Director: Eric Red
Cast: Jeff Fahey, Lindsay Duncan, Kim Delaney, Zakes Mokae
Screenplay: Eric Red, Norman Snider
88 mins. Rated R for violence and gore, language and a scene of sensuality.

Eric Red had been a notable screenwriter before becoming in a director in the late 80s with Cohen and Tate, but tonight we’ll be looking at his directorial follow-up, Body Parts, a feature film take on an anthology classic.

When criminal psychologist Bill Crushank (Jeff Fahey) loses an arm in a car accident, he receives a radical new medical transplant, a new arm, and a chance of putting his life back together. But when he begins to lose control of his new limb, he realizes this appendage previously belonged to a killer, and he needs to find out how to avoid turning into a killer himself.

Eric Red’s able to squeeze more out of this concept than most, but I still feel like this is a short film for an anthology stretched out into a full-length feature with more than 20 minutes of good but less than 88. Having the affliction connected to others outside of Bill is an interesting development, especially given another stellar supporting performance from Brad Dourif. Between Fahey and Dourif, there is some excellent exchanges.

I just felt that, outside of Fahey and Dourif, there isn’t much in terms of memorable performances. Red’s occasionally clever script is able to give them enough to do onscreen, but not enough for a full feature.

Sadly, there are plenty of great anthologies in both series and film form to satisfy one’s appetite for haunted or possessed limb stories. I would suggest the John Carpenter/Tobe Hooper film Body Bags or the great Night Gallery episode “The Hand of Borgus Weems.” Body Parts is interesting and worth a watch for fans of early 90s horror or Eric Red’s work, but not enough for me to recommend.

2.5/5
-Kyle A. Goethe