'90s Trash?: Body Parts (1991)

At last, a Film designed to scare you away from Medical Science!  Today's Film is Body Parts, a 1991 Horror/Thriller about limb transplantation.  I don't pretend to be an expert on Medical History, but this kind of seems a bit outdated in 1991.  This is basically The Hands of Dr. Orlac, which at least gets a bit of a pass for being made in the 1940s.  The Captain America Story about the Painter who becomes a killer after he gets 'an evil, black hand'- less so.  In any event, this Film is about a man who gets an arm transplant and finds that it has changed more than just his grip.  Is the evil truly lying in his new limb?  Is he just crazy?  To note, the Film was made by Eric Red, the Director of such Films as...Night of the Wild?  Yeah, he has made a few Asylum Films- weird.  More notably, he co-wrote The Hitcher.  This becomes more telling as the Film goes on, but I'll get to that.  Is this one a forgotten Classic or silly trash?  To find out, read on...

Fahey here is a Psychiatrist treating a Patient in Prison.  He's a smart, serious man.

His life changes when a dramatic car accident strikes!  It is so bad that it defies the laws of Physics to shoot him out the *front* window from a rear collision.

To note, the Film was cut for an X-Rating (and not restored on this Disc) by removing a scene of his severed, twitching arm on the road here.  Yea?

He's given a new arm as part of an experimental treatment.  No time to ask questions!

It starts to have side-effects, however, and it makes him look into the donor.  Said Donor- a Killer.

Naturally, this operation was done so quickly that neither of his tattoos were removed before the operations!

To find answers, Fahey tracks down other people that got donor limbs from him.  A Painter- Brad Dourif- who now paints dark images from the killer's past- and an Athlete- who now has random urges in his donor legs.

Does evil lurk inside each limb?  Is this really stupid?  Does the Film treat it seriously?

 His strange and erratic actions lead to his wife kicking him out of the house.  What next?

After talking more about the donations with the men, some strange stuff happens- those men are killed in violent ways.

Can you tell that this guy wrote The Hitcher yet?

It turns out that a strange man in a neck brace is behind the killings.  He somehow survives a random car explosion- caused by crashing into the back of a parked car- and he's helped by...the Doctor?

So here is the (silly) explanation...

She kept the killer alive somehow by way of Medicine and transplanted all of his extremities.  His brain lived on, somehow making the other see visions...somehow.

Either way, he kills the man with the donor head, the Doctors and destroys the killer's impossibly-alive torso.  The End.

Wow.  This one started out normal enough and then just went crazy.  I like that they 'explained' why things were happening in this one.  I laughed when they did so as well.  Seriously, it is freaking nuts!  This Doctor was so into her Science that she experimented on a famous Serial Killer.  I don't know why she couldn't have picked someone nicer.  You also have to explain how she did two arm transplants, a double-leg transplant AND a head transplant all in a short time!  So the Killer's mind was so strong that he took over a new body and could partly-control his disembodied limbs?  I'd love to know who Consulted for this one.  If you can get past the silly Premise, you can...actually, one more.  So the killer in the Third Act somehow grabs Dourif's arm as he's hanging out of the window and it pops off easier than the lid on a jar of pickles.  Which Doctor consulted for this- Doctor Zoidberg?!?  Where was I?  Silly premise and stuff aside, the Acting is good and the Direction is alright.  Knowing how much they cut out to avoid an NC-17 Ratings makes you wonder about how much they just wanted to show Gore rather than tell a Story.  If you're into this kind of ridiculous-but-serious stuff, the Film is worth the wait.  It gets really silly, loud and full of explosives as it wraps up.  It is not a perfect 'so bad it's good' Movie due to Pacing, but it is an effective one for the more patient viewer.  I should also mention that this Film is famous for being promoted right when the truth about Jeffrey Dahmer came out- nice!  If you needed any more proof that this was made in 1991, here it is...

Next time, some more probably-crappy Horror.  What will I dig up next?  Stay tuned...