Body Parts is a South Korean anthology horror film comprised of a wraparound story and five other ones (directed by six different directors) spread over a hundred minute runtime. As I always say, a good anthology needs a good theme, and as the title suggests, the connecting theme here is body parts. This makes for something that is quite gory in places, and had more variation than I thought there might be.
It took me a fair while to realise this was an anthology, though gradually pieced it together. I believe the wraparound story might have been called 'Pieces', being mainly in Korean it was hard to tell if that was the case. It was quite a good one as wraparound goes. Basically, an undercover reporter - Si-kyng (Kim Chae-eun) has infiltrated a strange religious cult who worship something called 'The Father'. Each of the members have brought an offering for their God, with it turning out that the offerings are actually body parts. Each of the different short films are then based on each of the offerings that the five desperate cult members have brought.
The first short proper was about a young woman who had brought a dresser from the apartment of a neighbour who had recently killed themselves. In the dresser the woman discovers a bottle of perfume, and she finds that it has a wonderful scent. She also soon discovers that everything and everyone around her has started smelling rotten and rancid, the only reprieve she gets is when she sprays the perfume. When that runs out she turns to drastic measures. This was a good start, though it does show one of the weaknesses of the anthology in that nearly all of the short films end on quite an unsatisfying finish.
The second short might have been my favourite. In this one, a man bullied for always insisting he can see ghosts everywhere decides to give his bullies something that will also allow them to see ghosts. Not believing the man, they go along with his plan with horrific consequences. This had a lot of cool make-up effects for the various ghosts that turn up within the short, they looked creepy and unsettling in that East Asian way, special mention to the actor playing the bullied man and his great unsettling grin.
The middle short film here blends in elements of demonic possession and found footage. Seeming to be mentally unwell, a teenage girl has started hurting herself, her housemates believe her to be possessed and decide to hold an online exorcism. With the possibly possessed girl locked in a room and being recorded, the other girls assume they are safe. This one had some nice special effects of objects moving on their own, and the troubled girl was played well.
The penultimate short film was probably just about my least favourite. A young woman moves into an apartment and soon experiences weird goings-on such as strange noises, and a former tenant of the apartment who keeps turning up at the door warning her of danger. Her upstairs neighbour reveals to her that a headless body had been found there years previously and that the head was never found. Maybe something was lost in translation but I didn't quite understand this one.
That just leaves the final short, I believe was titled 'String'. This was the most different feeling horror here, with elements of Saw brought into the story. A young man awakens one day to find a string tied tightly around his neck, the string then threading through a hole in the wall to his next door neighbours apartment, where she also has the string tied around her neck. Every three minutes the string tightens, leading to a deadly tug of war between the two victims. This had some great looking special effects, and was one of the only ones that had a fun finish, rather than just petering out.
That just leaves the final short, I believe was titled 'String'. This was the most different feeling horror here, with elements of Saw brought into the story. A young man awakens one day to find a string tied tightly around his neck, the string then threading through a hole in the wall to his next door neighbours apartment, where she also has the string tied around her neck. Every three minutes the string tightens, leading to a deadly tug of war between the two victims. This had some great looking special effects, and was one of the only ones that had a fun finish, rather than just petering out.
I love anthology films and it was a delight to discover Body Parts was one of those. Being a Korean horror there was a different feel, and there was a decent amount of variation within each of the shorts, while they still seemed to share a distinct style to them. Many of the stories might have not ended in the most satisfying way, but this was still a good movie that kept me watching, eager to find what would come next. Body Parts came to the SCREAMBOX streaming service exclusively on July 30th.
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