn away on numerous gruesome occasions!
This film will not disappoint a punter who feels like 90 minutes of brain-easy escapism. An enjoyable movie!
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Eric Red is without a doubt the master of suspense, and this is his best.
Right from the opening scene, if you let it, this movie will give you goose-bumps. Not that the first scene consisting of two people talking is particularly scary, it is just shot in such a brilliant subtly eerie way (as are all the scenes) that you can't help but be somewhat creeped out. The plot--involving a man receiving a new arm after losing his in a terrible auto accident and discovering that it belonged to a serial killer that happens to want it back--sounds ludicrous, yet somehow Red lets the story unfold seamlessly and realistically and you find yourself believing every detail. This movie is about as intensely spooky as you can get, and every last moment of terror is executed perfectly. Red never lets you relax, because the minute you think things are settling down, something completely unexpected and wonderfully of-beat will leap out of no where are scare you silly. And finally, Body Parts succeeds in the extraordinary-visuals category not by throwing a bunch of flashy special effects in your face, but by remarkably original scenes fantastically constructed from ordinary things that become almost mesmerizing. This is the best horror film I have seen to date (August 20, 2000) and I have seen many. Just remember not to take it all too seriously, because this movie relies on emotions and characters to convey it realistically, not situations or plotting which are more fantastical than real-life based. But if, like myself, you let yourself become completely absorbed in the story, characters, and suspense, you are in for a true treat.
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You must own this Horror to make others watch it at gunpoint.
This is what happens when the two best movie genres in the world meet each other and have passionate sex. It's SCI-FI mixed in with sick old fashioned HORROR. It's the most beautiful mix ever and it was done in this ERIC RED masterpiece. All the best aspects for a good horror/sci-fi were perfectly aligned for this one. An outstanding lead actor, JEFF FAHEY (The Lawnmower Man), a great movie maker, ERIC RED, and a good book, "CHOICE CUTS" from BOILEAU-NARCEJAC. It's starts off good, then it gets better, but it doesn't stop there. It becomes eerie, then sick, then crazy, and all of a sudden you end up watching a violent twisted ending. Once you get passed the "yeah right" idea of the body grafting, you're in and hooked. You cannot expect CGI, or witty modern dialogue, due to the fact that it was made in 1991 just before the big change between good old-fashioned bloody gore and the new commercial stuff you see today. You will, at the very least, be moved by the fact that you saw it and can make a constructive criticism yourself without outside judgment. It was missed by the popular audience but will always be remembered by HORROR fanatics everywhere. It's a definite keeper.
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A good horrifying idea gone somewhat awry~~
As bad and ridiculous as this movie was, i found the premise compelling and the questions it posed. Jeff Fahey started to look more and more demonic as the movie went on, and his hair changed too. I wouldn't recommend the film, but i think it was horrifying in a Frankensteinian way and fun in the way Blue Velvet was fun, in that dark, film noir kind of way,but Parts was without the aesthetics. I had to laugh because certain scenes reminded me of Robinson Crusoe on Mars, and then in other parts i actually wondered what was going on, like maybe there was a cohesive, tightly woven plot. I think i was mistaken on that. Too bad, the movie sort of had some kind of appeal. Anyone agree? I kind of thought the painter who received the other arm was a classic nut case in a way that was so over the top as to be humorous.
I actually felt that his family relationships were kind of honest and touching, even though they saw their dad unraveling. Perhaps one of the highlights of the film.
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Serial Killer Limbs on Sale! Everything must go!
This is more or less a 90's film version of the famous and often retold tale "The Hands of Orloc". Normally that would worry me, as I'm generally speaking not a big fan of the 90's when it comes to horror and I don't really like seeing classic horror stories ruined by this decade, but for some reason I had a fairly good feeling about this one. Perhaps because co-writer/director Eric Red proved already that he knows a thing or two about creating suspense and atmosphere with his previous achievements "The Hitcher" and "Near Dark". Or maybe because the only truly great version of the tale was "Mad Love" starring Peter Lorre and that movie is already over 70 years of age. "Body Parts" is a reasonably good thriller with a handful of memorable suspense-laden moments and gooey Grand Guignol effects; particularly near the end. The film starts at out somewhat as a serious toned medical drama, but gradually escalates into an outrageous mad scientist horror flick. When family man and criminology shrink Bill Crushank gets involved in a dramatic car accident, his wife Karen has very little time to decide whether or not Dr. Agatha Webb is allowed to try her groundbreaking method of transplanting a donor arm on Bill. The operation is a success and Bill can slowly pick up his career and family life again, until suddenly the donor arm begins to develop a sinister behavior on its own. Bill discovers he got the arm from an executed serial killer and fears that he inherited his murderous tendencies with it. Nobody believes Bill, not even the other patients who received donor parts from the same serial killer, at least not under some murders occur. The first half hour is talkative; the middle section is mainly tense and mysterious (with as a highlight a unique and adrenalin-rushing car chase) and the climax is grotesque and gory with a few very delirious twists. Eric Red's direction is surefooted enough and, although Jeff Fahey definitely isn't bad in the lead role, the show is obviously stolen by an overacting Brad Dourif. 90's B-movie queen Kim Delaney is underused as Fahey's devoted wife. Masterful score by Loek Dikker.
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* *1/2 out of 4.
Man (Jeff Fahey) involved in a freak car accident loses an arm. A doctor (Lindsay Duncan) has figured out a way to transplant whole body parts and the surgery is almost a total success. Only problem, the arm is that of a convicted serial killer and it seems it is controlling his behavior. To add problem onto problem, the convict is out on the streets taking all the body parts people received from him and Fahey looks like he is next victim.
Fast paced, exciting, scary, and handsome looking horror flick is entertaining as long as you don't pay close scrutiny to the premise and script. Good gore effects and a great demented performance by Lindsay Duncan are additional bonuses.
Rated R; Sexual Situations, Graphic Violence, and Profanity.
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Good, But Marred By Outlandish Finale
An outlandish conclusion mars this otherwise decent little early '90s thriller. Jeff Fahey, he of "Lawnmower Man" fame, stars as Bill Chrushank, a shrink who tragically loses his arm in a brutal car wreck. But through the miracle of science, and with the consent of his wife, Chrushank is given a second chance at an able-bodied life via a groundbreaking transplant. All seems well until the limb, formerly belonging to a murderous death row inmate, seems to take on a life of its own. Is the killer living more than vicariously through Chrushank, or is it all in his head?
One of the biggest complaints the big-name critics had with this one was that the story is all too familiar (i.e. "Hands of Orlac"). Yet a borrowed story is no reason to automatically dismiss a picture. Look at how many cop pictures and romantic comedies steal elements from their predecessors. So yes, this basic tale has been told before, but director Eric Red (I've never heard of him, either) makes it all work pretty good. Until, that is, the aforementioned climax rears its ugly head. It's then that Chrushank discovers the sinister origins of his surgery. I won't give it away, but let's just say there are plenty of four-letter words to describe it: lame, poor, nuts, crap. This film just could have been so great with a great finale.
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Murderers blood in my blood......
Warning: Spoilers
When Bill Chrashank loses his arm in a car accident, he has the arm of an executed murderer grafted on in its place.
The only problem, as he soon discovers, is that the arm is possessed by a force he cannot control.....
This used to be a firm favourite of mine when I was a teen, here in the UK, it was a straight to video release, and not many people saw it, so it vanished almost without a trace.
Seeing it almost twenty years later, it's aged pretty badly, and although it's a schlocky, hokey horror, it does take the main character too seriously, as supporting characters are a lot more entertaining, and make it the B-movie it should be.
It's not Fahey's fault, he's a great actor, and can do nuts no problem, but he just spends the majority of the movie maundering around, cutting himself shaving, or shouting at his kids.
The final third makes up for the dull first two, by going bonkers, and upping the gore factor, which, for 1991, is pretty graphic.
So it's one of those movies that isn't as good as you'd like to remember, but still watchable fluff.
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'Body Parts' is an anything but 'armless splatter movie!
I can still happily dismember renting this gruesome Body Horror classic way hack in the video slay daze! And I shall go out on a limb here and state that maestro Eric Red's 'Body Parts' (1991) is an anything but 'armless splatter movie, this sinisterly-stitched together slasher will transplant you deep into nightmarishly bloody realms of medical malfeasance, atypically murderous appendages and Hippocratic hypocrisy, savagely shattering your murder-saturated mind with X-ray(ted) visions of barbarous bodily dismemberment, exquisitely eerie eviscerations as Jeff Fahey's sanity falls apart, the prognosis for his victims is no less Terminal! No 'body' is safe in shock master Eric Red's gorgeously grisly splatter sensation 'Body Parts', with excessive gore, rather than plentiful bore, true grue horror fans are in for a bloody good slime!
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Bloody hands and the dark side of genius...A scalpel sharp forgotten horror gem of the early 90's
Warning: Spoilers
Effectively uses it's gruesome premise... Jeff Fahey is a great actor, calling him awful is just plain ignorant. Awful actors don't get to be in 118 different features. He is not one of my absolute favourites, but I have always appreciated his laid back, yet edgy style of acting. Brad Dourif! Dourif by name, somewhat dour-looking by nature! Brad is one of my all time favourite horror actors. It is always great to see him, even in small parts in movies like this. I found it really cool to see him and Jeff Fahey acting together, as they are two actors I really like, and they usually play intense, occasionally mad dudes. Brad plays it with his usual manic flair, and Jeff mostly plays it straight, but I love it cause' I know that Jeff could outdo Brad in terms of insanity if he wanted to. People moan that the film copies golden oldies like The Hand and The Hands Of Orloc...So? Know a lot of films about evil body parts, do you? Because I could count them on one hand(!) There's not enough body-part themed horror movies out there... I love the music theme that plays at the beginning, a few times in between, and right at the end. It starts out kind of silly, and then becomes booming and ominous. To me the music represents the film's grotesque sense of fun, and it's shock value. The film has a very good, slow build up of tension. In my opinion it is not until approximately 44 minutes and 38 seconds in that something actually happens. This film is certainly gory, but not very. It doesn't have too many bloody moments, but the one that I find really gross is at the beginning when Bill has had his operation. The way that his arm looks, all freshly stitched, raw and pink...ew!!! I thought it was an okay, average horror movie for quite a while, but my interest had a boost when it came to the scene where Bill discovers that someone has been grafted new legs.(I know that that one is still an impossibility) The film's main antagonist is the dastardly Doctor Agatha Webb. It is made very clear early on that Dr.Webb has her own dark agenda. It is indeed confirmed later on that Webb is indeed a real psycho bitch who will not give up no matter what and cares not a damn that people have to die for her experiment to reach it's insane conclusion. The two kids in the movie are not very interesting or effective, as they were both such bad little actor's! I remember the boy from Are You Afraid Of The Dark? There is a sequence in a bar that's pretty cool. The three transplantees are philosophizing. Brad and Jeff are sitting there with the other guy in the middle, which struck me as funny, as everyone knows who the other two are and no one knows who he is. Sorry other guy, you were good, too! I actually thought he was kinda cute, despite those ears! There is also an awesome fighty bit where Bill, responding to the pestering and insult of a drunk,(Ouch! That one would get anyone ticked off!)proceeds to take on all newcomers with his super-strong evil arm!!! When it comes to the big finale at the end, I don't agree that it's crap, but it does seem to run out of steam a bit. They could have done it better. It turns out that the evil mantis doctor of death Dr Webb's master plan has been, in layman's terms, to amputate the arms, legs, and head(?)of a serial killer?!, transplant them to "lucky" recipients, while still keeping the original torso alive, to later restore, whether the current owners like it or not, the parts back to the original body. Furthermore, she has an enforcer for this, in the killer, who she has kept alive as a head on an unidentified body. All this is for the purpose of proving some great medical advancement in body part manipulation procedures, or some-such. The seen is very impressive because you see all the reclaimed parts strung up in a chamber around the still breathing disembodied torso, awaiting reattachment. I saw what I thought was a very similar and for me far more effective scene in another surgery based horror movie that came out 15 years after this one, and that movie was Autopsy. I bet a lot of people hated or were very unsatisfied with the ending, and I could see why, but I personally loved the ending. I thought it was a different and perfect way to end the picture. It ends like this: the nightmare is over and Bill and his wife are relaxing in a peaceful outdoor scene. He is writing in his journal,(Something that is kind of interwoven that I thought added a lot)reflecting on his experience, and how the arm is now finally truly his. Anyway, they're just sitting there and...nothing happens. No big, last minute fright,(A very nice change)and the credits begin rolling, while lingering on the two, to the film's theme tune. And it's bizarre, and funny, and creepy as hell, and to me it really brings it home that the film was never meant to be taken too seriously. A cool, weird little movie, one that makes you wish you never lose a limb and become ensnared in the evil machinations of a mad doctor! Right on the limb!
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Remember "The Hand"?
Losing a body part can cause a psychological effect on a person, somehow it can be more extreme than this. In the movie "Body Parts", a man loses his right arm when a tanker truck rear ends him, ejecting him through the windshield. The Results has good news and bad news: The Good News; he gets a new right arm. The Bad News; it belongs to an death row inmate who was executed. Worse News; he wants it back, along with his left arm and legs! Hold it! if he's supposed to be dead, how did he come back to life? The individual would donated the parts has got a lot of explaining to do. I liked the part where Bill Chrushank(Jeff Fahey) told her off. Then she later gets killed by the killer. Then there's the scene where he cuffs Bill and tries to drive his arm off. No success. Having his arm scared him and his family, after the killer is unsuccessful of getting his arm back, the curse has lifted. Life is back to normal for Bill and his family. Unlike "The Hand", "Body Parts" is more intense. So if anyone loses a limb, check the donor before surgery starts, and beware of seedy doctors. 2 out of 5 stars!
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Part-ially Hilarious!
Warning: Spoilers
I saw this movie in college and forgot almost everything about it except for the car chase scene with the handcuffs, so when I saw it again recently, I was pretty much waiting to see if it was as cool as I had remembered. It was, and there were other scenes that induced a chuckle in this cheesy entry. Jeff Fahey, who looks like a poor man's Ray Liotta with better skin and not as much acting ability, plays a nurturing criminal psychologist who spends his days dealing with crazy criminals who say f*ck a lot. After studying a dangerously wobbling wheel on the car in front of him during his commute to work in the morning, he is actually surprised when it snaps off and he gets creamed by an 18 wheeler. Maybe I was in a weird mood, but the sight of him flying through the windshield was unintentionally hilarious. After he gets the killer's arm sewn onto his stump, he begins to act strangely. He starts to cut himself and curse while shaving with the killer's hand. He cracks his kid in the side of the head while wrestling in the family room. He tries to choke out his wife while she's asleep. I found all of this to be really, really funny for some reason. I just couldn't take Fahey's performance seriously. What can I say? It just made me think of the Simpson's episode where Homer gets the hair transplant from Snake the convict. The gore effects where decent, and the sound effects, unusually enough , were very well done, especially the "flesh ripping" sounds that come into play later in the movie. I dare you to keep a straight face when the killer comes back in a neck brace and tries to get his arm back. He is silent except for his mugging face and gurgling sounds as he "takes back what's his". Yeah this movie is "bad", but if that is a good thing to you like it is to me, it's worth seeing. Plus, if you are an unfortunate Blockbuster slave who can't get movies anywhere else, I believe that this is one of the few horror movies they carry that was made before "Scream" and doesn't revolve around Freddy Prinze Jr. or star any Arquette family members. Whatever happened to the talented Mr. Fahey anyway?!
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Underrated darkly humorous take on The Hands of Orlac
Warning: Spoilers
Based on a novel by by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac, the same authors who's work was the basis for "Vertigo," "Diabolique," and "Eyes Without a Face," is adapted here by writer/director Eric Red (screenwriter of "Near Dark" and "The Hitcher") into a deliciously wicked horror film that's laced with jet black humor. The story follows psychologist Jeff Fahey who loses his arm in a horrific car wreck (I'd argue one of the best filmed car crashes of all time). Lucky for Fahey the surgeon on call has an experimental procedure she'd like to perform where she can graft a fully functioning arm from a "donor" onto Fahey. But wait! That arm starts to get a mind of it's own and Fahey soon learns it belonged to a serial killer! It's essentially a reworking of The Hands of Orlac, about a pianist who loses his hands and then gets the hands of a killer, which also get a mind of their own. Different here is a modern setting and also a wicked sense of humor from writer/director Red. Also different from Orlac, there are two additional recipients from the same donor (one of whom is the great Brad Dourif) who also start experiencing strange episodes with their new arm and new legs. When I saw "Body Parts" for the first time, I wasn't sure if it was cheesy or if it was being tongue-in-cheek until (SPOILER ALERT) one scene late in the film where the original owner of the arms and legs shows up to collect his missing limbs, which features a pretty big wink to the audience from Red, where the lunatic does a classic slow motion walkaway from a massive car explosion while carrying some of his reclaimed limbs. With solid supporting performances by Kim Delaney ("NYPD Blue") as Fahey's wife, Zakes Mokae ("Serpent and the Rainbow"), and Paul Ben-Victor ("True Romance" "Tombstone" "The Wire"), gorgeous photography form cinematographer by Theo van de Sande ("Blade" and the highly underrated "Miracle Mile"), and a wonderfully creepy score from Loek Dikker, who's only done a handful of English language films, "Body Parts" is an underrated horror classic that is a must see for fans of oddball body horror flicks.
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Interesting sci-fi, unfortunately grouped in horror genre
I saw this film some 10 years ago in a movie theatre in Zimbabwe. It left an impact on me as I am a fan of sci-fi more than of horror films.
Much has been written about "mindless sci-fi" such as the Star War films where sounds are "heard" in outer space where in reality you can't hear anything. Yet sci-fi lovers seem to have missed out on this neat theory of body parts having a mind (NOT, mind you, a "brain") of their own--all belonging to the original individual. It appears to be nothing more than nonsense to us in accepted conventional science but I found it more appealing than some of the works of Lucas and Spielberg.
I think the film needs reassessment as a "sci-fi" film--not merely as a horror film. I am convinced this film is more appealing in subject matter than "Fantastic Voyage" or "The Flatliners", purely as a science fiction movie. Take it or leave it--the subject challenges today's scientific thought however stupid it appears to us today. And as cinema, I have seen worse stuff from well-known Hollywood directors. I would like to read the book "Choice cuts" before figuring out if the film was better than the work of the author. The film has made me curious about the novel--that in itself speaks much for the film's director, Eric Red.
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gory and a bit predictable, but pretty good
A prison psychiatrist and psychology professor is in a bad car accident in which he loses his right arm. His wife is given the opportunity to let Dr. Webb graft a new arm on him. While he is being sedated, he appears to see a decapitation. There are a number of injuries, dismemberments, and shootings in the movie, and they're all pretty gory, though the movie is not wall-to-wall gore.
Somehow he doesn't notice, nor does his wife, that he has a tattoo on his new arm until a patient points it out to him. This makes him want to learn where the arm came from, along with the fact that he is having nightmares, and some violent impulses.
In the novel this was very loosely based on, the main character is not a person who's gotten a graft. He's a person who's been appointed to keep an eye on people who've gotten grafts, to see that they are doing well (or not). There are seven people in all who have received them (there aren't as many in the film). They all know almost from the start who their parts came from originally. The new parts look better than their old ones, while in the film the arm looks like it was taken from an old corpse, even though it wasn't. They don't have violent impulses, but are exposed to new temptations. For example, the man who gets a new stomach, among other things, eats voraciously since he coincidentally had indigestion before his car accident. The first signs of danger are weird obsessive ideas that some of them get, and also when one of them kills himself.
The movie is so different than the novel that it has to be enjoyed on its own terms, and it can be. The novel The Hands of Orlac is similar in some respects, and the movie Mad Love similarly murders the novel, though it can be enjoyed on its own terms too.
I've read the novel this was based on, so I'll mention
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Cronenberg it ain't. But disturbing it is
This early 90s body-horror flick is like a David Cronenberg "Frankenstein" that meanders across three different stages and ultimately is a crazy and disturbing film. Jeff Fahey provides a decent performance as a man who loses his arm in a car accident. While he is in the hospital, his distraught wife signs a waiver to have a new arm immediately transplanted on to him. It's a success and he makes a full recovery, but when the arm seems to have a mind of its own, further investigation uncovers his role as a guinea pig in a shady experiment, and the arm's donor turns out to be a vicious serial killer recently executed.
While I enjoyed this and found it to be a good watch, what brings it down for me is the complete lack of originality from the onset ("The Hands of Orlac" and shades of "Frankenstein" ) and a script that is predictable until it just gets ridiculous and loses the run of itself in an attempt to be original. It does lead to a decent car chase, though. And the special effects and gore weren't bad either. Worth one viewing, but not much else to write about.
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Body parts behaving badly ........
Although much of "Body Parts" spirals way out of control sacrificing any smidge of believability, the film is never dull, and has definite entertainment value. The presence of Brad Dourif is another plus, as he is always a most interesting character actor. The movie features a couple spectacular car wrecks, an unbelievable chase scene featuring handcuffs, and some unexpected plot twists. All I can say is that this definitely did not go in the direction I expected. If you go in anticipating something original for a change, and are willing to have a complete believability blackout, then you will not be disappointed. - MERK
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Silly horror film
Happy family man (Jeff Fahey) is in a horrible car wreck and loses an arm. It is replaced with a "donor's" arm. He soon finds out his arm belonged to a vicious executed murderer--and has a mind of its own!
I saw this film in a theatre back in 1991. I had no interest in seeing it originally (I personally can't stand Fahey) but some critics gave this rave reviews (!!!). After seeing it I couldn't imagine WHAT they saw in this crap. It hasn't improved 14 years later.
OK--this has been done before most notably as "Mad Love" back in 1935. But that film wasn't even remotely serious. This one expects us to believe various body parts can be grafted onto other people AND retain the personality of their owners!!!! It's a stupid premise and we're supposed to take it seriously! That's the main problem with this--it's too ridiculous to take seriously. Also the explanation at the end made little sense. I'm still not sure what was going on--or why.
Acting doesn't help. Fahey is good but he's TOO good for such a dumb movie. Kim Delaney is great as his wife--but given little to do. Lindsay Duncan is HORRIBLE as the evil doctor--in a way she's so bad she's kind of fun to watch. Only Brad Dourif is any good. He (wisely) doesn't take his part too seriously and adds a funny spin to his lines.
Also this is pretty boring. It moves at a snails pace (even at just 88 minutes) and there's no blood and guts till the last half hour. Unfortunately the "special" effects are unintentionally hysterical--get a good look at the obvious dummy when Dourif is thrown out a window!
Silly, dull and REALLY idiotic. This has been mostly forgotten--let's hope it stays that way. I give it a 1.
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Pretty good
The movie wasn't bad. Not spectacular, but not bad. I thought it was pretty scary. Not so much because of the story, but more of how it was presented by Jeff Fahey. It really helps you to get into the movie if the actor is into it. And he definitely was. There are some people that don't have the acting skills to tell the story as it should be. Jeff didn't have that problem and I thought he did well. The story was pretty intense at some moments. It wasn't really far fetched. It kinda makes you wonder how it would be if we could transplant whole body parts. I think that how religious you are would affect how you view it very much. I liked the story because it was based on a good and unexplored idea as of today because we don't have the technology to try it. But it's fun to wonder how the world would react and change if we could do it. You should see it, if you haven't already, at least to know your own thoughts on it. Instead of simply taking mine, you should go find your own. Happy viewing!!!
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Body Parts
Warning: Spoilers
Hands of Orlac once again gets a treatment, this time by writer/director Eric Red, starring Jeff Fahey (back when he still had his matinée idol looks) as a professor of psychology and often visits criminals in prison to study what makes them commit evil. When he suffers a horrible traffic accident thanks to a car losing its tire, it takes his right arm. A breakthrough arm surgery through a "grafting procedure" sees that Fahey will not be without the missing limb...it comes with a price. The arm, he soon discovers, was taken from a serial killer eventually executed. Two other men also received body parts from the killer in surgeries by Dr. Agatha Webb (Lindsay Duncan), a painter named Remo Lacey (Brad Dourif) and a young man named Mark Draper (Peter Murnik) who had both legs applied after spending time in a wheelchair without them. Eventually, though, someone is "coming to collect".
I found some of the plot rather fascinating, as Fahey's Bill Crushank truly dedicates himself to understanding where evil comes from, and how the arm attached to him is ruining his life. The arm is violent, smacking his son and nearly choking his wife while he was sleeping in bed. He can see the murders in his dreams committed by the killer, and Bill increasingly has that gnawing feeling the murder's influence is taking hold of him. Reaching out to the others (Mark's legs cause him to nearly wreck into ongoing traffic), he finds that both men are suitably pleased with their new body parts (Remo's painting reflects what the killer sees; he claims the images just "come from the air" and that he's making far more money since he got his new arm than before when he was creating work for the walls of hotel rooms).
The film left me a bit unsatisfied because I think Red has something here that eventually goes off the rails at the end when someone returns to take back the grafted body parts "given away". It is really quite bloody and graphically violent (legs gone, a victim going out a window, losing his grip once one of his arms is pulled right from the torso it belongs), but the reasoning is rather loony. A head actually being transplanted and kept from dying, body parts hooked to "life support", being pumped with a blood supply and machines, and limbs being "confiscated" from "their rightful owner", with Webb's eventual approval (taking a turn towards mad science) leaves Body Parts deteriorating into camp. It left me rather awestruck after following Bill through the travails of this arm causing him much grief that the film decides to turn loose a serial killer towards the end seemingly for shock value. Kim Delaney is the wife of Fahey, just unable to tolerate her husband's danger to her and the children. I had forgotten just how beautiful Kim was or that she was in this movie.
The car crash that caused Fahey to need the arm is horrific, the crime scene with the missing legs is gruesome, and Dourif's character is totally enthusiastic about what the arm has done for his life (for the better), not discouraged by Fahey's misery and forewarning about what the body parts might have wrong with them. Dourif's performance is lively and energetic, I'll give him that. I have seen him better, though. I guess his performance fits the character he's provided: a lease on life anew, Bill's concerns pale in comparison to the profit afforded to him. Webb's attitude towards Bill regarding his desire to have the arm removed, not concealing her staggering apathy and disregard for his well being and hope to get rid of it so he can get his life back provides the film quite a cold and remoresless sociopath. Webb's devotion to her work, even if it is harmful to the recipients of the parts she grafts to patients presents her as quite the villain, deserved of her eventual fate.
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Source: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101492/reviews
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