Late Night Classics – Body Parts

Story. Story. Story. Behind every great film is a polished script. Just ask two watershed movies from the 80′s: The Hitcher and Near Dark. Both have a lot more room upstairs than your average fright flick, and thanks to screenwriter Eric Red, they showed the genre could be visceral and classy. Eric has since gone on to direct the werewolf thriller Bad Moon and the J-Horror inspired 100 Feet. This brings me to Body Parts, a picture that met many obstacles upon its release some twenty years ago, and now is considered a cult classic in many circles.

Jason Bene: The Hitcher and Near Dark are both masterpieces of the horror genre, but they are more than that, as they address the darker aspects of human nature. Those themes continue with your 1991 movie Body Parts. Where does that no-nonsense approach to terror come from?

Eric Red: I try to go deep and still keep it entertaining. Those themes continue through my last film 100 Feet, a ghost story that deals with the psychology of abuse. Movies are about people, horror films included, so I try to take the stories seriously and create a realistic psychology for the characters. The more the audience buys into the characters and what’s happening to them, the scarier the film.

Jason Bene: Body Parts is based on the novel “Choice Cuts” from writers Thomas Narcejac and Pierre Boileau, who are known for cerebral tinglers like Diabolique and Vertigo. How much of the book was suspense, and did you feel the need to add a more visceral punch to your screenplay?

Eric Red: The movie is much bloodier than the book but in their day, those authors were known for visceral horror too. I loved the whole “Choice Cuts” story about the executed killer whose body parts were grafted onto several people who lost limbs, and then mysteriously start dying. It was such a cool thriller because you don’t know if the parts are taking over, or it’s all in their heads. I made two major changes in the book. The first was making the main character and audience POV be one of the transplant recipients. In the book the main character was a detective investigating the murders and that would have been less involving. The second was making the executed killer with the transplanted head actively go out and get his body parts back from the people that got them. In the book “the head” remains a hospital bed and the doctor is the one doing the murders, which was too static.

Jason Bene: Frank Mancuso Jr. is best known as a producer on many of the Friday the 13th sequels. Those films popularity were based on how violent and gory they were. Do you feel that Frank and Paramount marketed the film correctly? Body Parts is not a slasher flick by any means.

Eric Red: Well, it is an elevated exploitation film. I don’t think they marketed the picture enough was the problem. The biggest difficulty was the movie came out two weeks after Jeffrey Dahmer was caught and Paramount pulled the ads in Wisconsin, which created an unfortunate perception with the public that our movie was about Dahmer. It was bad, unlucky timing.

Jason Bene: You have an amazing ensemble that elevates the material beyond just being a B movie. Can you talk a little about working with Brad Dourif, Kim Delaney, and Jeff Fahey?

Eric Red: One of the great things about working with Paramount at the time was we had no star requirements, and all the studio cared about was putting together a great group of actors. Casting is 50 percent of directing, always. With Fahey, I worked to bring out his natural personal warmth to balance the intensity, so the audience rooted for his family man character. Lindsay Duncan was so powerful as the doctor I would up cutting a lot of her lines in the script, because she needed less, and she was fine with that. Brad Dourif I didn’t have to tell a thing. I rehearsed with everyone for a week, and overall tried to maintain a naturalistic quality to the casting and performances.

Jason Bene: Were there any films that that dealt with medical transplants gone awry that were in the back of your mind during production?

Eric Red: I homaged Peter Lorre’s neck brace in Mad Love for Charley Fletcher, of course. I should say “rimage,” i.e. “ripoff/homage.”

Jason Bene: You area big fan of road pictures from the 70′s. Your car chase scene in Body Parts is dangerously spectacular! No CGI here – how did you pull it off?

Eric Red: Very careful and lucky stunt work, elaborate car rigging, and strategically placed cameras! The stunt man in the scene walked away safely.

Jason Bene: John “Arrow in the Head” Fallon has been is a backer of your work for some time. You supplied him with some footage that the MPAA deleted from Body Parts. While there is some gruesome material, I don’t see what the problem was.

Eric Red: The MPAA was fine with it and gave us an R. A few Paramount executives were the ones who cut those two scenes, which was actually the only problem I had with the studio on the entire show. To be fair, it was very gory stuff for a major studio film in 1991.

Jason Bene: Any chance of a Director’s Cut DVD?

Eric Red: No, I’m not a fan of director’s cuts generally speaking, and am honestly quite happy with the version the studio released. If anybody wants to see the deleted gory scenes, they can be viewed on my YouTube page.

Jason Bene: From the word around town, the 20th Anniversary screening that Cinefamily did went over like gangbusters. How awesome was it to have a packed house screaming through a pristine print?

Eric Red: Way cool. The most satisfying thing was a lot of people were seeing the flick for the first time. And up on the big screen was definitely the way to see it!