Spare Parts Movie Review

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre meets Mad Max in this high-concept mashup of backwoods slasher picture and post-apocalyptic beat ‘em up. The apocalypse isn’t upon us (yet), but that doesn’t stop cult leader The Emperor (Julian Richings) from assembling his own Thunderdome in backwater America. Kidnapping an all-female punk rock band, the Emperor’s followers lop off the ladies’ limbs and replace them with power tools. As the women are forced to fight for their lives, they must seek any means of escape from the Emperor’s kingdom. Well… it’s handy that he literally strapped bloody great power tools to their bloody stumps, isn’t it?

Andrew Thomas Hunt’s gory battle royale certainly isn’t short on ambition. From Evil Dead 2 to Planet Terror, there’s a tradition in horror of chopping things off and replacing them with other things, and Hunt goes all in on the spectacle. With the film trading in the usual farmsteads and creepy old cotatges for a gladitatorial arena, this is more than your average Texas Chain Saw Massacre rip-off…

Instead, it’s your distinctly average Mad Max III rip-off. While one can appreciate the low budget and overlook some of the technical flaws, it’s harder to excuse the stilted writing and boring characters. The women are fine enough – if a somewhat wooden bunch – but Hunt really struggles with his villains. Aside from gladiatorial coach Driller (like a Drill Sergeant, geddit?), they’re an unmemorable bunch, and more irritating than they are imposing. Not even the great Julian Richings (so good in Anything for Jackson!) can make us care, delivering a surprisingly flat performance as The Emperor. Where the film needed an Immortan Joe or Jeramiah Sand (Mandy), it instead gets a charisma-free cult leader lacking in charm or menace.

But what we’re really here for are the women and their power tool appendages. In this respect, Spare Parts doesn’t disappoint. It’s fantastically gory, with a number of well-choreographed fight sequences and effective splatter gags. With the film set almost entirely within the Emperor’s arena, this does get repetitive very quickly, and viewers may find themselves numbed to all the bloodshed after a while.

The novelty is fun while it lasts though, and Spare Parts is a hard film to dismiss entirely. Just a little more time in the workshop could have made this something truly special. As it is, it’s scrappy, cobbled together and a bit of a mess, but gets the job done regardless.