Body Bags (1993) Might Actually Be Mark Hamill’s Best Performance

Note: This piece contains spoilers about the third segment of Body Bags. It’s a good movie and I think you should watch it (or at least the third segment), so if you’re averse to spoilers, please watch it first and then come back.

Mark Hamill has always been a fascinating figure to me.

He’s the star and central character of perhaps the biggest, most-watched film of all time (and three of its blockbuster sequels). And yet, he’s not really a “movie star,” right? He got a few opportunities to become one after Star Wars, but it never really took.

This, I imagine, is partially—and I mean no offense to Mark Hamill or his legacy—because he’s not the best actor. He went on to become a pretty good one, I think, after being baptized by fire in Star Wars, but he was never able to come anywhere close to the peak where he began his career. (In his defense, how could he have possibly done that? What I mean to say is, he didn’t go on to maintain the consistency that, say, his costar Harrison Ford did, or similar young blockbuster leads like Leonardo DiCaprio did.)

Anyway. Fast-forward to Body Bags.

Horror anthologies really took off in the 80s and continued into the early 90s. Both Creepshow films were modest successes, Tales From the Darkside had a good run, and Tales From the Crypt was still going strong.

Body Bags was supposed to kick off a new anthology series for Showtime, but it didn’t work out. So they just turned it into a movie and had John Carpenter himself do the wraparound, which is honestly kinda amazing. Carpenter also directed two of the film’s three segments, one of which is a pretty cool Halloween self-ripoff (“The Gas Station”) and the other of which could’ve been cool but is mostly boring (“Hair”).

And then there’s the third segment, “Eye”, directed by Carpenter contemporary Tobe Hooper. Which features one Mark Hamill in an absolutely unhinged performance that is incredible for three particular reasons.

First of all, there’s the accent. (And the mustache, but really, that’s part of the accent.) Hamill, a military kid that mostly split time between California and Virginia, is affecting the drawl of a Southwestern blue-collar “should’ve been a cowboy” type and he’s playing it up like it’s an audition for Walker, Texas Ranger. It’s beautiful.

Secondly, there’s his character, Brent Matthews, a minor league baseball player who is on the brink of being called up to the majors before he loses his right eye in a car accident. Here’s the thing, though: Hamill was almost 42 when Body Bags was released, which means he had to be around 40 when they were filming, which is extremely old for a baseball player.

Of course, it is almost unheard of for a baseball player at age 40, let alone age 30, to get called up. And yet, as Matthews’ coach tells him, the Giants are looking for a pinch hitter, and he’d be a great fit. This could be Matthews’ last chance to appear in a Major League Baseball game.

Which is why his motivation is so pure, so relatable, when he’s offered a first-of-its-kind experimental eye transplant surgical procedure. He jumps at the chance, because he’ll do anything to realize his dream…even if it means implanting a serial killer’s eyeball into his skull! (Gasp.)

This brings us to the third thing. For some reason—and really, who cares about the reason—Matthews can see things that the serial killer saw now that he has his eye, which pretty much turns him into a serial killer. (Again, “reasons” are beside the point here.) This is where Hamill shines like never before. He really commits to the crazy and goes off the rails in the end, and it’s just an absolute joy to watch.

Luke Skywalker is cool, but there’s something delightful about seeing iconic film/TV heroes play villains, isn’t there?

Body Bags is now streaming on Shudder, Vudu, AMC+, Peacock, and DirecTV.