Body Bags

Gruesome stuff — and yet Body Bags moves along with such jaunty, good bad taste that it’s hard not to smile. Read full review

Good, gory fun. Read full review

That Body Bags largely succeeds, despite the perceptible lack of novel material, can be attributed to the strength of the assembled performances as well as the filmmakers’ attention to the dynamics of visual storytelling. Read full review

If you’re looking for less fright and more fun as you tick down the Halloween season, or if you just want to see John Carpenter tell terrible puns while forcing severed heads to make-out, Body Bags is for you. Read full review

Fans of HBO's comically explicit Tales From the Crypt will know what to expect. If not quite up to Crypt's snuff, Bags is still a gas. [06 Aug 1993, p.3D]

Even with the impressive talent assembled in front of and behind the camera, and a healthy budget for a television movie, Body Bags is still little more than an agreeable lark, and its breezy charm might not have survived a drastic cut in budget and shift in shooting locales. Read full review

Scary moments are scattered throughout the teleplays by Billy Brown and Dan Angel, with a few jittery jolts to grab attention (particularly during the first episode), but the writing and stories are pedestrian. Read full review

Made for cable with many has-beens from hell. Read full review

If you like gruesome stuff and familiar faces in unfamiliar roles, you might be entertained by Body Bags. If you're a fan of these fright-meister masters, you might enjoy the wit and style. But I'm not sure many others will, given the production's graphic nature. One maybe, but a trilogy is just too much. [06 Aug 1993]

The plots are fairly basic, but the direction by John Carpenter and Tobe Hooper is droll, the effects are all a fan could ask for, and the playing is appropriately agitated. [06 Aug 1993, p.D15]

There seem to be big gaping holes, and not just in the characters' carcasses. The only kind of scene Carpenter appears able to direct well is someone sneaking up on someone else. [07 Aug 1993, p.D4]

It's worth recalling here that Carpenter made two of the better horror films of the modern era (Halloween and the vastly underrated The Thing), but career-nadir Body Bags is best zipped up quickly and abandoned along the comeback road. [07 Aug 1993, p.F16]

The three films of Body Bags were horrid, but they weren't horrifying. [06 Aug 1993, p.67]