Lucky me, not much history around for this. This was originally going to be a horror anthology TV series on Showtime, their attempt at aping the success of HBO's Tales from the Crypt. However, after filming three segments, they decided to just make this a standalone television film. John Carpenter had just come off the Chevy Chase comedy (yes, really) Memoirs of an Invisible Man, and Tobe Hopper had done several flops since directing the Stephen Spielberg produced Poltergeist. To continue the EC Comics host tradition, Carpenter himself is the host of the film's wraparound segments. It was aired on Showtime on August 8th, 1993, to relatively positive critical reception.
As an anthology film, there are three segments to this film, each introduced by a delightfully morbid coroner (John Carpenter). Segment one, "The Gas Station", features a gas station near Haddonfield, Illinois (why yes, John Carpenter did direct this one!), where Anne (Alex Datcher) is going to work for the night shift, replacing Bill (Robert Carradine). However, she is frightened by reports of a lunatic who escaped the local asylum. And she's keeping an eye out for all patrons. The second segment, "Hair" (not the musical), deals with Richard Corbets (Stacey Keach) a middle aged dude scared of losing his hair. He soon learns of a treatment from a television ad (always a great source), promoted by Dr. Lock (ha!)(David Warner). He soon gets a full head of hair, but maybe it works too well. The final segment "Eye" has baseball player Brent Matthews (Mark Hamill) losing his eye in a car accident, dooming his career. He soon learns of an experimental treatment where he gets an eye transplant. From a dead person. A very bad dead person.
First and foremost, Carpenter as the host is a lot of fun. He just has a lot of energy, and he delivers his sardonic, dark humor with a lot of glee and fun. It gives the film a lot of irreverence, which makes it stand out. I kind of want to see a whole series just to see Carpenter doing this bit so more. It's just a lot of fun seeing him and the segments are very funny. The segments themselves are all pretty good. The first one is a good short riff on Halloween with a twist. It reminds me a lot of the better moments of that film. The setting and paranoia also works. The second seems like it wouldn't really work, but in Carpenter's hands, it's a good comedy short, in the vein of a comedy Twilight Zone episode. The third one, directed by Tobe Hopper, is a pretty good short horror film (and it's always great to see or hear Mark Hamill in anything.) An interesting thing: a lot of cameos. Wes Craven and Sam Raimi appear in the first segment, Debbie Harry of Blondie in the second, and Roger Corman in the third. That's a lot of fun.
I think the biggest complaint I have is that these feel too cinematic. Like, for stuff written to be essentially segments of an EC comic book based show, the length and scale feel too much like these should be their own separate films, and thus, paradoxically, they feel a bit too short to be satisfactory. Compared to something like Creepshow, which was theatrically released, and whose segments felt appropriate. Here, the production values feel too good, and thus it feels a bit disonent as a TV movie. I suppose if "it feels too good" is a criticism, then the film isn't that bad.
This was a delightfully morbid time. A lot of fun action and gore, John Carpenter hamming it up as a horror host, and just well-written segments. I highly recommend this as a good anthology film if you ever want one. It's definitely an underrated classic if there ever was one.
Alright, tomorrow, we look at Hannibal Lecter. No, not Silence of the Lambs. Rather his first film appearance. Manhunter.
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