Body Bags 1993

A creepy coroner, portrayed by John Carpenter, introduces three chilling horror stories revolving around his grim work with cadavers lying in “body bags.”

In the first tale, “The Gas Station,” we meet Anne, a young college student played by Alex Datcher, who starts her night shift at an all-night filling station. As the cashier Bill, performed by Robert Carradine, warns her about an escaped serial killer from a nearby mental hospital, Anne is left to face the night alone. With each passing hour, the tension escalates as she serves various late-night customers while remaining locked in her booth, filled with dread and uncertainty about who might be lurking outside. Despite her instincts to reach out for help, she discovers that the phone line is dead. The situation takes a dark turn when she stumbles upon a dead body in a locker, revealing that ‘Bill’ is not who she thought he was; he is, in fact, the escaped killer who has taken the real Bill’s identity to commit heinous acts. Just as ‘Bill’ breaks into her booth with the intent to kill her, a customer unexpectedly returns for a forgotten credit card. Together, they confront the madman, managing to incapacitate him by crushing him under a car, bringing a momentary end to the terror.

The second segment, “Hair,” follows Richard Coberts, played by Stacy Keach Jr., a middle-aged businessman grappling with his dwindling hairline, which strains his relationship with his long-suffering girlfriend Megan, portrayed by Sheena Easton. In a desperate attempt to restore his pride, Richard answers a television ad for a miracle hair transplant. He meets the dubious Dr. Lock, played by David Warner, who promises a scalp treatment for an exorbitant fee. The next morning, elated to find a luscious head of hair, Richard’s joy quickly turns to horror as he begins experiencing odd symptoms. As the days progress, he discovers hair growing unnaturally on his body, and to his distress, the hair ‘bleeds’ when cut. When Richard confronts Dr. Lock for answers, he uncovers a terrifying truth: the doctor and his team are aliens harvesting human bodies. Richard, now caught in their web, becomes just another victim in their malevolent plan.

Finally, in “Eye,” we meet Brent Matthews, a Major League Baseball player played by Mark Hamill whose life spirals out of control after a catastrophic car accident results in the loss of his left eye. Desperate to revive his career, Brent agrees to an experimental surgery where he receives an eye from a recently deceased donor. Initially ecstatic about his restored vision, Brent’s happiness swiftly devolves into horror as he begins experiencing visions linked to his donor—a notorious serial killer and necrophile. These nightmares push Brent to the brink, culminating in an altered mental state where he fears he may become the killer himself. When the killer’s spirit manifests and threatens his wife Cathy, played by Twiggy, she must fight back to save them both. In a dramatic act of desperation, Brent decides to cut out his transplanted eye to sever the connection, but tragically, he succumbs to fatal bleeding shortly after.

In the Epilogue, the coroner finishes sharing these gruesome tales, only to be interrupted by an unsettling noise coming from outside the morgue. As the chilling revelation unfolds, he crawls back inside a body bag, exposing the horrifying truth that he has been a living cadaver all along while two morgue workers prepare to deal with a newly delivered ‘John Doe’ corpse.