11 December 2024
Spare Parts (1979)
108 min.
Directed by Rainer Erler.
With Jutta Spiedel, Wolf Roth, Charlotte Kerr, Herbert Herrmann, Christoph Lindert, Tedi Altice.
A sincere - but disjointed - German horror.

Mike (Herrmann) and Monica (Spiedel) are newlyweds who decide to spend their honeymoon near Las Cruces, New Mexico.

They check in at a rundown motel and decide to take a walk in the desert as the sun sets.

But suddenly an ambulance appears out of nowhere. Two medics emerge who drug and abduct Mike!

Monica manages to escape by hiding in an arroyo. She returns to the motel, only to discover her belongings and car gone.

Taking to the interstate, she hitches a ride from a friendly trucker, but it's not long before Monica realizes someone still wants her captured. Who's got Mike? What have they done with him?

This German TV terror marches to its own beat, coming off as a response of sorts to Michael Crichton's Coma (1978).

Spiedel is good as the tortured Monica (and channels a bit of Marilyn Burns in the process), and there is a pervasive atmosphere of paranoia, but the dubbing and the continental flavor don't gel with the intent.

Also known as Fleisch.

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