Eric Red directs this nineties mash-up of The Hands of Orlac and Frankenstein, which brings some fun gore and an argument about the ethical nature of ‘playing God’.
Bill (Jeff Fahey) is a criminal psychologist who loses his arm in a freak car accident (incredibly well-staged, we must add). His wife (Kim Delaney) is asked by the brilliant surgeon (Lindsay Duncan) to give consent for Bill to receive a transplant appendage from a donor that has just arrived. Seeing it as a chance for her husband to remain somewhat ‘complete’, she agrees. Unfortunately, Bill’s new arm seems to have a life of its own, and when he discovers where it came from (a death-row killer, of course) and that other recipients from the same body have been found dead, he finds that sinister things are afoot.
Although the story leans more to the Mary Shelley classic than the Maurice Renard story, there’s plenty to enjoy in Body Parts. Not least an elaborate car chase that takes place with the main character handcuffed to the person who is trying to retrieve the arm he was gifted during his operation. It’s a scene that’s as exciting as anything in the Fast and the Furious films and is certainly the highlight of Body Parts. The whole thing screams nineties trash cinema and it’s all the more glorious for it. The ever-dependable Brad Dourif gives another idiosyncratic performance as an artist who was the recipient of the killer’s other arm and has since been able to paint the most vivid, macabre masterpieces that turn out to be murder scenes.
Imprint’s Blu-ray release boasts some great interviews including a lengthy chat with the director, who is refreshingly honest about the movie and details some sequences that were removed from his original cut and explains why they were. We get to see the gruesome scenes in question, albeit in lesser quality from the original workprint. If you’re a fan of schlocky nineties movies, this one should be on your list. Hopefully it won’t cost you an arm or a leg.
