BODY PARTS (aka PIECES, 2023)

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Directed/Written by Won-kyung Choi, Byeong-deock Jeon, Jisam, Jang-mi Kim, Gwang-Jin Lee, Wally Seo.
Starring Kwon Ah-Reum, Kim Ahyeon, Kim Chae-eun, Hyun-Jung Kim, Kim Min-Seok, Han Sang-hyuk, Jo Woo-ri

No, BODY PARTS is not the Jeff Fahey from the late 80’s. Well, it is, but that’s not the BODY PARTS I’m going to be talking about today. The film is also called PIECES, but again, it’s not the over the top slasher from the 80’s. In this BODY PARTS aka PIECES from South Korea, a young reporter tries to infiltrate a cult which seems to require an offering to pledge their allegiance. As each new inductee goes down the line with their offerings, each of their stories are told, forming this anthology.

I pay attention to South Korean movies very closely as the country has been known to produce some amazing horror over the last twenty or so years. For some reason, this section of the world really knows how to produce innovative concepts, grossout body horror, and truly chilling subject matter in ways that very few other countries do. So of course, I leapt headfirst into this anthology hoping for the best. And while I didn’t get the best, there are some interesting tales being told in this collection of short stories.

The first offering is called “The Reek” involving a haunted perfume bottle that causes its owner to slice off her ears in the opening moments. The bottle finds its way to a young student who loves the scent, but makes everything else smell rotten around her, causing her to use more and more of the perfume. It’s a fun concept and while I’m not sure why the bottle made the first victim cut off her ears, it still tells a short but sweet tale that sort of sets the stage for what to expect in future stories; body horror, self-mutilation, haunted items, and ghosts popping out of nowhere.

The second story follows a man who is bullied by his peers, all seemingly grown men for some reason. Apparently, this bullied man has seen a ghost, but the others don’t believe him. Things get wild when the bullied man offers the group some ginseng alcohol, which causes some strange after-effects. This segment is less interesting, maybe it’s because I dislike bullying so much, but also the random nature of how everything falls into place.

Story three is called “Exorcism.com” about a pair of students who are witnessing a possessed woman in a cell online and seem to be affected by the demon from across the internet. While this installment does have some solid mood and creepy possession effects, it felt familiar and trite, especially how possession/exorcism stories have become so cliché through the years.

“A Former Resident” is one of the creepier installments about a woman who moves into a new apartment and begins experiencing strange phenomena in and around the place. This one is filled with creepy neighbors, some nice shocks, and interesting suspense using your typical bump in the night scenarios. It all ends with a nice little shockeroo ending.

“String” is the final offering as a man wakes up from bed to find a wire around his throat connecting him to a hole in the wall. On the other side of the wall, a woman wakes in the same predicament. Both leashed people work to find out how this happened and how to get out of this predicament. This is a simple story and leaves a lot unanswered by the end, but still, I found it to be one of the more original and entertaining of the bunch.

The wraparound actually matters, which makes it much better than 99percent of anthologies that rarely take the time to actually thread the stories together. The scenes with the cult are creepy and there’s a nice culmination that has a big payoff. It reminded me a lot of some of the more successful wraparounds from the V/H/S series.

So BODY PARTS has some hits and misses. I feel a lot of the stories had potential but ended too quickly or boiled down to a one note joke, but others showed a good use of suspense, jump scares, and shocking body horror. The subtitle translation was rough, but I was able to suss it out despite the grammatical flubs. BODY PARTS is a mixed bag. Not as powerful as past imports from South Korea, but evident that body horror is alive and well around the world.