On October 31st, Halloween Night, I’ll be showing John Carpenter’s rarely seen 90’s classic film Body Bags (1993) at Queen St Brewhouse at 7pm. Body Bags is a horror comedy anthology film starring John Carpenter as a creepy coroner who introduces us to the stories behind the grisly leftovers in various Body Bags at the morgue. The film also stars Alex Datcher, Robert Carradine, David Naughton, Stacy Keach, David Warner, Sheena Easton, Debbie Harry, Twiggy and Mark Hamill, with cameos from horror legends such as directors Wes Craven (Nightmare On Elm Street) and Sam Rami (Evil Dead).

The first story, “The Gas Station”, follows a young college student Anne (Alex Datcher) on her first day working behind a booth at a gas station, in the middle of the night, while a deranged serial killer is on the loose. The second story, “Hair”, is about a middle-aged businessman, Richard (Stacy Keach), who is very self-conscious about his thinning hair. Richard then turns to a private hair specialist, and after one night of treatment, he wakes up with a full head of hair that never stops growing. The final story, “Eye”, focuses on a baseball player, Brent (Mark Hamill), who loses his eye in a car accident and is given a donor eye. However, during his recovery, he starts to see flashing images of decomposing corpses of various blonde women.

Similar to HBO’s series of Tales From The Crypt (1989), Body Bags was planned as a anthology series on Showtime network, which was cancelled during the filming of the feature length pilot episode. As well as starring in the film, John Carpenter directs the first two stories and Tobe Hooper (Texas Chainsaw Massacre) directs the last story of the film and is also featured as a another coroner in the bookended segment. Body Bags features most of John Carpenter’s trademark style in paranoia, tension and suspense, including a score composed by himself and Jim Lang. Despite being made for the small screen, Body Bags is far more than just a television movie but a cinematic horror treat from the master of the genre.