Horror in the 90s Body Parts

Body Parts (1991) 

Directed by Eric Red 

Written by Eric Red, Norman Snider 

Starring Jeff Fahey, Brad Dourif, Kim Delaney, Lindsay Duncan 

Release Date August 2nd, 1991 

Box Office $9.2 million

Body Parts stars Jeff Fahey, a golden boy of the low budget horror set in the 1990s, as a doctor trying to prove that death row inmates were capable of being reformed. Our protagonists ideals are put to the test after a car accident takes his arm and an experimental surgery grafts the arm of a former serial murderer onto the good doctor's body. The arm remains psychically linked to the supposedly dead murderer and begins to turn against its new host. That's the high concept premise of Body Parts and there really isn't much to it beyond that premise. 

The disparate parts of the serial killer's body, his arms and legs, even his head, try to reassemble themselves. All the while, Fahey's doctor knows what is happening and is trying to stop the body parts from killing their new hosts, including an artist played by Brad Dourif who has become wildly more prolific and creative with his new arm and an average joe who got both of the killer's legs and can now play basketball for the first time. Both men are set to lose their new body parts unless our hero doctor can warn them about what is happening. 

And that's the plot of Body Parts. There really isn't much to say about the plot. It's bizarre but presented in a fashion that mutes how bizarre it is. Director Eric Red doesn't treat this kind of science fiction notion of transplant surgery with any kind of special quality. He makes it seem downright mundane aside from the body horror surgical scars applied to the amputee arm. They went all out making the arm look grotesque for the few scenes we are able to see it. Beyond that however, Body Parts is desperately mediocre effort from a director who only kind of seems as if he knows what he's doing. 

I will give you a for instance. Red directs a scene early in Body Parts where he wants to underline how normal and suburban the doctor is. So, he has the doctor enjoy a family breakfast with his wife and two kids and makes a big show of moving his camera through the halls of the house to the front door where the wife and children follow dad so they can send him off with a hug and kiss. It's all needless underlining of the point: he's a normal suburban dad. Except, it's not normal. Real families don't do this and if you saw this in real life you might suspect some kind of cult behavior occurring. 

Find my full length review at Horror.Media 

Horror in the 90s The Reflecting Skin

The Reflecting Skin (1991) 

Directed by Phillip Ridley 

Written by Phillip Ridley 

Starring Viggo Mortensen, Lindsay Duncan, Jeremy Cooper 

Release Date June 28th, 1991 

Box Office $17,042 

The Reflecting Skin is a horror movie of such modesty and subtlety that you may not realize its a horror movie. The horror of The Reflecting Skin only emerges as you immerse yourself into the sun soaked, over-saturated visuals that accompany a horror story that bubbles and bubbles to a boiling point of psychological horror. And all of it comes from the naive and mischievous perspective of an 8 year old boy who, perhaps, doesn't recognize the actual horror that he's witness. He's an unreliable narrator simply for his lack of life experiences. 

The Reflecting Skin centers its story on 8 year old Seth Dove. Seth is a precocious little kid with a sociopathic streak slowly being revealed. One of the earliest scenes shows Seth finding a large toad, blowing a straw into its backside, blowing the toad up like a balloon. To make matters worse, Seth places the toad on the side of a walking path where a woman happens to be returning home from gathering supplies. When the woman leans over to check on the poor toad, Seth uses his slingshot to explode the poor creature all over this poor woman. 

That poor woman is Dolphin Blue, a widow who is grieving the relatively recent death of her husband by suicide. Left alone to tend a large wheat farm, Dolphin is in over head and already suffering a mental health crisis, even before the exploding toad. When Seth's mother forces him to go to Dolphin's farm so that Seth can apologize, the two have a terrifyingly awkward encounter in which Dolphin gifts Seth a whaling harpoon and proceeds to break down in sobs while telling the story of her lost love. The breakdown causes Seth to flee in fear. 

Through the convoluted imagination of childhood, Seth comes to believe that Dolphin is a vampire. This coincides with the shocking murder of one of Seth's young friends, a death that Seth eagerly links to Dolphin, though not with any proof. He also doesn't share his suspicion regarding his neighbor out of fear of being punished by his mother for further antagonizing Dolphin. Suspicion eventually falls on Seth's father, Luke Dove (Duncan Fraser), whose past includes having been busted while carrying on a relationship with another man. Just potentially being a homosexual is enough to make Luke a suspect. 

Find my full length review at Horror.Media 

Movie Review: Under the Tuscan Sun

Under the Tuscan Sun (2003)

Directed by Audrey Wells

Written by Audrey Wells 

Starring Diane Lane, Raoul Bova, Sandra Oh, Lindsay Duncan 

Release Date September 26th, 2003 

Published September 25th, 2003 

It's hard to believe but Diane Lane has been acting since 1979.

Ever since her impressive debut in A Little Romance, Diane Lane was expected to be a star. Then came a series of flops, TV movies and impressive supporting roles. Then came 2002's Unfaithful, a drama about marital infidelity in which Lane fell for the romantic advances of a much younger man played by Olivier Martinez. The sexy, complicated role earned Lane an Oscar nomination and the kind of recognition that was expected of her years ago. Now with her first starring role since Unfaithful in the chick flick fantasy Under the Tuscan Sun, Lane finds true stardom.

Based on a best seller by Frances Mayes, Diane Lane stars as Mayes in this slightly fictionalized take on her personal experiences. Working in San Francisco as a college professor and book critic, Frances is happily married or so she thought. One night when attending a book release party for one of her students Frances is approached by a writer whose book, she panned. The writer tells Frances something about her husband that she doesn't know and soon the marriage is over.

Forced out of her home because of the divorce settlement, Frances temporarily holes up in a tiny furnished apartment with a group of other divorce victims. Luckily for Frances her friend Patti (Sandra Oh) is not about to let her wallow in her tiny apartment and surprises her with a trip to Tuscany. To assure Frances she can take the trip without being hassled by guys, it's a gay tour of Tuscany.

It takes some convincing but finally she accepts and she's off to romantic Tuscany. Once there, she falls irrationally in love with a villa called Bramasole and using all the money she has, she buys it. It's definitely a fixer upper with holes in the walls and floors and faucets with no running water. A quirky group of unusual Polish construction workers help her fix the place and get friendly over Frances's love of cooking for the guys.

Of course, in this romantic setting how can Frances not fall madly in love? On a day trip to Rome, Frances meets one of those men directly from a romance novel. In the best line of the film Frances asks the man his name and he say Marcello. Frances laughs and replies "of course it is.” Marcello is played by Raoul Bova, who does a fine job with an underwritten role.

The film isn't about Marcello, it's about Frances and this strange adventure that has brought her to the last place she ever thought she would be. This is a real terrific role for Diane Lane who needed to lighten up her work after Unfaithful. Nothing wrong with Unfaithful, she was Oscar nominated for the role and deserved it. I'm just saying that her role in Under the Tuscan Sun is a perfect change of pace that should guarantee her the stardom that has been expected of her since Time Magazine put her on the cover in 1980.

While Raoul Bova and Sandra Oh do fine work along with host of quirky supporting characters including Vincent Riotta and Lindsey Duncan, Diane Lane's true co-star in Under the Tuscan Sun is Italy. I have said it before and I will say it again, no country in the world films as well as Italy. The camera absolutely loves every inch of the sun-drenched coasts and cobble stone streets. When populated with characters as colorful as the country, it’s a wonder to watch.

Director Audrey Wells who also adapted the screenplay does a fantastic job in only her second time behind the camera, having also directed 2000's terrific Guinevere. Her story isn't overly complicated, and she does a great job of roping in the numerous subplots before one gets in the way of Frances in the main story. As sweetly absurd as some of these subplots are, it's a great task to keep them under control and Wells pulls off to near perfection.

Watching the commercials and trailers for Under the Tuscan Sun, I was amazed by Diane Lane's transformation from working actress to star. Her Oscar nomination only confirmed her ability, Under the Tuscan Sun shows Lane maturing into stardom in the classic Hollywood sense.