BODY PARTS (1991)
Label: Scream Factory
Region Code: A
Rating: R
Duration: 88 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1 Surround & 2.0 Stereo with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1)
Director: Eric Red
Cast: Jeff Fahey, Lindsay Duncan, Kim Delaney, Zakes Mokae, Brad Dourif, John Walsh, Paul Ben-Victor, Peter Murnik, Nathaniel Moreau
The Eric Red (Bad Moon) directed horror-thriller Body Parts (1991) is an underrated early 90's entry in the genre, concerning a criminal psychologist named Bill Chrushank (Jeff Fahey, Psycho III) who studies the psychology of criminals looking for ways to rehabilitate the worst that society has to offer. While driving to his office he is involved in a horrific car accident and is thrown through his windshield, tearing off his right arm in the process.He's rushed to the hospital where his wife Karen (Kim Delaney, Darkman II: The Return of Durant) is approached by Dr. Agatha Webb (Lindsay Duncan, The Reflecting Skin) who offers a miraculous new transplant surgery that will restore his arm, which she accepts.
The surgery is a success, afterward Bill goes through weeks of rehabilitation at the hospital before being sent home. Everything seems fine, though his arm is severely scarred from the operation, which sort of scares his young kids a bit, but at least he has full use of his new appendage. Not long after returning home he begins to suffer visions of horrific murders, and one day his arm takes on a life of it's own, uncharacteristically lashing out at his son with his right arm while wrestling with him, and later it attempts to strangle his wife while he is fast asleep. Later he discovers that a distinctive tattoo on his donated arm indicates the donor was a death row inmate. Doing a bit of investigating he finds out that it belonged to serial killer named Charley Fletcher (John Walsh, F/X2) who was executed, leading him to confront Dr. Webb at her clinic demanding she remove it, she refuses and assures him that there is no problem with the new arm despite his worries.
After a bit of snooping at the clinic Crushank learns that he was not the only recipient of the serial killer's appendages, tracking down Mark Draper (Peter Murnik, TV's Justified) and artist Remo Lacey (Brad Dourif, The Exorcist III) who have received his left arm and legs respectively. The three men meet for drinks at a bar and a fight breaks out when a drunk patron of the bar demands to see Bill's transplanted arm, Bill nearly takes on the whole bar before being stopped by Draper.
Later that night Draper is attacked and murdered in his apartment and his transplanted legs are ripped right off of his body, and then Lacey's arm is similarly torn off a short time later at his art studio, leaving Bill as the sole remaining recipient of the transplanted appendages, but who's killing these guys?
The answer comes soon enough and it's a bit of a head-trip so to speak, with he film going from a more serious psychological thriller into a more demented action-horror mode that I thought was absolutely delightful. If you don't want to know the more spoilery stuff you might want to skip on down to the "audio/video" portion of the review because I am going to spill the beans on Body Parts in the very next paragraph.
It turns out that Charley Fletcher's head was also transplanted onto another body and the killer has returned to reclaim his missing limbs! Not only that, but he is doing so with help from Dr. Webb, who already having performed the miraculous transplants wants to go full-on Frankenstein and reattach the severed head and limbs back onto to Fletchers original torso, which are seen being kept supplied with a fresh blood in a cool-looking glass enclosure at her clinic, the only part missing is Crushank's right arm!
Body Parts (1991) is an underrated slice of 90's horror, well-directed with a solid fast-paced script and some excellent gore gags that make this a riotous watch. The gruesome stuff is plenty gory, but for me the highlight of the whole is an action-packed car chase with Crushank in a cop car ending up handcuffed to the killer in another car!
Audio/Video: Body Parts (1991) debuts on Blu-ray from Scream Factory who have managed to crack the Paramount vault and get some of these long overdue genre titles back into the public consciousness with HD upgrades, having just releasex 70's cult-classic Let's Scare Jessica To Death on Blu-ray as well. The film is presented in 1080p HD and framed in 2.35:1 widescreen, there's no indication of a new scan for the film so this is probably the HD master prepared by Paramount for streaming platforms that have been floating around. That said, the image is strong but not perfect, grain is reasonably managed throughout and blacks are solid, but the image can look a bit soft at times, a new 2K scan probably would have given this one a tighter presentation but what we get is pleasing if not perfection
Audio comes by way of English DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround and 2.0 stereo with optional English subtitles. There are no issues with hiss or distortion on either track, the elements are in great shape, with my preference being the stereo track for this one.
While not branded as collector's edition this release is loaded with a body bag's worth of new extras beginning an audio commentary with director Eric Red, plus a 52-min interview with him, in which he gets into his earlier films as well as Body Parts, discussing the issues he had with the studio regarding a few bits of gore in the film that were excised, not due to fear of an x-rating from the MPAA as long thought, but because a couple of studio execs just didn't like it, even after it tested high with audiences. He also says he now actually agrees with the decision even though he fought hard to keep the pair of scenes at the time.
We also get a 14-min interview with actor Paul Ben-Victor and another 17-min interview with actor Peter Murnik, the later of whom discussed the process of having his molded for all the amputated body parts, also getting into the make-up effects for his severed legs, and mentioning how he feels the film arriving in theaters the same week that the notorious serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer was arrested may have effected the box office negatively. Editor Anthony Redman shows up for a 23-min interview discussing his unorthodox way he broke into the editing films, his early career and editing this film, in addition to laying blame for the lack of proper marketing for the film on the part of the producers.
We also get the two gore-scenes from the film with optional commentary from director Eric Red who again dispels the myth of the x-rating. These come from a work print and are in rough shape, they've been circulating n YouTube for a while not, but it's great to have them preserved here on the disc.
The disc is stitched-up with a theatrical trailer, TV spots and an still gallery. The single-disc release arrives in a standard Blu-ray keepcase with a sleeve of reversible artwork, both options are original movie poster designs, both are very similar, one with a white logo n the spine, the other with a red logo. The design on the disc itself is the same as the a-side artwork.
Special Features:
- NEW Audio Commentary with director Eric Red
- NEW I Dare You to Read the Script – an interview with director Eric Red (52 min)
- NEW Something Unstoppable – an interview with actor Paul Ben-Victor (14 min)
- NEW Molded for Cinema – an interview with actor Peter Murnik (17 min)
- NEW That One Hurt – an interview with editor Anthony Redman (23 min)
- Deleted Gore Footage with optional commentary with director Eric Red (10 min)
- Theatrical Trailer (4 min)
- TV Spot (1 min)
- Still Gallery (2 min)
Not only is it great to have this underrated cult-classic on Blu-ray but it is awesome to see Scream Factory cracking into the vaults at Paramount, there's a lot of genre treasures in there that need HD upgrades on disc, so I hope they're able to keep a steady stream genre goodies coming our way. This upgrade of Body Parts (1991) is long overdue, a high recommend for an unsung 90's cult-classic.